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Modern
Dialects |
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Dialects
have continued throughout the country right into the C20th.
The habit of using 'thou' and 'thee' continued in many areas
well into the century. Like 'tu' in French, it was a more
familiar way of saying you. You needed to be a child or live
in the area all your life ever to be called 'thee'. If you
were an apprentice, it was a real sign that you had been accepted
at work when your boss finally called you 'thee'.
Today, many areas are proud of their own dialects, their own
vocabulary and grammatical structures. There have also been
social dialects, and periods or places when only standard
English has been acceptable. On televsion, news presenters
speak in a variety of accents, but they use standard English
dialect. A wider variety of dialect words, however, are in
evidence in dramas and comedies.
The
following passage comes from a remarkable book, set in the
future after a nuclear conflict has devastated the earth (the
Bad Time) and the written word is once more being recorded.
Riddley Walker is written in dialect; a few words are puzzling
but most can be understood, especially if they are said out
loud. It is not just a question of spelling or accent. The
phrase '..when you ben bearht' is not just a different pronunciation
of 'when you were born'. The language becomes more familiar
as you read on - just as meanings can slowly become clearer
when we really listen to someone speaking in any dialect.
| Passage
from Chapter 2 of 'Riddley Walker' by Russell Hoban, (1980,
Jonathan Cape). |
|
Walker
is my name and I am the same. Riddley Walker. Walking
my riddles where ever theyve took me and walking them
now on this paper the same.
I
dont think it makes no differents where you start the
telling of a thing. You never know where it begun realy.
No moren you know
where you begun your oan self. You myt know the place
and day and time of day when you ben bearht. You myt
even know the place and day and time when you ben
got. That dont mean
nothing tho. You still dont know where you begun.
Ive
all ready wrote down about my naming day. It wernt no
moren 3 days after that my dad got kilt in the digging
at Widders Dump and I wer the loan
of my name.
Dad
and me we jus come off forage rota and back on jobbing
that day. The hoal we ben working we ben on it 24 days.
Which Ive never liket 12 it's a judged men number innit
and this ben 2 of them. Wed pernear
cleart out down to the chalk and hevvy mucking it ben.
Nothing lef in the hoal only sortit thru muck and the
smel of it and some girt
big rottin iron thing some kynd of machine it wer you
cudnt tel what it wer...
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 |
Can
you translate the six words shown in red? |
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What
has happened to the apostrophe? |
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What
do you think 'judged men number' means? |
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What
was a 'naming day' do you think? |
Can
you imagine ways in which new dialects might develop in the
future?
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