Dialects in film

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Sergeant York" (1941).  Great movie, utterly wrong "East Tennessee" accents:    Gary Cooper (Helena, MT), Walter Brennan (Swampscott, MA), Joan Leslie (Detroit, MI / Los Angeles, CA), and Margaret Wycherly (London, Eng.) turn in fine performances anyway. Comic-relief George Tobias (NYC) sounds better as a working-class New Yorker of the period - or so it seems to me.

JL

"Patti J. Kurtz" <kurtpatt4 at NETSCAPE.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Patti J. Kurtz"
Subject: Dialects in film
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Hi everyone. We've discussed films in which language features
prominently (esp. sci fi), but what I'm trying to compile is a list of
films in which the characters speak in dialects. (for example,
"Fargo") for my dialects class. I'd like names of both films that
represent regional or ethnic dialects accurately and those that don't,
since we're going to talk about dialects in the media at some point. I
can think of a few, but I'll bet some of you can think of more. And I'm
thinking more of movies (fictional) rather than films like "American
Tongues."

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated by me and by my
students, who are enjoying the course a lot!

Thanks!

Patti Kurtz
Minot State University
--

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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