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Writing and reading in dialect

Tom dunlap

It has to be more of a challenge to write in dialect than it is to read. The ploy works in literature better than on the 'net it seems

There isn't as much selection on antenna TV as from cable or Internet. Sure is cheap though. It's all that I've had for 3+ years. TV is enough of a distraction for me

Re: ???OT???

Don Stephan

Before he died my father in law had something like that. It only was able to receive local over the air channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) and secondary channels some of them broadcast. But there still has to be a local signal. Suggest you ask your neighbors before spending the money.

Commercials Only

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Not antenna will get you more than regular (local) broadcast channels. Most of what you get in either sat or cable is coded and scrambled, requiring the channel box and the monthly fee to be decoded.

T'aint no secha thang as "free HBO with this wizbang".

Such an ad will be a scam.

Re: Writing and reading in dialect

olbuck

Mr. Tom Dunlap. I've written 5 books using our SOUTHERN ENGLISH. I refer to it as redneck writing.

I spell words as/near as the way I SPEAK. Haven't had one complaint bout the way I spell & write, SIR.

Some readers have told me this should have been done 20 years ago.

Am I gonna 'poligze 'cause you kant grasp it, not hardly. Cya

Buck Nall from Alma, Ga.

Keeping

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

your target audience in mind might be an idea.

There's a passel 'o damn yankees roun year what may not easily cotton to translashunin'.

If youz getz da drift.

So, like you opened a Gallery page but, like there's nuthin' there, Dude. It's like M-T, man. Kookie would be 'noid, even wit his comb.

Re: ???OT???

Bruce Schoenleber

I use an antenna, I get perhaps 10 channels, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and some off brands. Antennas are touchy and dependent on proximity to the transmitters and local terrain. I live about 25 miles South of Atlanta and had to play with the antenna location and orientation to get anything. You pay your money and take your chances.

BTDT

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Used to live about half way between NYC and Philly.

We used a powered rotating directional antenna. NE to such ° for NYC and then about a 180° from that to get the Philadelphia stations. Controller and compass dial on top of the TV cabinet. Get some higher winds and you could just forget trying to watch anything. It did have a breakaway gear for very high winds that would de-couple it from the motor and let it spin in the wind like a weather vane. Had to get up on the roof several times to reset the thing.

Ain't technology wonderful?

Re: Writing and reading in dialect

Hank Knight

I'm as Southern as anybody on this forum. I have been avoiding olbuck's posts because (1) they are a PITA to read and decipher, and (2) I have a real distaste for those who makes a mockery of the Southern dialect - of which there are many. They reinforce the notion that a Southern dialect connotes ignorance and crude social manners; an attitude that is all too prevalent elsewhere.

Re: Writing and reading in dialect

olbuck

THANK YOU HANK. Yall won't have to read ANYMORE OF MY DRIVEL.

BUCK NALL from ALMA, GA WONT BE C'ing you.

I'l keep writing my Wiregrass books just the same!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I'm GONE, didn't come into this site to cause problems.

Re: Writing and reading in dialect

John K Jordan

>>>...I have been avoiding...

When the reading becomes distasteful I skip it.

Same with TV, the off topic topic of the moment. The programming, the commercials, and the time I wasted sitting in front of the TV became distasteful for me about 11-12 years ago. I haven't watched an hour of it since. I generally don't miss unpleasant things.

JKJ

Re: ???OT???

jesse cloud

We use an antenna. Get about a couple dozen stations. About half of those are either evangelical or in spanish. We watch a lot of PBS which comes through with amazing picture quality.

Google "broadcast tv antenna" and you will pick up a website that shows likely reception by zip code. Of course, it can vary a lot with local obstacles like hills.

My suggestion would be to get one at a place where you can return it if not satisfied. We recouped the cost of the antenna in a month from the savings on our cable bill (just internet now).

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Yonak

buck, I've got a real nice antenna and three boxes which I used for a few months. I'm west of Atlanta and, unfortunately, could only receive signals from 3 stations from here. Fortunately for me, Charter put in a line for me and now I don't need the equipment. I'd sell it to you or anyone who can use it and can pick it up for less than 1/4 what I paid.

Re: Writing and reading in dialect

TM Stock

Could be worse. Had a guy on one of the other sites I used to read that was apparently channeling his inner Cookie Monster as Far Eastern holy man...think faux deep thoughts concerning the nature of the universe wrapped up in a muppet-focused patois suitable for dull preschoolers. Despite full knowledge of the fraudulent nature of that persona, he still commanded a cult following drawn from those that either loved to be poorly entertained or just had exceptional resistance to what was, to many on the site, a wearisome bit of schtick.

