Dialects in Huckleberry Finn Jackson Tan HU/COM Department, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University HU375 The Nature of Language Dr. Abendschein April 7, 2021 1 Dialects in Huckleberry Finn A century has passed since Huckleberry Finn is published. Yet, discussion on multiple aspects of the novel persists as time flies. One of the aspects many researchers set foot on is the dialects of the novel. Huckleberry Finn has 7 dialects: Missouri Negro dialect, Backwoods Western, Ordinary Pike County, and the 4 variants of the last. There are multiple advantages dialects have over standard English. Dialects within fiction have always been a powerful tool for writers because they strengthen the structure of the story, and make the readers feel more realistic. Instead of analyzing all dialects, focusing on Jim’s Missouri Negro dialect will better demonstrate the properties of dialect in writing. Not only is Jim one of the main protagonists, but he also speaks the most unique dialect out of all dialects that appeared in the novel. In the novel, Mark Twain seeks to establish a more realistic world that reflects the societal issues with the utilization of dialect. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) grew up in a wealthy family that once owned slaves in the south. Over time, Twain’s family loses wealth and he suffered hardships that many others are facing in their life, his experience in society is what makes up most of Huckleberry Finn. Many criticize the author for being a racist because of the reoccurrence of N words. But he is doing it for a purpose. To accurately depict the world from the little white boy’s (Huck) point of view at such a time in a society no one is familiar with today, he had to do this to stress the impact of slavery on people. Even a young white boy like Huck knows intuitively about the shape of society. And the focus of this paper, Jim, happens to be one of those unfortunate individuals who grew up being mistreated. We can understand the social status of the other black slaves in the society through Jim. Outrageous as it seems, racism did strip the basic human right off most of 2 the black people at the time, the interactions between different individuals using their dialects, and the way they speak accurately portrays the shape of society. Racism is not the only thing Twain wants to talk about in his novel. Such as religious beliefs, racial interactions, social status, etc. Without the use of these dialects, readers will feel less immersed in the story and sometimes fail to grasp the bigger image Twain was trying to mention. Dialects are what makes each character unique. This is shown with the extensive use of dropped letters and changing syntactic structure in the dialect speakers’ speech, especially Jim’s. The unique aspect about Jim in this novel is his speech. Unlike other dialects, Jim’s Missouri Negro dialect is so stretched, that it raises criticism about the author’s true intention. The exaggerated representation of Jim’s dialect is merely a tool to emphasize the word in Huck’s point of view. Frequently do the readers/critics confused the narrator as the author, and call Twain a racist right away. But even then, the little white boy is not racist. “As a naïve, unreliable narrator, huck is unaware of the moral courage he demonstrates in his relationships to Jim” (Bell, B. 1985, p. 12). The use of the N-word is just how he used to call Jim, just like everyone else in the society at the time. There is nothing wrong with it because the entire society is wrong at first, there is no way a little boy like Huck can think out of that box. Readers shall never confuse the narrator as the author during the process of reading. Aside from Huck’s point of view, Jim’s dialect is still special amongst others. It is indeed one of the dialects that shows the biggest difference from others. Jim’s parents are likely under the influence of their predecessor and speaks a language blend with their original African language and English. There are many characteristics that are different 3 from standard English, ranging from the pronunciation of words to the syntactical structure of the sentences. Literature Review Effectiveness of Dialects in Fiction The use of dialects can be a great aid to understanding the society in the 1800s, but it can also hinder a reader’s ability to comprehend ideas the novel has to deliver because general readers do not have a great understanding of the dialects within. “But once the barrier is overcome, dialect can give the reader a usually intimate access to a fictional characters’ thoughts and feelings” (Reporter, 2017). Understanding Jim’s dialect can be a challenging task. But will surely provide readers with a better reading experience. Taylor (2004) mentioned in his research that “Twain’s depiction of Jim’s strong southern accent and ‘poor’ speaking skills make the book an easy target for grammatical purists.” Twain is the first one to ever-present AAVE in the novel with such a vivid role, not to mention some of the dialects are intentionally stretched to be more dramatic. One of the research analyses the differences in phonology between Jim’s dialect and standard English to show the effectiveness of the Missouri Negro dialect in the novel. One other research by Taylor (2004) will focus on the AAVE at Jim’s region to analyze the accuracy of Twain’s utilization of said dialect in his fiction. But none of the research will be used for factchecking because it does not need fact-checking. Dialects are used by people, and they have small differences based on different individuals. Doing fact-checking while addressing the importance of Jim’s dialect in Twain’s work is unnecessary. Most of the research mentioned is to differentiate Missouri Negro dialect from Standard American English. 