Contraction Use

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by KyBunnies

Have you ever seen an author put 'll instead of using will? It just seems odd to me.

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[Phogg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Mark Twain is one of the most challenging authors in that respect. I'm sure his reproductions of spoken accents are accurate, but they're tough on the reader!

Not if you grew up around people still speaking in that manner.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Not if you grew up around people still speaking in that manner.

Unfortunately, such people are rare in the north of England .

[DiapDealer]

Hearing it and reading it are two different things. I'm quite fluent in spoken Huck Finnian, but not so much in written.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by The Old Man

Another one that is "gonna" upset me. Not in written dialog but when used by speakers in formal settings who should know better. When are they "going to" learn?

I use 'gonna' all the time, doncha know

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Mark Twain is one of the most challenging authors in that respect. I'm sure his reproductions of spoken accents are accurate, but they're tough on the reader!

Erskine Caldwell and Joel Chandler Harris (Uncle Remus) are also challenging authors even to a southerner.
I had to read an Uncle Remus story in college. My neighbor's six year old was just learning to read. I gave the book to her on a car trip. Her poor mother kept trying to correct the child. I finally convinced the mom she was reading it correctly.
Turns out new readers do better with dialects than older readers because our minds want to correct the words to what we have been taught.

[KyBunnies]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The font you have chosen to use is too small. Please edit your posts to either use the default font or set the font size larger.

How is the font size to small? I can see it fine without my bifocals on. I usse the standard font I do not increase or decrease the size when posting.

[KyBunnies]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, it's entirely normal in spoken British English, but I do find it jarring in print, other than in the common contractions such as "I'll".

It makes me think either the author or editor was to lazy to correct this. I don't know but it keeps throwing me out of the story.

[barryem]

If this sort if thing is used in dialog it would seem natural to me. I lived most of my life in Texas and I retired to Arkansas and I've heard people talk that way. I'm not even sure I don't talk that way. I'll have to think about that.

I've travelled a bit over the years, from east to west in the USA and people talked that way wherever I've been. I tend to pay attention to language since it's always interested me. I wonder if people talk that way where you are and you just didn't notice.

In narrative writing using a lot of contractions wouldn't seem normal to me. I've noticed in my own posting in this forum and others that I do use contractions a lot if it's a fun post and I use them far less in a serious post.

Barry

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I've seen it and will accept it in limited cases where it is one character speaking in dialect. If that occurs in text, as opposed to dialog, I would have issues with it. And if it occurs very often I would have a problem. Dialect is ok when used in moderation but gets old quickly.

I agree. I may talk like this sometimes, but that doesn't mean I want to read a written version of it on a regular basis.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I agree. I may talk like this sometimes, but that doesn't mean I want to read a written version of it on a regular basis.

So just a little dab'll do ya?

[Ricky D'Angelo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Unfortunately, such people are rare in the north of England .

I felt like I was deciphering a foreign language when going through Clockwork Orange. Have you read it?

“Go on, do me in, you [edited] cowards, I don't want to live anyway, not in a stinking world like this one.' I told Dim to lay off a bit then, because it used to interest me sometimes to slooshy what some of these starry decreps had to say about life and the world. I said: 'Oh. And what's stinking about it?”
― Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

“It'll be your own torture," he said, serious. "I hope to God it'll torture you to madness.”
― Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

[theducks]

Originally Posted by KyBunnies

Book is set in Massachusetts. It must be the dialogue for the north. I know it is not something we use in my area Kentucky-Tennessee state line.

Thanks. Just seems weird and it throws me off when I come across it.

'Pahk the Cahr in Hahvid Sqwah'

Have you traveled around the good ole USA much?

It is not just 'dialect'. There are whole turns of phrase used that leave folk from the other edge of the country, scit'chn d'er haid

[issybird]

Originally Posted by theducks

'Pahk the Cahr in Hahvid Sqwah'

That's, "Pahk the cahr in Hahvahd Yahd."

[theducks]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

You must live somewhere very flat.
A tractor without a handbrake would be in a ditch pretty quickly around here.

I think they call that "Middle of no where"
I was raised in New Jersey and later the Family moved to California.
I always oriented myself by looking for where "the hills" were

What a shock to get to the Great Plains 'Lost' without hills