eye-dialect

[Dennis R. Preston]

Of course I couldn't have sed it better (or 'batter' as everbody
round me here in Michigan sez).

dInIs

>I immodestly quote from my "A glossary of sociolinguistics" (in the
>USA: Oxford U. P., 2003):
>
>"A term used to refer to the representation of nonstandard dialects
>in writing, particularly with reference to spellings such as <wot>
>for what where the spelling does not actually indicate a
>pronunciation difference from that represented by the standard
>orthography, but where it rather has the role of simply indicating
>that the speaker is using a nonstandard dialect or low prestige
>accent. For example, writing <o> instead of <a> in what actually
>tells us nothing about the vowel the speaker is supposed to be using
>and is probably rather a way of indicating that the speaker is using
>a glottal stop at the end of the word rather than [t]."
>--
>Peter Trudgill
>Professor of English Linguistics
>Fribourg University
>Av. de l'Europe 20
>1700 Fribourg
>Switzerland
>
>Telephone (UK):
>01603 618036

--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic,
      Asian & African Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027
e-mail: preston at msu.edu
phone: (517) 432-3099