Dialectal and Vernacular Language in “Lady Chatterley’s Love” by D. H. Lawrence
Conferenţiar universitar doctor Rodica PIOARIU
Universitatea « 1 Decembrie 1918 » Alba Iulia
In this paper we were interested to see how informal colloquial language is used in literature,
mainly in D. H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover where dialectal and vernacular
language is excellently rendered.
The term vernacular refers “to the popular untaught variety of a language found in colloquial
speech”. The vernacular forms of language “are signs of all-educated usage and should not act as a
model for foreign learners of English”.
[ vernacular is often identical to non-standard; informal, colloquial – should be opposed to formal
and not to non-standard]
Consequently it is felt to be inappropriate to a higher prestige communication (meetings,
serious public communications) because it lacks prestige. However, it could be successfully used
especially in literary style because it is sure to add colour and vigour to the speech of the
characters.
Lawrence was a writer who grew up in a village where the majority of the population were
colliers and the effects of such habitat are obvious throughout his literary works. His father was also
a miner so, he was very close to the terminology used by this social class, and in the novel we find
true reflections of the ordinary speech of the mining community. Mellors is a character that
resembles the author himself; he is a collier son, a working-class representative in search of a quiet
life but who is estranged from his background. His speech is occasionally hard to follow because of
the “excess of vernacular” and even more difficulty in understanding his dialogues is caused by the
special orthographic marking that suggests “hyper dialectalism” . The language he adopts is
situationally determined that is to say he shifts from one speech to another, not only when speaking
to different persons but in the same conversation with the same person, too. From this perspective
he has an advantaged position because we may understand his character better only by paying
attention to the circumstances that causes the shifting in his speech.
Lawrence was very familiar to the speech of the working class and in this novel, through Mellors
he had the opportunity to get in touch with his colliery roots succeeding in giving the reader a
glimpse in the terminology he was used to, as well as an outlook of the way his contemporary
community from that area expressed themselves in the specific Derbyshire dialect. In fact in all his
novels Lawrence “has the incorrigible habit of using the language he needed to use disregarding
social and stylistic amenities…he wrote as he talked”.(W. F. Bolton, David Crystal, 1993) Because
of this particular style of writing the words are as close to how they sound as possible disregarding
the orthographical and grammatical rules. The hardship a reader faces through the lecture might be
overcome by a quick reading. It is because Lawrence was primarily concerned with the authenticity
of the dialogues, with the true rendering in his novel of their reality.
Mellors is a gamekeeper and he should talk accordingly, a condition reinforced by his class
origin. However another, more important factor requires his use of the vernacular. He grew up in a
family of hard workers and in a community of less privileged social group, a local community
where physical and moral toughness were a way of living. Psychologically the exponents of this
community, especially male ones remain loyal to the vernacular culture in which they grew up
including their language. The aspirations to a more standardized speech are lacking because the
speakers generate antipathetic attitudes toward it and thus they encourage the vernacular forms of
language as a form of loyalty toward their closed society. That is what happens with Mellors too.
His frequent “code-switching” is used manipulatively in the relationship with the upper class
Connie either to distance himself from her or to “gain a temporary advantage”. Interesting to notice
is that he speaks also vernacular when he engages in a sexual conversation or when he lets his
feelings to come out regarding his relationship with Connie. For him speaking vernacular is a
source of power, he feels superior to others, nevertheless he is being disregarded by Connie at the
beginning where she naively wandered how could he get the officer position “when he speaks broad
Derbyshire” p.95.
Considering the passage when Connie first encounters her husband’s gamekeeper we can
observe the “code-switching” of Mellors, following one grammatical element, the inflection -ing:
Lord
‘Thanks, then, for the help, Mellors,’ said Clifford casually, as he began to
Clifford wheel down the passage to the servant’s quarters.
Mellors ‘Nothing else, Sir?’ came the neutral voice, like one in a dream.
Lord
‘Nothing, good morning!’
Clifford
Mellors ‘Good morning, Sir.’
Connie ‘Good morning! It was kind of you to push the chair up that hill. I hope it
wasn’t heavy for you,’ said Connie, looking back at the keeper outside door.
Mellors His eyes came to her in an instant, as if wakened up. He was aware of her. ‘Oh
no, not heavy!’ he said quickly.
Then his voice dropped again into the broad sound of the vernacular: ‘Good
mornin’ to your Ladyship!’
Lawrence tells us explicitly when Mellors is switching into a different part of his linguistic
repertoire. Though he has used –ing in his “Good morning, Sir”, to Lord Clifford, suddenly drops
into the “broad sound of the vernacular” as he says good morning to Lady Chatterley. This pattern
is continued in the passage bellow, when Connie and Mellors meet next.
