PC and Dialects in fiction

[Jonathan Lighter]

Last time I heard anything about dialect representation in literature (this was back when the Iliad had just come out), the favored practice was to use as few nonstandard spellings as possible. Not because it was non-PC, but because odd spellings distracted the reader.

Of course the advice doesn't hold if you're hoping to promote your dialect. Just 200 years after Burns's death, Scots was officially recognized as a separate language.

JL
"Patti J. Kurtz" <kurtpatt4 at NETSCAPE.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Patti J. Kurtz"
Subject: PC and Dialects in fiction
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In addition to being an English professor, I also write fiction. One
critique group I belong to raised the question of the representation of
dialect in fiction and whether or not such representations are now
considered non-politically correct.

Has anyone heard anything about this? Is there a sort of move against
using dialect in fiction because it's deemed "non PC"?

Thanks!

Patti Kurtz
Assistant Professor, English
Minot State University
Minot, ND
--

Freeman - And what drives you on, fighting the monster?



Straker - I don't know, something inside me I guess.



Freeman - It's called dedication.



Straker - Pig-headedness would be nearer.


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