Some handy tools for reading Huck Finn

Before you read, explore this series of short arguments about the potentially offensive language in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

Room for Debate: Does one word change Huckleberry Finn?

You might also want to check out this slide show about understanding Jim's dialect. It looks like it might have been made by a student, but it's pretty useful:

Understanding Jim's Dialect

While you're reading, you could use this dictionary of southern dialect. It doesn't have every word that you'll struggle with, and some of the definitions tend toward humor rather than clarity, but it's the best resource I could find:

A Glossary of Southern Accents

Finally, I stole some definitions and an interesting essay from another AP Lang teacher. You don't need to memorize the definitions, but if you prefer to approach the dialect more technically, the following info is pretty interesting. The article about African American Vernacular English partners with the slide show above quite nicely.

If you have any questions (or brilliant observations) about Huck Finn, kindly send me an e-mail.

Reading Dialect:

Some Terms to Know

From Sonya Massengill

Dialect:

differences in language based on geographical, cultural, or social background. The spoken version of a language always involves variations from the formal written standard. Although dialect is often associated with a lack of education, everyone speaks a dialect.

Literary dialect:

the presentation of dialect in literature. Literary dialect may include phonological, grammatical, and lexical features, as well as eye dialect.

Phonological features:

dialect features related to pronunciation

Grammatical features

dialect features related to grammatical deviations from Standard American English

Lexical features

dialect features related to vocabulary (Common lexical features include regional differences in content words such as variations for soft drinks (soda, coke, pop) or variations in function words (quarter to three, quarter of three, quarter till three). Lexical differences may also label individuals as old-fashioned.

Eye dialect

the use of spelling to indicate dialect differences. Eye dialect reflects difference in social class rather than real language diversity (wuz vs. was).

Socially stigmatized dialect features

language features disdained by speakers of socially prestigious dialects

Vernacular

the natural language of a speech community. The term vernacular can be used to refer to informal speech or to a specific dialect. It is often associated with non-standard forms of a language.

African American Vernacular English

AAVE is a dialect common throughout the United States in many African American communities. It tends to be associated with lower middle class and working class speakers, but it also is associated with cool identity and hip-hop culture. Not all African Americans speak AAVE, but many use code-switching to shift between the dialect and Standard American English. Many features of AAVE seem to be recent developments in African American communities, but some of the dialect features are also found in some historical documents such as slave narratives – though questions about authorship sometimes complicate the use of these documents as records of dialect features from earlier periods of African American history.

Common Phonological Features of African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

Many people are surprised to learn that dialects are as systematic and rule governed as any standard form of language. All speakers of a language vary pronunciation of individual features. In fact, an individual will vary pronunciation depending on setting (formal or informal), listener, and even factors such as how tired the speaker is.

Features of dialect, which include phonological (or pronunciation) differences, are not random. Sociolinguists study the rules that govern dialect variations among different speech communities. Some features are shared by more than one speech community. For instance, speakers of African American Vernacular English and Northeasterners from Boston both use a feature that sociolinguists call r-lessness. African American Vernacular English and rural Southern vernacular dialects often omit the r after vowels (Didn‘t yo’ daddy teach you right?) Speakers from Boston omit the r in car (cah), but add an r in the word wash (warsh). In fact, r-less speech used to be the prestigious form among elite New Yorkers, such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt omitted r’s after vowels, imitating the British Received Pronunciation form popularized in England in the nineteenth century.

Below is a brief list of common phonological dialect features in AAVE.

r-lessness: Vernacular dialects, including AAVE, often reduce or delete r following a vowel (sister – siste’). R-loss also occurs after a consonant when the r precedes a rounded vowel (oo or oh sound). Vernacular speakers might say, ―Thow [throw] that ball thu [through] the hoop,‖ but they wouldn‘t say ―I have thee [three] sisters‖ or ―Quit your thashing [thrashing].‖ Occasionally, r-loss makes it sound like a speaker is saying a completely different word. A speaker who deletes the r on the word their may sound like she’s saying they (They books are on the shelf in the back.).

