Blog #3: Dialect

Dialect is defined as a provincial, rural, or socially distinct variety of a language that differs from the standard language, especially when considered as substandard (Dictionary.com).  This can happen when speakers of one language are separated physically, socially, or culturally.  Each group adapts the language until it is unique to their group, in which then in becomes a dialect.  In literature, dialect is used for a variety of purposes.  It may be used in dialogue to make it accurate to what that person might actually sound like, helping the reader build a more accurate picture of the character.  It may be used to show differences between two groups represented in the writing, and it may be used to portray a character or group of people as more or less intelligent, and be used as a degrading tool.  In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston used dialect to make the dialogue between characters accurate to what it would have sounded like in real life in that time and place.  "Honey since you loose me and gimme privilege tuh tell yuh all about mahself.  Ah'll tell yuh" (pg 13).  Some, however, interpreted her use of dialect as degrading the African-American population by making them sound unintelligent.