"Alice=?windows-1252?Q?=92s_?=Adventures in an Appalachian Wonderland" published by Evertype

[Jonathan Lighter]

When will they do a similar version of the Constitution? Folks could use
one around here.

JL

On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 10:43 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:
>  =?windows-1252?Q?Re=3A_=22Alice=92s_Adventures_in_an_Appalachian?
>               = =?windows-1252?Q?_Wonderland=22_published_by_Evertype?=
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Oct 28, 2012, at 12:37 AM, Michael Everson wrote:
>
> > Evertype would like to announce the publication of Byron W. Sewell and
> Victoria J. Sewellâ•˙s translation╉or perhaps transposition╉"Alice's
> Adventures in an Appalachian Wonderland" which is written in the rich
> Appalachian dialect of West Virginia. The book is fully illustrated by
> Byron in the style of John Tenniel's classic illustrations. A page with
> links to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk is available at
> http://www.evertype.com/books/alice-en-appal .
>
> Actually it's not.  Could there have been a typo in the above URL?  Also,
> could you repost the message below in plaintext, Michael?  I'd like to
> forward this to a colleague, but I don't want to send her this version if
> it's possible to have a clean one.  Thanks!
>
> LH
>
> > Bookstores can order copies at a discount from the publisher.
> >
> > From the front matter:
> >
> > On Dialect Orthography
> >
> > Publishing text in an unstandardized orthography is a challenge. A
> balance must be found between faithful–ness to the sounds of the dialect
> and legibility to an audience who reads the standard language. Engish
> dialect spellings are nothing new, of course: from Robert Louis
> Stevensonâ•˙s representation of Scots in Kidnapped to Mark Twainâ•˙s
> repre–sentation of Missouri dialect in Adventures of Huckle–berry Finn
> various approaches have been taken. Often these approaches make use of what
> is known as ╲the apologetic apostrophe╡ to mark letters from the
> standard language which have been ╲dropped╡.
> >
> > Such spellings tend to create a distracting visual clutter; this was
> recognized in the 1947 Scots Style Sheet and the 1985 Recommendations for
> Writers in Scots, both of which discourage the apologetic apostrophe while
> retaining it for ordinary purposes. Many of these recommendations apply
> easily to the linguistic features of Appalachian English, and have been
> followed in the text used in this book.
> >
> > Since the reader may appreciate a summary of the ortho–graphic
> conventions used here for the Appalachian dialect, a list is given below.
> >
> > â•¢ Words ending in -ing have been spelled as -in; participles in -en
> have been retained: writin ╢writingâ•˙, written ╢writtenâ•˙; nothin
> ╢nothingâ•˙.
> >
> > â•¢ The final apostrophe is not used: an ╢andâ•˙ is used instead of
> anâ•˙; em ╢themâ•˙ is used instead of â•˙em; o ╢ofâ•˙ is used instead
> of oâ•˙; wi ╢withâ•˙ is used instead of wiâ•˙.
> >
> > â•¢ Before a vowel o is written of: one of em ╢one of themâ•˙.
> >
> > â•¢ The reduced vowel in to is written as te rather than as tâ•˙; when
> stressed the word is written to, as in I donâ•˙t have te wear shoes in the
> summer iffen I donâ•˙t want to.
> >
> > â•¢ Both hit and it ╢itâ•˙ are found, with the latter being more
> common, and used in unstressed positions.
> >
> > â•¢ Initial syllables of other kinds when dropped are simply dropped:
> member ╢rememberâ•˙, spectin ╢expectingâ•˙.
> >
> > â•¢ Medial letters when dropped are not indicated with the ╲apologetic
> apostrophe╡: lil ╢littleâ•˙ (not liâ•˙l); agin ╢again; againstâ•˙
> (not agâ•˙in).
> >
> > â•¢ Final clusters in -l- are reduced: sef ╢selfâ•˙, hep ╢helpâ•˙.
> >
> > â•¢ Final clusters in -t are treated variously: -pt is normally kept,
> while -ct is usually reduced to -ck: cept ╢exceptâ•˙, fack ╢factâ•˙.
> Although -st is often pronounced -ss, orthographic -st is still written for
> clarity: most [moà s].
> >
> > â•¢ Final clusters in -nd are treated in a number of ways. In most words
> where the -d is dropped entirely, it is written -nn: lann ╢landâ•˙,
> lannin ╢landingâ•˙, stann ╢standâ•˙, stannin ╢standingâ•˙, but under
> ╢underâ•˙. In words where the -d is elided in final position but returns
> when a suffix is added, it is written -nd: find [fÉŒË∆n], findin
> [Ë√fÉŒË∆ndin].
> >
> > â•¢ Contractions of the negative particle are treated in two ways. In
> monosyllables which end in a glottal stop, nâ•˙t is written: ainâ•˙t [eɪnÃ
> ‰], cainâ•˙t [keɪnà ‰], donâ•˙t [doà  nà ‰], wonâ•˙t [woà  nà ‰]; in
> polysyllables the syllabic nasal is written â•˙n: didâ•˙n [dɪdn]~[dɪtn],
> hadâ•˙n [hÃœdn]~[hÃœtn], wouldâ•˙n [wà  dn]~[wà  tn].
> >
> > â•¢ The participial a- is prefixed with a hyphen to gerunds: a-readin
> ╢readingâ•˙, a-wearin ╢wearingâ•˙.
> >
> > â•¢ Reduced unstressed ╲have╡ is written â•˙a: hadâ•˙nâ•˙a
> ╢hadnâ•˙tâ•˙veâ•˙, Iâ•˙dâ•˙a ╢Iâ•˙dâ•˙veâ•˙, wouldâ•˙a
> ╢wouldâ•˙veâ•˙, youâ•˙dâ•˙a ╢youâ•˙dâ•˙veâ•˙.
> >
> > â•¢ The word ╲Indian╡ has been respelt using the traditional form
> Injun (also used in Twain) because this reflects a normal phonetic
> development of [Ë√ɪndiÉ˙n] to [Ë√ɪndà ‚É˙n]; compare Arcadian
> [ɌɒË√keɪdiÉ˙n] and Cajun [Ë√keɪdà ‚É˙n].
> >
> > The intent here was to normalize towards a literary ortho–graphy,
> rather than towards a phonemic respelling of the language entirely; such a
> respelling would doubtless be filled with unnecessary ╲eye-dialect╡
> (funkshun instead of function, and so forth). I would be interested to
> receive comment from readers regarding the suitability of this orthography
> for representing Appalachian dialect. Inevitably in such a venture there
> will be inconsistencies, of course. I trust these will not distract readers
> from their enjoyment of Byron and Victoriaâ•˙s splendid re-telling.
> >
> > Michael Everson
> > Westport, October 2012
> >
> > ==========
> > Michael Everson
> > Evertype, http://alice-in-wonderland-books.com
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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