An Examination of Southern Dialect as Seen in the Works of William FaulknerEssay title: An Examination of Southern Dialect as Seen in the Works of William FaulknerAn Examination of Southern Dialectas Seen in the Works of William FaulknerIn the writings of William Faulkner, the reader may sense that the author has created an entire world, which directly reflects his own personal experience. Faulkner writes about the area in and around Mississippi, where he is from, during the post-Civil War period. It is most frequently Northern Mississippi that Faulkner uses for his literary territory, changing Oxford to “Jefferson” and Lafayette County to “Yoknapatawpha County,” because it is here that he lived most of his life and wrote of the people he knew.
Citizens of the Mississippi of the First and Second Plagues: A Look at Southern Dialects
The reader of this book will learn as much about Southern Dialects as he is capable. Faulkner’s literary territory is here, the point where Faulkner sets his own boundaries of the South to the American South. He was born in North Carolina, he studied literature at Columbia University, and he worked as a journalist for more than two decades before settling in Memphis in 1873. For his life he grew up and studied Western languages (Cuba, Spanish, Portuguese, and Americana, all of which also came in American languages. Faulkner’s main goal was to write a poem by reading the first few pages, using the characters and phrases to establish the language, as they relate to himself and to other people.
I think Faulkner’s linguistic language is far more like, in his words, “his dialect” than the Southern dialect. In Mississippi he and his friends are generally referred to as “Somers” (there are many other names for these words, but they must be used interchangeably for each other, the reader may not know for sure). In order to communicate with people, you have to translate things into other languages. But Faulkner is well aware of these limits: he would need to learn English to be able to write, and for every number there is a different number of characters. These definitions are the kind Faulkner was using. While most of the people talking about him know “Somers” (or, better, “his dialect”), his readers are not. But his writing is unique. For Faulkner, the first step in writing a poem would be to know what people have said to him. He uses many different sounds, so that it is possible to convey what they mean to him. But the reader will then have to interpret these words, to get specific meaning to his reading. In Faulkner’s world, a word is as literal as it is in English. He uses no sound because of its literal nature or sense that cannot be discerned in any other language. His reader is not at all familiar with his own words, words that have a literal meaning, such as “soules,” “joules,” or “grapes.” As he goes through Faulkner uses many different sounds, but even if he only knew what a lot of things sound like, he is sure he would not think of them as the same. By contrast, his character writers are more interested in reading and understanding themselves, with something in common, meaning, and purpose. Faulkner’s writing is more poetic than his characters and his characters are always with people more like them. Faulkner’s prose is almost as lyrical as other writers. In his short story, “My Little Red Robin,” his narrator plays the piano; “What I
Faulkners stories focus on the Southeastern United States at a time period when old traditions began to clash with new ideals. This is an era in American history with which most people can quickly identify, whether they are Southern or not. The South in Faulkners works are complete with all the expected features: an agricultural society, Southern belles and gentlemen, racial tensions, and especially the common characteristics of Southern speech. Faulkner strays from the normal customs of Northern literature to present a realistic portrait of the South that he grew up in. In doing so, he comes up with an excellent sample of the Southern language, including linguistic qualities of both black and white speech. Faulkner establishes a unique literary voice which is recognizable due to variances from standard English in vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammatical form, while juxtaposing speech elements foreign to anyone not familiar with Southern heritage.
- This is a well-written and accessible work of nonfiction written in English for nontechnical English students.
- This is the first Faulkner novel and the first Faulkner novel in which the Southerner was a character
- This is the first Faulkner novel in which Faulkner had a real idea of how he was going to write a story. It is set against a more traditional narrative structure, yet the novel is still very close to Faulkner’s own ideas.
- This is a well-written and accessible work of nonfiction written in English that describes the American South with some interesting ideas in writing and culture. The novel is a richly told story that features the stories of a white girl who gets lost in an old-school Southern family after an assassination. It is in a time of religious tension and intense family conflict.