4 Missouri Negro Dialect in The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn Dialects in the Novel are somewhat messy to most researchers. They have been trying to assign characters to the seven dialects mentioned in the preface by Twain but differentiating these dialects from each other has proven to be laborious work. But Missouri Negro is different. Its distinct characteristics make it easy to track down the location at which the story took place. There are other advantages for researching AAVE other than that. The obvious differences and the special characteristics make the dialect researchers’ main target in most papers addressed. Since the fiction is based around Huck’s point of view, he does not get to see too many black characters around, and because of that, his dialect is often spoken by Jim in most cases. There are not as many black characters mentioned in the book (only four others). Even if a black character is mentioned, readers will not see too much talking other than Jim’s speech, but it will be a good comparison to ensure the consistency of the dialect. Jim is not educated, so some inconsistencies in the dialect are acceptable. Mispronouncing words and misuse grammatical features is to show people how a slave was back then. ‘Twas nothing but to show the realistic word of the 1800s. According to Carkeet (1979), the dialect’s legitimacy does not matter, what matters is Twain’s hundreds of revisions in the manuscript to better emulate the black speaker back then. Regardless of the criticism, the effort of Twain’s revision has already proven the authenticity of the said dialect. With the legitimacy of the dialect out of the way, more research about the dialect and how it appeals to the readers can be done (p. 331). 5 Phonological Differences between Missouri Negro Dialect (MND) and Standard American English (SDE) Since AAVE rules apply to the Missouri Negro dialect, the paper will feature both the Missouri Negro dialect and AAVE research. MND’s phonology is the biggest different it has from SDE, Twain utilize this to his benefit and make use of those rule correctly. In research by Carkeet David (1979), there is a considerable amount of missing r in Jim’s speech. Such as, “do” as "door", “heah” as "hear", “thoo” as "through" (p. 317). Which is a typical AAVE rule (deleting voice or voiceless posterior consonant when the last two consonants are voice or voiceless). These alone already make a huge difference. In research from Hayden (1950, p. 220), the occurrence of phoneme r amounts to 7%. Every two sentences the two speakers talk, there is a word pronounced differently (roughly, not all r omitted). Another phonetical difference that the MND has from SDE, is a mispronunciation of the mispronunciation of interdental sounds [ð] and [θ] to the dental consonant [d] and labiodental consonant [f] in oral speech (Dolgova, 2020). Some examples are "then" to "den", "these: to "dese", and "something" to "sumfn". These are all phonemes with high percentage occurrence in SDE according to Hayden (1950, p. 221). Readers cannot get used to it without having constant exposure to the dialect itself and hence make the reading process more realistic. Reading those in SDE will not have the same effect because readers have stereotypes of what the AAVE shall sound like (sound in the brain as they read). 6 Other phonetical difference, according to Dolgova (2020), like the omission of consonants, make the dialect different from the SDE. Every letter other than a, e, i, o, and u is consonants. This huge difference by itself can already have it classified as a different regional accent. Suffice it to say, all the mentioned features of the phonetical differences between MND and SDE suffice to differentiate itself from SDE. There are many others to be addressed. Such as the lexical phonology differences, the voiceless stop substitution, etc (p. 181). The mentioned features are just a tiny portion of what makes the MND special in presenting its character to the audience. Though the readers may have difficult time reading, it will be rewarding when they finally get a grasp of it, a sense of accomplishment arises from the bottom of the heart. Phonetical rules are on the surface, easy to spot. If the reader can tell the rule, it will be enjoyable to read. Syntactical differences between MND and SDE In the same research by Taylor (2004), the double negative frequently presented in Jim’s speech throughout the entire novel is not considered incorrect as it is in SDE. Ain’t never done anything wrong is a correct representation of AAVE, while in SDE is problematic (p. 137). The double negative frequently occurred in no only AAVE, but also other dialects in the novel. Twain’s usage of double negation here is all appropriate according