Dialects in Language
May. 17th, 2019 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithHere's a look at black dialects.
From a linguistic standpoint, all languages and dialects are equally valid. Some are better at doing certain things -- more vocabulary, more concise encoding -- but they all have strengths and weaknesses. "Standard" just means that a dialect is spoken/written by people who are more numerous, popular, or powerful. It's not better. It's merely considered more important.
As a writer, I think a lot about word choice. So I try to pay attention to subculture and dialect, language and register. I probably don't get it all perfect, but at least I'm making an effort to show the great diversity of communication. When I write black characters talking in dialect, it's not because I think less of them, but because I feel they have a right to say what they damn please and not edit things for someone else's gratification. It's just as good as anyone else's dialect, it has rules and meaning and nuance. Because if your characters look different but all talk the same, you haven't done a whole lot for diversity, because there's a whole branch of racism that puts up with people's skin tone if they act white. Fuck it. Be yourselves, my mad beautiful people. If you done said it, I'll write it down.
From a linguistic standpoint, all languages and dialects are equally valid. Some are better at doing certain things -- more vocabulary, more concise encoding -- but they all have strengths and weaknesses. "Standard" just means that a dialect is spoken/written by people who are more numerous, popular, or powerful. It's not better. It's merely considered more important.
As a writer, I think a lot about word choice. So I try to pay attention to subculture and dialect, language and register. I probably don't get it all perfect, but at least I'm making an effort to show the great diversity of communication. When I write black characters talking in dialect, it's not because I think less of them, but because I feel they have a right to say what they damn please and not edit things for someone else's gratification. It's just as good as anyone else's dialect, it has rules and meaning and nuance. Because if your characters look different but all talk the same, you haven't done a whole lot for diversity, because there's a whole branch of racism that puts up with people's skin tone if they act white. Fuck it. Be yourselves, my mad beautiful people. If you done said it, I'll write it down.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-17 06:08 am (UTC)And then there's the whole Yank vs. Blighter thing... Us Yanks think that when Angel says "bloody well right" he's being all cute and British. Brits are shocked and say that has to be on after 2230... except the Northern Irish, who want their feckin' Angel at a sane hour! (see what I did there?)
But, yeah. Given your lineage? Eeee, lassie, ye go right ahead and write whatever ye like. I ken ye'll've done it right! (Geordie, what those low-life lowlander MacNoughtons would speak, up me mum's side...)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-17 06:48 am (UTC)Well ...
Date: 2019-05-17 08:03 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2019-05-17 08:13 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2019-05-17 09:28 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2019-05-17 07:22 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2019-05-17 07:30 am (UTC)One of mine is "had ought to of known better." It's not a typo. It's not a lack of education. It's an awareness of how that phrase, in Southern, is a much stronger emphasis than "should have."
>> And then there's the whole Yank vs. Blighter thing... Us Yanks think that when Angel says "bloody well right" he's being all cute and British. Brits are shocked and say that has to be on after 2230... except the Northern Irish, who want their feckin' Angel at a sane hour! (see what I did there?) <<
In one of my stories, John Watson says of Donovan, "Well she's a silly bint and you shouldn't listen to her." A British reader criticized that, thinking I didn't know what it meant.
"Bint" means cunt. And "silly" in that context isn't just for the contrast, but specifically a term used to dismiss women as irrelevant -- particularly from doctors and psychologists. The phrase is extremely rude, and it dismisses Donovan much the same way she mocks and belittles Sherlock. My John has Very Strong Feelings about people who call his best mate a freak.
The right word choice isn't just about knowing the dialect. It's knowing the character, and the context of a given conversation.
*chuckle* Then of course there's Steve Rogers' reaction to seeing the Winter Soldier in LIFC: "Steerfucking HYDRA bastards!" He was in the Army. He just prefers to speak cleanly most of the time. But under enough stress, he does have combat-caliber vocabulary in the holster. The same phrase wouldn't have nearly the impact if Tony said it; he says horrible things all the time.
