LL-L: "Orthography" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 23.MAY.1999 (01)

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 23.MAY.1999 (01) * ISSN 1089-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "Sandy Fleming" <sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk
Subject: Language policies

Ian wrote:

> Now, well-known though
> some English dialects are, I can't believe one Geordie (i.e. an
> inhabitant of the NE English industrial city of Newcastle upon Tyne)
> would e-mail another in Geordie, simply because there's no Geordie
> orthography as such, and it would be confusing therefore to use
> anything other than standard English.
>
Firstly, let me point out that the absence of a phenomenon is much harder to
demonstrate than the presence of one. You could spend your whole life around
Newcastle and never hear of a Geordie Email, but it doesn't mean it doesn't
happen.

While the lack of a standard orthography may discourage modern writers from
using these dialects due to the social implications of non-standardisation
in the modern world-view, this is not in itself "confusing" to the readers.
English literature used to be divided as to orthographic standards
(inconsistencies were normal even in the spellings of a single author), it
didn't stop people from writing. The conventions of written Geordie (the
fact that we can discuss variants amongst these shows that there _are_
conventions) almost are a standard compared to pre-Caxton English or, even
more so, modern Scots, which continues to maintain a literature and a system
of "threipmails" in spite of the orthography becoming progressively more
chaotic in the course of the century.

Note also that both (non-Geordie) English and Scots, not specialists, just
people who come across the books on visits to Newcastle) read and enjoy
Geordie literature (e.g. Stephenson's manuscript) in any variant of Geordie
spelling, so how can these spellings be confusing to the Geordies
themselves?

There are also world best-sellers in non-standard orthographies. These
novels can't be "confusing" - millions of people have bought, read,
understood and enjoyed them.

Sample texts w.r.t bestsellers (I know these are cleverly done by clever
writers, the point is that hitherto unseen spellings aren't necessarily a
problem to the reader):

"Trainspotting" by Irvine Welsh (English or Scots? Mainly Scots, I would
say):

Ah feel thit ah love thum aw. Matty, Spud, Sick Boy and Lesley. Ah want tae
tell thum. Ah try, but it comes oot as:- Ah'm cookin. They look at us,
fuckin scoobied. - That's me, ah shrug ma shooders, in self-justification.
Ah go ben the living room.

"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker:

Well, that's no excuse, say the first one, her name Carrie, other one name
Kate. When a woman marry she spose to keep a decent house and a clean
family. Why, wasn't nothing to come here in the winter time and all these
children have colds, they have flue, they have direar, they have newmonya,
they have worms, they have the chill and fever. They hungry. They hair ain't
comb. They too nasty to touch.

Sandy Fleming
http:\\www.fleimin.demon.co.uk

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