tnt: och aye!

[azuire]

One last kudos to elf for sweeping contest 18! And contest 19 is open for your submissions :D

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In the bookstores here, they have a special section for 'Scottish Fiction', i.e. books written by Scottish writers. And sometimes, these books -- or parts of them, at least -- are in vernacular.

And occasionally you come across people attempting to read it.

Out loud.

People who are not Scottish.

This is a tremendous source of amusement for me, if you can't already tell.

Either way, the use of vernacular in these books serves a concrete purpose, though several writers tell us not to use phonetic spellings for dialogue or narration, (I think the majority of those people were mortified by how JKR wrote Hagrid's dialogue). However, I can't imagine Trainspotting without the vernacular. It would be a completely different book.

What do you think of the use of vernacular? Should it be more prevalent? When can it be used effectively? And why won't azuire stop laughing at that Dubliner who's trying to read Glaswegian beat poetry?

Comments

[ex_pippin880]

100% depends on the skill of the writer.

[pipisafoat]

this is making me think of leigha's sneak-attack gullah article

[silverflight8]

As long as it's not a find and replace (the worst I ever saw was just putting "dinnae" and "ken" in, and nothing else *shudder*) and the syntax and sentence structure are modified in addition to any extra letters/spelling/random apostrophes, I'm fine.

And also thank you to whoever changed the layout. I can actually read the comments I'm making now! :D :D

[pipisafoat]

PS: for the last question, I submit that the answer is "because azuire is more awesome than that Dubliner and knows it"

[silverflight8]

And why won't azuire stop laughing at that Dubliner who's trying to read Glaswegian beat poetry?

AHAHAHA IDK how I missed this. That must've been a bit incongruous.

[solumin]

Oh hey look I'm actually here for once! :D Maybe I will actually submit something someday -_-'

Vernacular, I think, can add something to the story. Currently I'm reading "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston for one of my classes. The dialogue is entirely in vernacular. It's much more realistic than, say, if the characters (all of whom are poor black southerners) were walking around saying, "Would you like to get a drink with me?" would ring very false. The dialogue in a story is another part of the setting; like a spaceship in a western, everyone will notice if it doesn't fit.

As pippin said, the use of vernacular should depend on the skill of the writer. If the vernacular dialogue comes across as stilted, then it's detracting and distracting. Hurston pulls it off quite well and it helps pull the reader into the story.

As to the last question, I'd imagine that watching someone mangle an accent while reading poetry is hilarious.