>>But, yeah. Given your lineage? Eeee, lassie, ye go right ahead and write whatever ye like. I ken ye'll've done it right! (Geordie, what those low-life lowlander MacNoughtons would speak, up me mum's side...) <<
*bow, flourish* Bard of Terra, at your services. All languages are alike to me.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2019-05-17 08:04 am (UTC)And sometimes Tony's horrible is exactly spot on, like in CA:CW. Steve Rogers is "off the reservation" and government forces mean to kill him if they can. T'Challa puts a spanner in the works, for all he's trying to kill Bucky.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2019-05-17 08:09 am (UTC)Steve was the only one who seems to have remembered that Bucky was a POW and entitled to care, not to be shot on sight because he was being erratic after decades of torture. You don't treat soldiers like kleenex.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2019-05-17 08:29 am (UTC)Domestic and international violence, with a side order of child soldier, to assuage Tony's guilt over the death of a college man. It's such a backslide from Tony acknowledging that he was a Merchant of Death in ways he couldn't live with.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2019-05-17 09:32 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2019-05-17 02:15 pm (UTC)On the gripping hand, sometimes (just as with Southern English or John's "silly bint") the _shock value_ of a well-placed F-bomb can get the proper attention... e.g. the ever-popular meme oft-attributed (and I can see her doing it!) to Dame Judi Dench:
"I do not spew profanities. I enunciate them clearly, like a fucking lady."
If you wanna see both in action, and frankly also just for the FUN of it, "Tea with the Dames" is HIGHLY recommended... Dames Eileen Atkins, Joan Plowright (who owns the setting - it's the house Sir Lawrence Olivier bought for her many moons ago), Maggie Smith, and Judi Dench having their annual summer confab, and somebody got smart and thought to put cameras on it, because these ladies DISH. On EVERYONE. Even the Queen I think.
Oddly, it's Not Rated, being a documentary and all; it does cover some difficult topics - particularly the sexism - and if I remember correctly there is a _little_ saltiness sprinkled somewhere... yes, yes there is, I remember now, the documentor was asking a bit too snoopy of a question from behind camera, and one of them (Dame Judi, I think) said, "Oh, Roger, fuck off!"
Utterly delightful.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-17 08:48 am (UTC)Well ...
Date: 2019-05-17 09:43 am (UTC)One of Boss White's strengths is the ability to go from pure Black English to a fairly sophisticated Plains-tinted "Standard" English.
Me, I typically use Midwest-tinted Standard English. But if you ask me about fishing or my grandparents, the Southern dialect comes out, and it is thick as molasses. Get me talking about Ireland and its accent creeps in too. In fact I'm linguistic SillyPutty and will quickly pick up almost anything I'm around -- people think I'm mocking them, but I don't even realize I'm doing it until it's pointed out. It's just instinctive.
So there's a big difference between someone who can code-switch at need and someone who can't. It can make big differences in opportunities.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2019-05-17 02:20 pm (UTC)The one thing that catches me out is when I swear with British diction and an American dialect...
"Oh, bugger!"
The "r" is still there; a true Brit would say "Buggah!" (Unless, in certain cases, there's a vowel immediately following... like "bugger-all".. but now we're getting in deep... :)
Re: Well ...
Date: 2019-05-18 04:47 am (UTC)I do the same thing - and yes, have gotten the same reaction.
One Brit tried to test me by asking me to repeat a saying in the scouse accent and I nailed it. What I have a hard time with is the pronunciation of the sounds of the names of some of my Middle Eastern co-workers. I understand that as children learn to speak they obviously prioritize the sounds of their native language and partially/entirely lose the ability to pronounce other sounds. I can hear the sounds perfectly well, and am working on trying to duplicate them. I'm getting closer, but I'm not there yet.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2019-05-18 04:55 am (UTC)Alternatively, biofeedback can help a lot. There are tools that listen to sounds and show how close you are to a target sound. Used originally for speech therapy, they are sometimes available for language learning.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2019-05-18 05:29 am (UTC)Yep, I do that too. ... even before we were selves aware we could. Some are easier than others, but it definitely happened.
It's actually where some of Jay's fear of being called out for his way of speech through here comes from. ... Being concerned with people feeling like I (Since they would have no *clue* who it was) would be mocking them.
...
I feel you on the language silly puddy, though.
-Fallon~
Re: Well ...
Date: 2019-05-18 06:42 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2019-05-18 06:50 am (UTC)...
Outside of that, and a rare few others? ... Yeah not so much. At least not yet, anyway. I don't know people well enough yet to tell anyone.
Thank you for the hugs...they are appreciated for reasons unrelated to this. So much.
-Fallon~
Re: Well ...
Date: 2019-05-18 07:43 am (UTC)It's lucky that you have people to share yourself with. Outside of that, pretending to be something you're not is exhausting.
>>Thank you for the hugs...they are appreciated for reasons unrelated to this. So much.<<
*extra snuggles*
(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-21 03:34 am (UTC)So sometimes I throw a little extra in to tease her.
*laugh*
Date: 2019-05-21 03:35 am (UTC)