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Originally Posted by ColoradoMama  So, would you consider Cold Mountain Appalachian literature? I'm reading that right now. I've taken a break to fit in a horror book in honor of Halloween.  I am enjoying it though. It had a VERY slow start, but it is picking up. I tried reading Gap Creek, but I just couldn't. I wouldn't have minded reading someone speaking such poor English. Having the entire book written that way was just too much for me though. |
Oh, wow! I thought Robert Morgan actually handled Appalachian dialect very well and accessible to others who don't use this dialect. Masterful really. As opposed to someone like James Still (also a master writer) who would choose to right out all the words as they would be pronounced. Robert Morgan was writing in first person... from the head of the main character (Julie). That is how she would have told the story. If you want to be eased into the dialect try a Silas House book like Clay's Quilt. (I'm not trying to be rude, but I wouldn't so much call it poor English as much as English that is different from my own. As the dialect of English spoken in Appalachia has ties to some of the earliest forms of English spoken. It is a dialect. I'm Appalachian so I have my qualms with calling it being called simply "poor" English. I am an English teacher and this is the way I speak. I do know correct written/spoken of "universally understood" English, but most of us do have a dialect and mine is very much part of who I am and how my story is told.)
Ex. Isn't that biscuit yours?
Ain't that biscuit there yours?
Hain't that there biscuit yorn?
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