From This Response

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

it appears that there has been less than universal appreciation of your Act in other places.

Seems as though writing in fractured text, all-caps and all, is more important to you than seeking information or sharing knowledge about the central and guiding topic of this board, woodworking. If that's a correct observation then you won't, in fact, be comfortable here. While you won't find a precinct house of the grammar police lurking here, neither will you encounter a group who gives special recognition to some cutesie schtick that substitutes for worthwhile contributions, has nothing to do with the topic, or functions as an ingratiating attempt at a mask.

Most posters on this board will use a colloquialism from time to time. Language can certainly be flexible and entertaining as part of the message. But when the goal of the text overtakes the topic, the message value is diminished. As a writer, you should be well aware of that concept. Book editors tend to be rather brutal in that respect.

Mr. Nall, if your goal here is to show us how well you write in dialect, you have, indeed, come to the wrong website. I'll wager there's a web forum somewhere that caters to that precise endeavor. But if you'd like to contribute to and benefit from the knowledge base that is WoodCentral, restrain your predilection and take advantage of what's so freely given here.

As noted when you first posted here, there's no shortage of bib overalls around here. But nobody's pushing their Oshgosh B'goshes or Carhartts as haute couture.

If you insist on withdrawing, go in peace.

Re: Writing and reading in dialect -Thank you Hank

Well said Mark

You spoke my mind-thx MM

Thanks Hank......

roger lance

we suffer through so much BS on a daily basis.....one less source of it is a welcome outcome.

He's just a troll.  Good riddance.

Re: Writing and reading in dialect

John Foster

My first rant of the week.

I started reading Stephen Pinker's book " The language Instinct" it was way too advanced for me, and I gave up on it. The one take-away that I remember is that spoken dialects ( urban African American, rural Appalachian, Newfoundland Canadian, Jamaican etc. ) are legitimate ways of speaking. While they may not be "textbook English" , they have their own unwritten ( but well adhered to) rules of syntax and pronunciation; and are efficient ways of communicating among the speakers. They are not "joke" languages or signs of cultural or intellectual inferiority.

Re: Writing and reading in dialect

Stuart Johnson

efficient ways of communicating among the speakers

I think among the speakers is key. The same could be said for any language for example Swahili is efficient to Swahili speakers but not so much for the average Icelander.

I'll make a guess the majority on Wood Central regardless of their native region are not fluent in southern dialect so speaking in it when you are also fluent in the mainstream dialect in my opinion is rude.

Re: Writing and reading in dialect

John Foster

I totally agree. I respect however people communicate. I should have been more clear, that when trying to put a local dialect into print, that you run the risk of coming across as mocking it.

Spoken and written dialect

John K Jordan

Raised near Pittsburgh PA but in the south nearly 50 years I am reasonably fluent at both south'rn and yankee dialects. When I first moved south I had to ask some people from the "deep" South to repeat things several times before I could understand. When I go back north my family says I quickly lapse into yankee talk.

I hear and see a huge difference between normal spoken communication between people in an area and artificially forced written "dialect" where the author goes to great lengths to use exaggerated spelling of even common words. This usually comes across as a cheap attempt to get attention. For me a surprisingly small amount of "cute" gets annoying quickly.

The interviews in the Foxfire and other good books might be a guide for a respectful way to provide a feel for the dialect of the southern Appalachian mountain people without coming across as mocking or artificially cute and making the text excessively diffult to read.

JKJ

Re: Writing and Speaking Differ

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Those located within a given geographic area develop dialects and a core of idioms and colloquialisms that form shortcuts to cover information or put terms in context for those of common experience. Move outside the area and the communication often fails, leading to misunderstandings; one man's complement may be an insult to another. I had a friend from Scotland whose brogue was so thick he had trouble getting ideas through to others. In time he had to "learn" to sort of dumb-down his accent. His written English was, however, always flawless.

Conversely, written language is used to convey ideas and information to a wider range of potential readers without regard to their particular dialect. Loading print up with dialect not only complicates clear communication, but it also limits the number of readers who will take the time to consider what is being "said." If I send a note expressing forgiveness, questioning an anticipated result, or agreeing to do something, I want the thought to be clear and easily understood. I could, of course, just send "faghedaboudit" and hope the recipient is familiar with the idiom and the context. Saw a comedy routine where two guys purported to hold a conversation with only the word "dude." With the vocal inflections and body language, there was actually a lot of communication perceived to be taking place. Can't do that in print. Spoken language carries far more information than the mere words used. Typing out the phonetics robs the dialect of most of its information.