The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-15
TIE LITERATURE OF "DIALECT.U

TIE LITERATURE OF DIALECT"
correspondent of New Orleans paper
writes that he has been exploring the mount
| aims celebrated in Miss Murfree's novels, and
that, much to his disappointment, he was un-
able to find any persons speaking the peculiar
dialect used in the interesting works of fiction
referred to by all the natives of the region.
! On the contrary, the writer complains, every
one he met used the English language with as
illiterate classes in the centers of civilization;
he heard no oddities of speech worth mention
ing, and is filled with wonderment as to where
the novelist discovered the originals of her
characters and where they are now concealed.
If the tourist had continued his explora-
tons intent on listening to English as she
is spoke" by the Hoosier or Illinois Sucker of
current literature he would have met with a
like experience. A trip to the far West,
among the miners, and hunters and cowboys,
who are commonly supposed, by those who
have read of and have not seen them, to have
distinct dialect of their own, would result
in the discovery that they too, use an article
of colloquial English differingin no material
respect from that common in New York.
Even in New Orleans, Mr.. Cables creoles,
pronounced by strangers to the place and
people $50 true to life," are said by local crit
les to indulge in fashion OF speech which, to
the creole, as he appears in real ife would
be foreign tongue.
The truth is that since the use of dialects
became feature in literature, writer's have
made far too much of it. It is not at all diff
cult for the seeker after unusual forms of speech
to encounter in any community certain local
idioms which strike the unaccustomed and
cultivated ear as verbal curiosities. There
are also in more or less common use through
out the South and West great number of
odd expressions borrowed from the negroes,
which owe their popularity rather to an i'm
perfect enunciation of authorized language
than to the incorporation of original words.
With all the idioms and colloquialisms preva-
lent in any given locality, however, it never
happens that every member of the commu-
nifty is addicted to their use; more than this,
it is seldom that any one individual is found
that has adopted all the current irregularities
of speech One man may employ one or more
of the peculiar words or phrases in his con ver-
sation; neighbor may have other odd forms
of speech in his vocabulary; child will have
picked mp a more queer expression. Noone per-
son uses them all, but all communicate with
their fellow-citizens for the most part in the
same phraseology which is the medium of social
intercourse from Maine to Texas and from Ore
gon to Florida. The dialect writer however,
will not have it this way. Having accummu-
lated in his notebook a list of words and ex-
pressions not permissible in elegant converse
ton, he forthwith sets out in prose or verse,
as may suit him, not only one character who
uses all the verbal atrocities, but describes
entire communities as familiar with no other
vernacular. He creates dialect, in short,
where none really exists. Properly speaking,
there are no dialects in the United States, in
the sense in which the word is used to repre-
sent local form Of language.
Although the jargon attributed to the ma
tive Hoosier has impressed residents of distant
regions with the idea that Indiana is in dis
tressing state of ignorance and illiteracy, the
fact remains that the Hoosier of the crudest
condition cannot be distinguished when away
from home from citizens of his class from
other States. The same is true with individ-
ual exceptions, of the inhabitants of any
other region, saving and excepting New Eng
land The native Yankee, though he be alb
sent from the land of his birth for genera
ton, is betrayed by his manner of speech. In
his case however, it is his 'twang" and not
the eccentricities of his vocabulary which re-
veals his secret. 1t may be worth while to
perpetuate in literature the variations of Ian
guage from the recognized standard, but it is
time to enter an appeal to the chroniclers of
so-called dialect that they adhere somewhat
more closely to actual fact and circumstance.
MINOR MENTION.