Connie ‘I wondered what the hammering was, ‘she said, feeling weak and breathless,
and a little afraid of him, as he looked so straight at her.
Mellors ‘Ah’m getting’ th’ coops ready for th’ young bods,‘he said, in broad vernacular
[…break in text…]
Connie ‘I’m just going,’ she said.
Mellors ‘Was yer waitin’ to get in?’ he asked, looking at the hut, not at her.
[…break in text…]
Mellors ‘I mean as ‘appen Ah can find anuther pleece, as’ll du for rearin’ th’ pheasants
If yer want ter be ‘ere, yo’ll non want me messin’ abaht a’ th’ time.’
Connie She looked at him, getting his meaning throught the fog of the dialect. ‘Why
don’t you speak ordinary English?’ she said coldly.
Mellors ‘Me! Ah thowt it wor ordinary.’
The question is, what is ordinary? Mellors is capable of talking approximately the same as lord and
lady; but for him, ordinary English is the vernacular. For Connie ordinary English is Standard
English, the only variety accepted by her social status. Mellors once talking to her about his life
calls Standard English “proper English” , a “fine” talk ironically imitating its status in the society.
In fact he despises this kind of talk and that is why when he speaks to Connie most of the times he
talks “broad’ as a way of returning to himself to accepting who he is. He always uses “cold, good
English” in speaking to Lord Clifford, but he varies his speech to Connie according to how he feels:
(Mellors discussing the motor of Lord Clifford’s motorized wheel chair)
Mellors ‘Doesn’t seem anything broken,’ he said. ‘There’s certainly nothing obviously
broken.’
Lord
‘I hope I have said nothing to offend you,’ he added, in a tone of dislike.’
Clifford
Mellors ‘Nothing at all, Sir Clifford!’
[…break in text…]
Mellors ‘I had to go getting summonses for two poachers I caught, and, oh well, I don’t
like people.’ He spoke cold, good English, and there was anger in his voice.
Connie ‘Do you hate being a game-keeper?’ she asked.
Mellors ‘Being a gamekeeper, no! So long as I’m left alone. But when I have to go
messing around at the police-station, and various other places, and waiting for
a lot of fools to attend to me… oh well, I get mad…’
After Connie and Mellors have become lovers, he consistently uses the vernacular in speaking with
her, including –in rather than –ing.
Mellors ‘It isna horrid,’ he said, ‘even if tha thinks it is. An’ tha canna ma’e it horrid.
Dunna fret thysen about lovin’ me.’
Here the formality of his speech is closely linked to the grade of intimacy he feels inside.
However he uses his vernacular without being engaged in an intimate conversation: “Ah’m gettin’
th’ coops ready for th’ young bods” this happens before Connie and Mellors start a more intimate
relationship. He always drops g ‘s in informal dialogues so we find everywhere in the novel forms
like: rearin’, messin’, waitin’, potterin’, seen’, settin’, tinkerin’, mornin’.
Nearly all-English speakers drop g ‘s sometimes, but in a given speech community, the
proportion varies systematically with class. Labov’s study done in 1969 in New York City found
that g dropping was very frequent among lower class representatives while among the upper classes
the percentage falls. However formality also matters: members of a given social stratum drop g ‘s
more often in less formal speech. Labov’s study also has shown that in casual speech the percentage
of g dropping is very high while in less careful speech it drops. Similar studies have been done in
many places (Norwich) for other linguistic variables too it has been found that there is an analogy
between social class and formality. Thus according to his social class Mellors also drops the final g
but as we have seen only when formality is not required. Here the analogy is not relevant at all
because he speaks according to his inner requirements. The use of –in’ instead of –ing is a general
vernacular feature usually found in the speech of men.
Other elements introduced by the author in Mellor’s dialectal and broad vernacular speech are:
a) The loss of initial h as in (it is a constant feature):
Sit ‘ere i’ th’ ut; Sir Clifford’ and ‘t got…or in the words ‘es (has), ‘ardly, ‘ead, ‘er (her),
‘im (him), ‘andlin’ (handling)
This kind of spelling is specific to the Derbyshire dialect illustraded in the following
saying: “Derbyshire born, Derbyshire bred, strong int arm, an quick in t’ead.”
b) The loss of initial t as in:
Sit ‘ere;
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
-The loss of th- in the word them considered a general vernacular is present not only in
Mellors’ speech but in Mrs. Bolton’s too. Mellors uses the form both when he speaks
“proper English” and when he switches to dialect. This fact prove that the form is used as
such extent by the lower classes that even for Mellors who was acquainted with both
variants the word ceased to be considered as improper English.