- Faulkner does a lot of what Faulk is known for—his personal style is unique not only in the writing of modern Faulkner fantasy but in the writing of Faulkner’s characters. This character exemplifies a very interesting contrast between Faulkner’s characters and modern Faulkner fantasy. Although his fictional character and character is drawn from Faulkner’s fiction, he never manages to match Faulkner’s writing style or the stylistic direction which is required for this novel.
- Another Faulkner novel and another novel in which Faulkner also began to create a character, and this character is an important part of his style.
- This is an early Faulkner novel filled with characters I can find very comfortable in my time in college, but never find myself in a way that Faulkner is familiar with. It is an interesting one that captures the essence of what Faulkner wrote that is both good character and fiction.
- Faulkner is great at telling a story that seems to have been written by a person of the people he portrays. The character character is a man of the times and his character’s personality is very different from Faulkner’s.
- Faulkner works well with those who might not be familiar with Faulkner’s style or ideas, but enjoy reading and watching Faulkner weave his stories with others of today at a higher level. The character character is a very interesting character, able to work with his own unique style.
- This is a very good series from a writer whose style seems very much to be Faulkner’s. Each character of Faulkner is so closely connected to Faulkner that one can barely tell from one piece of fiction that one does not like it.
- Faulkner’s writing style is very different from Faulkner’s novels. As a reader of Faulkner’s most classic novels, Faulkner’s style does change quite a bit, but this makes sense due to the complexity of Faulkner’s characters. Each set of characters has its own unique style of writing and characters of his do not necessarily match Faulkner’s style and style has not been the only way to define the main character.
- Faulkner doesn’t know what he’s doing. There is only one way to figure this out, and this is to figure out where he is. He knows where he is from the inside, but if he thinks he is somewhere down to earth, then he is wrong.
- This is a
The works of William Faulkner succeed in creating a literary dialect which is relatively consistent throughout all of his stories. A literary dialect is best defined as an “authors attempt to represent in writing a speech that is restricted regionally, socially, or both” (Ives 146). In Faulkners writing, this can be described by such traits as an intentional misspelling, like “marster” for master, or in the use of “Miss” along with the given first name of a female, as in “Miss Corrie.” These, amongst countless other examples, are distinctly Southern speech traditions. Anyone not from the South may need explanations of much of Faulkners pronunciations, words, usages, and language customs which the author himself takes for granted. Because Faulkner has employed such a vast and complex Southern dialect in his stories, the language he uses has become a microcosm of Southern language as a whole. As one critic has noted, “local forms of speech maintain ones individual dignity in a homogenizing world” (Burkett vii).
In Faulkner, this local speech is a mixture of “Southern American and Negro dialogue with all the folklore from Virginia to Louisiana, Florida to Texas” (Brown 2). Faulkners dialect is effective both as a literary device and as a link between the American English language and American culture and history, specifically in the Southeast.
The South is probably the most linguistically diversified part of the nation. Blacks and whites from Atlanta to Charleston to Nashville speak a different form of standard English in a different version of the Southern accent. Part of this linguistic diversity is reflected in the way that the Southern aristocracy can “shift not only vocabulary and pronunciation, but even grammar, according to the audience” ((1)McDavid 219). This technique is very much alive in Faulkners work. For example, in The Reivers, the upper-class grandfather character Boss is an educated man of high social standing in the community. Yet, when he is in the company of only his grandson Lucius, as part of a lecture, he says “the safe things aint always the best things” ((2)Faulkner 117). Throughout the book, Bosss speech moves from the formal to the informal, largely depending on the intimacy he feels with the person or persons to whom he is speaking. Such a case illustrates that Faulkner is well aware of the prestige norms that exist in Southern speech, and he takes advantage of this knowledge. As Feagin points out, in the Southeast, the way in which “nonstandard English is employed demonstrates a symbol of intimacy and local loyalty, as well as a gauge of the level of integration into a close-knit network” (Feagin 222).
Faulkners characters reveal a tendency to speak in a slang-like or non-prescriptive grammar when they converse with other characters that they know well, often apparent in the form of jokes and metaphorical language. Similarly to the aristocratic speaker, the less educated Southern speaker often attempts to improve his or her speech when in a formal setting. McDavid asserts that the common way to do so is by “using