-th stopping: At the beginning of a word, th often changes to d in AAVE. Compare this shift to European American vernacular varieties that often change initial th to t (thing – ting). Sociolinguists call this change –th stopping. The rules governing AAVE and EAE stopping involve two different sounds of th in English.

Place your fingers over your Adam‘s apple and pronounce ―this‖ and ―thistle.‖ You should feel a vibration when you pronounce the first word; you are using a voiced th. Voiceless th is the sound in thistle; it sounds more breathy and does not cause your vocal cords to vibrate. AAVE often replaces voiced th with d. (this – dis). EAE tends to replace voiceless th with t. (think – tink).

Initial syllable deletion: Omitting an unstressed syllable at the beginning of a word is common in informal English (I finished early ‘cause the homework was easy.) In AAVE, a larger range of words lose the initial syllable (I ‘spect you’d better go on into the house.).

Final consonant cluster reduction (CCR): In informal speech, most people delete final consonants occasionally. Rules govern these deletions in dialect too. When a word ends in a consonant cluster (two or more consonants) ending with a sound that linguists call stopped (b, p, d, t, k, g), many speakers delete the last consonant sound. The rules for CCR are very systematic. Remember the distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants? If both consonants in the final consonant cluster are voiced OR if both the consonants in the final consonant cluster are unvoiced, speakers will frequently delete the last consonant in informal speech (cold – col’; best – bes’). Wait --- they don‘t just do it arbitrarily. They delete the consonant IF the next word begins with a consonant. (Did you fin’ Kevin? If someone pronounced the d on find in informal speech, they would probably sound a bit stuffy or strange. Don’t ac’ so superior. Most speakers would not really pronounce the t in act in informal speech. If the word act were followed by a word beginning with a vowel, most speakers would pronounce the t. Don’t act all uppity.) In AAVE, final consonant cluster reduction can also take place when the next word begins with a vowel. (That’s the bes’ apple I’ve ever tasted.)

“g-dropping”: This feature is in quotation marks because linguists tend to cringe at the popular name. It‘s not really g-dropping, but it is related to a g on the end of a word. When a word ends in –ing (cooking, cleaning, running, swimming), the sound at the end of the word is not really a g sound. The “ng” sound is pronounced as a single sound that linguists call an “engma” or a “nasal velar.” You can just call it the “ng” sound. Anyway, when the “ng” sound occurs in an unstressed syllable, vernacular dialects substitute “n” for “ng” (swimming – swimmin’). You can be sophisticated and call it velar fronting or you can call it “g-dropping” -- but please use quotation marks to show that you know it‘s not the real term and to avoid causing a linguist‘s blood pressure to rise!

/v/ to /b/: Some features of African American Vernacular English are less common today but often appear in literary texts and historical documents. In the nineteenth century –v between vowels and at the end of a word often shifted to a b sound.

A note about eye dialect: When analyzing literature and historical documents, it is important to distinguish between spellings that represent true dialect features and spellings that convey the author‘s attitude toward the speaker but fail to reflect any phonological distinctions. Authors who use eye dialect often use spellings like wuz for was or womin for women. Sometimes the line between eye dialect and real dialect is a fine one. For instance, since consonant cluster reduction and “g-dropping” are common in informal speech, does an author really need to provide alternative spellings to represent pronunciation that many or most speakers use without special spelling (ol’ or ole for old)? Eye dialect usually suggests that the speaker is from a low social class or has little education – or sometimes even the idea that the speaker has low moral standards. Distinguishing between eye dialect and real dialect features can reveal important information about power relations and social class, as well as about an author’s beliefs about the rhetorical function of dialect.

For more information about dialects see:

Wolfram, Walt, and Ben Ward, eds. American Voices: How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006.