The various forms of the definite article the t’ or th’ or them.
It is specific to the Derbyshire dialect: t’light, th’cottidge. These forms vary
according to the following words but there is no rule in this matter because there
are situations when the article is followed by the same word and its spelling differs: t’ead,
th’ead (the head). In this case we come across the author’s “hyper dialectalism” as Dick
Leith affirms.
The loss of consonants in words is also hyper dialectalism:
i’side (inside), gi’e (give), on’y (only), ta’e (take), ma’e (make).
Consonants losses are very frequent throughout this novel but it happens not only with
median ones (wi’ (with), o’ (of)) however predominantly median consonants are lost in the
spelling.
More than one spelling of one and the same word is present in the dialogues
proving once again the “hyper dialectalism”:
 For everything we find the forms iverythik, everythink
 For to the forms te and t’
 Nothing is present with nuthink and nowt. The nowt form is also a Derbyshire
dialectalism very often used by Mellors and same form is being used in the
Nottinghamshire area by the working class especially miners. It can be illustrated by
the phrase:
“It’s nowt te dow wi’mey” -meaning: It has nothing to do with me.
Dunna is frequently used too with the meaning do not and it is specific to the
same dialectal area of England.
The word can be found in the phrases like:
Dunna gerrum gooin’. (Don’t upset them); Dunna wittle. (Don’t worry.)
Mellors use in his conversation with Connie as follows:
Dunna yer say that! (Do not say that!) or Well, dunna fret. (Don’t worry);
interesting to notice why the author did not used the idiom shown above
and he choose the word fret. However fret is used especially in spoken
language so the style of an informal conversation the author wanted to
render as much as possible was preserved. The same combination is used
later in (Dunna fret thysen abaht lovin’ me.)
The word is one example of the many that prove a specific Derby dialect
procedure of
pronouncing a word usually a verb together with the following word usually a negation, a
pronoun or a preposition.
Other examples referring to this procedure are: canner (can not), gorallon (got all on), burrit
(but it), gerra (get a), gerraht (get out), namor (no more), int (in the).
Another frequent general vernacular usage present in Mellor’s speech is the double
negation especially in the combination with the word dunna:
Dunna ax me nowt, now; Dunna ma’e me say nowt; Dunna think o’nowt but t’money.
The usage of second person pronoun deserves special attention as it has many
forms for its grammatical categories.
The various forms of the singular second person personal pronoun is a matter of dialect: yer
and yo’. The forms change according to the following words or to the intention of the
speaker. Yer is used only when after it comes another part of speech than verb, when it is
placed at the ending of a sentence right before the full stop, in combination with ‘d better
and when the speaker wants to emphasize the person he is talking to: light yer a little fire;
where are yer Dad; are yer back; I canna tell yer; good to yer; yer want to be there; take
yer clothes off; yer’d better.
Yo is used especially before an auxiliary or a modal verb and when the emphasis of the
person is not needed: yo’ll, yo’d, yo’n, ah on’y thought as if yo come’ere, yo’ter (you too),
yo are. An interesting usage of the form is with the missing verb to be: “Yo’ more or less
my sister-in-law.”
Yer is mentioned one time with the meaning yourself but for the reflexive pronoun has also
the form yersen. Yersen is the dialectal form while yer is more vernacular: “Sit ‘ere a little
bit, and warm yer.”On’y as ‘appen yo’d like the place ter yersen.
Other forms of the pronoun are introduced too by the author in the broad dialogues of the
characters. Mrs. Bolton when uses thysen acknowledges that he is switching from proper
talk. Mellors uses thysen too mostly in emphatic situations (but the mud dress thysen; Tha’
lt niver force thysen to ‘t). His addressing includes the pronouns tha, and the old forms thee,
thine and thy. Thine is used both as possessive pronoun and as a possessive adjective:
“Take him there! He’s thine.; Tha comes o’thine own accord…”
Unlike the old women he uses this form irrespectively of the situation and addressee. This
“rigidness” in his speech is not due to impoliteness, or lack of manners, the character just
feels that the ones he talks to do not require formality and he preserves a familiar style.
Thus he uses thy (your) when he is addressing to Connie; his dog or to other things.
i) Specific spellings for the first person personal pronoun:
Ah The author choose the phonemic spelling to emphasize the famous Derbyshire drawl.
The word is frequent in the dialect and it is found in all situations: Ah gorrallon (I got all
on); Din’t Ah tell thee! (Didn’t I tell you?).
j) Other general vernacular feature present in Mellor’s speech.