to the dialect rules of each dialect presented in the novel. From the same research by Taylor (2004), the following example show us the inconsistencies mentioned earlier. As “to be” are expressed in their form in AAVE according to which tense the speaker is using, Twain instead has them presented in the SDE form. An example would be: “He running” instead of “he is running” or “He’s 7 running”. Another example will be “He be running”, instead of “He is usually running”. The same research addresses Twain’s mistake in not following the rule as stated. But it is likely that it is a representation of Jim’s misuse of grammar in AAVE. In some cases where Jim is supposed to follow the general AAVE rule, he has him follow general SDE. But in another research by Dolgova (2020), suggests that some of them to be useful within Huckleberry Finn Jim’s speech is still grammatically wrong. An example will be in Twain’s (2008) novel, Jim says “Say, who is you” (p. 6). The “to be” that is supposed to be in its correct “are” form, is instead presented as is. Which fits the AAVE rule the previous research mentioned. This inconsistency may well be another Twain’s intentional misrepresentation of grammar to show how uneducated Jim is. The mentioned syntactical rules are just but a tiny portion of the many rules that distinguish the MND dialect from SDE. But they shall suffice as they are the easiest to understand. Presentation of higher-level semantical AAVE rules will be beyond the readers’ scope. How does Jim’s dialect enhance the reader experience After reviewing some of the rules that make MND an actual dialect, the comparison between a translated version of Huckleberry Finn and the original version by Twain shall show the impact of not having dialect in the writing. In chapter 4 of Twain’s (2008) The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, Jim says: Sometimes you gwyne to git hurt, en sometimes you gwyne to git sick; but every time you’s gwyne to git well agin. Dey’s two gals flyin’ ’bout you in yo’ life. One uv ’em’s light en t’other one is dark. One is rich en t’other is po (p. 22). 8 A translated version will look like this: Sometimes you are going to get hurt and sometimes you are going to get sick, but every time you do, you’ll get well again. There are two girls in your life: One of them is light, and the other is dark. One is rich, and the other is poor. Without the use of dialect here, the entire quote sounds more like it is out of formal literature than a young slave-Jim. Imagine this happening to the entire novel, turning everything into boring text that does not have any unique characteristics. The dialects are like the ID for these characters. The entire novel is filled with the information the dialects contain. Readers can tell if the character is black or white, poor or rich, high social status or not, etc. These dialects are what makes the idea Twain wants to portray in the novel significantly. By putting these characters together and have them communicate, a more realistic world with different phonetical and syntactical rules showing the cultural values or even personal values of different individuals can make the points Twain trying to address more obvious to the author. The important thing is, understanding the society in an interesting dialect specialize in showing cultural values and social status by dropping letters and changing syntactical structure is better than reading the plain old SDE that simply tells you what happens and ended the story. The one important thing that makes the story unique other than the plot, is the use of language. Dialect is perfect for that, and Huckleberry Finn by Twain has proven to be a success with the correct use of dialects in it. 9 References BELL, B. (1985). Twain's "Nigger" Jim: The Tragic Face Behind the Minstrel Mask. Mark Twain Journal, 23(1), 10-17. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41641259 Carkeet, D. (1979). The Dialects in Huckleberry Finn. American Literature, 51(3), 315. https://doi.org/10.2307/2925388 Dolgova, N. V. (2020). WAYS OF CONVEYING SPEECH PECULIARITIES OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL “THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN” BY M. TWAIN. https://stfl.conf.nstu.ru/conf2020/documents/%D0%A1%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1 %80%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%20%D0%90%D0%9F%D0%A1%D0%9E2020.pdf#page=180 Hayden, R. E. (1950). The Relative Frequency of Phonemes in General-American English. WORD, 6(3), 217–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1950.11659381 HOWE, L. (2009). Property and Dialect Narrative in Huckleberry Finn: The “Jim Dilemma” Revisited. The Mark Twain Annual, 7(1), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-2597.2009.00015.x Reporter, G. S. (2017, November 29). A difficulty with dialect. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/03/a-difficulty-withdialect 10 Taylor, G. (2004). Looking Over Mark Twain’s Shoulder As He Writes: Stanford Students Read the Huck Finn Manuscript. The Mark Twain Annual, 2(1), 107– 139. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-2597.2004.tb00020.x Twain, M. (2008). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (First Printing-First Thus ed.). Dover Publications, Inc.
