obscene words from deadwood

[Dale Coye]

In a message dated 3/8/2004 5:52:31 PM Eastern Standard Time,
jester at PANIX.COM writes:
Dennis, I do think that the issue of linguistic accuracy in
films or other works of fiction is an interesting one, and I
agree that in many cases we shouldn't expect accuracy at
all. An impression of accuracy is much more important, even
if it's completely inaccurate in reality--cf. an insistence
on using RP for Shakespeare when modern American English is
probably closer to how things sounded
Yes, isn't it interesting how in films or TV we run the gamut from the
Hogan's Heroes type of show, where we're hearing English with a German accent and
expected to accept that they're all speaking German (or how about those really
bad generic East-European accents Peter Graves used in Mission Impossible), to
the search for authenticity in films like The Passion.  Shakespeare's
post-vocalic /r/ was certainly more American than RP--some of the vowels would sound
more Irish-English (undiphthongized /e/ and /o/), but then again, as my grad
adviser used to say--who knows how they actually sounded back then? We can take
a stab at it, but so much is guesswork.
   This reminds me of an interview--I think it was on Fresh Air--with one of
the Navajo marines from WWII who was one of the guys used to stump the
Japanese by speaking his native language over the airwaves.   He was commenting on
Windtalker (is that the right title)--the movie about that event, and he was
offended by the profanity in the movie--it wasn't like that he said.  Some people
talked like that, but not that many.   I think TV producers like to throw
those words in because they imagine it gives ad executives a thrill and might
land them another sponsor, not for any desire to be authentic.
    I also remember watching a movie in high school--Soldier Blue--set in
maybe 1875--in which one of the soldiers comments on Candace Bergen's "boobs"--
cheap thrills. It's the kind of thing that stays with you when you're 16.

Dale Coye
The College of NJ