-The –s form of the verb for the second person: tha knows
-Them for a determiner; for the definite article the
-Them for the demonstrative pronoun those
-The contracted for isna for is none
k) Hyper dialectalism is illustrated by the spelling of words that render the speech
as much as possible:
raight – right, abaht – about, managed – managed, cheer – chair,
pleece – place, du – do, ger – get, sholl – shall. Shall is present with both
forms in dialectal usage.
l) The dialectal variable Ay and Nay for yes and no
m) The archaic form of the verb:
 Do for the second singular person; dost: “Dost want her? Dost want my Lady
Jane?”
 Has for expressing you have; hast: …take app thou hast and give to the poor
 Are usually linked to the second person as art or ‘rt: “Tha art real, tha’rt.”
n) Special spelling for the words some probably coming from the Derbyshire
dialect towd – told, cum – come, ax – ask, fust – fast.
Moreover there are other terms introduced by the author in the novel’s dialogues that deserves
attention in his language style discussion:
a) Terms used especially in informal language
 The terms ma for mother and dad for father
 The cherishing appellatives Mellors uses are meant to denote colloquial speech, when
he addresses to Connie: lass, duckie. Lass is a term used especially in Scottish
English and in North England and it means either a young girl or a girlfriend.
Obviously Mellors when he uses it with the second meaning
b) Lad frequently used (sixteen times) by characters of higher social status including
Sir Clifford and Thomas Dukes. We find it in Mellors speech too when speking both standard
and broad language. The word is mentioned with all its meaning included in the dictionary and
from the perspective of one of the meanings is a pair word to lass mentioned above:
1) A man that people like even when he behaves badly; in spoken language (in the phrase “a
bit of lad”). It is used by Mellors without the mentioned construction “’Ay!’ he said at last,
in little voice.’Ay my lad! tha’re theer right enough. Yi, tha mun rear thy head! Theer on thy
own, eh? An’ ta’es no count O’ nob’dy! Tha ma’es nowt. O’ me, John Thomas. Art boss? Of
me? Eh well, tha’re more cocky than me, an’tha says less. John Thomas!” p. 218
2)
A group of men you know and work with or spend your free time with; in spoken
language. Mentioned by Mellors when he relates events happened in the time when he
was an officer:
“The Colonel used to say:
Lad, the English middle classes have to chew every mouthful thirty times because their guts are
so narrow, a bit as big as a pea would give them a stoppage.” p. 226
3) A boy or a young man (old fashioned or literary). Used by Mrs. Bolton:
“Why ,
she, Ivy Bolton, had once been a tiny bit in love with himself. When he was a lad of sixteen and
she a woman of twenty-six.” p. 151
c) A few words of the mining terminology:
- Butty – a certain grade of collier. The middle man who is negotiating
between the miners and the mine owner: “…was killer in an explosion down
th’ pit. The butty in front shouted to them all to lie down quick, there were
four of them.”
- Hooter – a piece of equipment that makes loud noise used in factories: “She
heard the eleven o’clock hooters at Stacks Gate colliery.”
Other dialectal Derbyshire terms and expressions often used in the novel are:
born, Derbyshire bred, strong int arm, an quick in t’ead.”
iverythink – everything
nuthink – nothing
nowt – nothing
It’s nowt te dow wi’mey. = It has nothing to do with me.
Dunna = do not
- occurs in phrases like:
Dunna gerrun gooin’ (Don’t upset them.)
Dunna wittle. (Don’t worry.)
Mellors:
Dunna yer say that! (Don’t say that!)
Well, dunna fret! (Don’t be afraid!; Don’t worry!)
Dunna fret thysen abaht lovin’ me. (Don’t be afraid about loving me.)
“Derbyshire
These are but a few examples by which D. H. Lawrence managed to give us an excellent proof
that the dialectal and vernacular language may be successfully used in literature and some of the
characters in Lady Chatterley’s Lover often choose to speak it, not only in order to prove their
solidarity with the members of the community they belong to, but also as a challenge to the upper
classes they get involved with.
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Berger, Peter and Luckmann Thomas, The Social Construction of Reality,New York, Doubleday,
1966
Bernstein, Basil, Class, Codes and Control, St. Albanos, Paladin, 1973
Bolton, W. F. and Crystal David, The English Language, Penguin Books, 1995
Chambers, J. K., Trudgill, Peter, Dialectology, Cambridge University Press, 1990
Cheshire, J., English Around the World. Sociolinguistic Perspectives, Cambridge University Press,
1991
Knowles, G., A Cultural History of the English Language, Arnold, 1997
Lawrence, D. H., Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Penguin Books, 1997
Trudgill, Peter, Introducing Language in Society, Penguin Books, 1992
Idem, Sociolinguistics: An Introduction, Penguin Books, 1974