I aynt gawn do that

The "n" on gawn is more a nasalization.

So: how would you spell this?

I've had enough critiquers object to

"I ain't gone do that"

that I can no longer ignore their complaints.

I looked through Huck Finn, and found that he was often "going to" do things. I couldn't find this in Harper Lee, or O'Connor. I see "gonna" in other dialects.

What would you do?
 

But are you really sure you need a dialect? In general I find unless you can do it really well- don't do it at all (at least in the final copy)

Maybe get a few of your southern friends (if you have any) to sound like what you need and have them stage a conversation (even southerners who don't normally have an accesnt can upon need give one - you can trust me on that one ) And write it down- give them the proper English dialogue and see what they say- that's what I'd do.
 

Is it your POV character that's speaking or is your POV character hearing a Southerner?

Which part of the South, since there are a wide variety of dialects?

Personally, I'd stick with "I ain't going to do that," because that's the way I hear it when I'm back home in Tennessee. I can't hear the dialect when I'm actually there and my folks are talking. And, even when I do, it never sounds like "gawn" to me.
 

Reading is more about pattern recognition than mentally sounding out letters. You've probably seen examples of things like:

Kpeenig olny the fsrit and lsat ltretes of a wrod in the rhgit palce is euognh to cnvoey the wrod.

I find having to mentally sound out stuff and then match it to a word while reading a story very distracting.

If you decide to do it it's probably best to stick to common ones readers will recognize and not have to try and sound out.(gonna, 'tis, c'mon, y'all etc.)
 

[This message has been edited by wbriggs (edited July 21, 2005).]
 

Oh! I know. There's a great book of Jack Tales that has the Appalachian dialect written down, with standard spelling, but it really gets the rhythms right. Darn...I can't remember who compiled it.

Anyway, my two cents would be to stick with standard spelling if everyone is from the same region. I don't think anyone would hear a word and imagine it spelled wrong, you know?
 

I ain't gonna do that

I ain't fixing to do that

I'm not fixing to do that

are all plausible. Older people are more likely to use "fixing"

the "fixing" is often pronounced "a-fixin'"
 

It's my least favorite part to read because it's difficult to read sentences written in dialect. Not only do I hae trouble visualizing how they're pronouncing the words, but also what words they're saying.

It's difficult as a writer because not everyone speaks the same way and sometimes I have to find some way to get that across in my writing.

I'm not gonna do that.

Well, it's easy to read. I at least understand the words, which is more than I can say for, "I'm not gone to dhat." That looks like a simple writing error. "I'm not gawn do that." makes me stop over the word "gawn", say it or think it out loud, and then translate it into English I can understand before moving on.

The trouble with "gonna" is that most people don't prounounce "going to" so formally. If I stop and think about what I say (St. Louis born and raised...midwestern accent) it comes out more like goin ta. Only in formal speech to people pronounce all the letters of these words. In fact, the 'g' on the end of most -ing words gets dropped in most speech.

Now, actually putting gonna in your writing may infer a more drastic speech pattern than "normal" since we are all used to hearing it going to even if we say goin ta or gonna. But it does it dishonestly, and unevenly. What will a southerner think of their own accent written down, for example? And Mary brought up a great point about how a southerner would hear another southerner.

I suggest relying more havily on word choice to bring in the southern accent. They have quaint turns of phrase like fixing to. I might also throw an "ain't" in there for "am not"

Phonetic spellings really can go horribly wrong: they can sound differently to the reader than they did to the writer, bring across the wrong accent, or just get in the way of the story for little actual gain in terms of "realism." You want me to picture a southern accent? Set this story in the south and make it seem very southern, from the weather to the southern pride. Then choose your words carefully, but spell them right in the end.
 

"I ain't goin' to do that."

?
 

It you want to get really freaky, how bout, "Ain't gonna do that."
 

I agree with the other southerners. What's said is "going to," but what others hear is "gonna."

The use of "ain't" does imply education level. But it also implies rural. I too had "ain't" beaten out of me at an early age.

However, I commonly use "I'm not gonna do that" and have never had anyone ask what I was talking about. "Fixing to" is another matter. Its usage is perfectly acceptable (and widespread) in the South, but outside the South, it gets the occasional raised eyebrow. So unless I'm really angry, (or wish to be severely underestimated on a first meeting), I've mostly exorcised "fixing to" from my vocabulary.

But I never say "ain't."

So, Will, the question still stands: What area of the South? Rural or urban? And what time period?

Those last two are important, because as time passes and populations become more mobile, you start to see a softening of dialect, most noticibly in the cities. I have family in both rural and urban south and the differences in dialect in the general population are becoming more pronounced.

Lisa

[This message has been edited by Dandelion (edited July 21, 2005).]
 

Oh. I don't know how ya'll is used in Southern Georgia, but up where I'm from it is purely for plural usage. I think in other parts of the South it sometimes used for plural and singular.
 

I find that I speak very formally at work, church, out in public view. But when I'm home, or with family, I speak more Southern.

I have said:
Look at that there.
Come on ya'll.
How bout you.
Look at them dogs run.
That there's a big tick.
I reckon.
You folks have a seat.
Jack done gone and got himself arrested.
(I'm kidding about the last one, but I've heard it before)

I still can't bring myself to say ain't. Guess my conditioning was too strong.

"You're not killin' snakes." (means calm down a little!)
 

Her website is: http://www.deverry.com/
She has excerpts from upcoming works posted to give you something to examine as regards to her style.

In relating it to depicting southern drawl, I would say her technique is more in how she phrases the words and the cadence of the speech, rather than depicting dropped consonants and such.

 

"It's raining harder than a camel pissing on a flat rock in the middle of the dessert."

"Colder than a witch's titty in a brass bra in a snow storm."

"She's going to birth a whole herd of cows if you don't get home right now."

"We're just beating our bicuspids with idle chitchat."

"Last time I saw him, he was knee-high to a grasshopper."
 

On it he has a list of a few southern words that I find hillarious. Here are three gooduns .

Usedtocould:
-Can you dance?
-Well I usedtocould. Give me a minute and I mightcould again.

An'em
-How's your momma an'em?

Sintuwus:
-Told my old lady, "Sintuwus up, get me a beer!"
 

quote:

---

I don't know how ya'll is used in Southern Georgia, but up where I'm from it is purely for plural usage. I think in other parts of the South it sometimes used for plural and singular.

---

When we lived in Texas, I heard people use y'all's (possessive) as well.

Since we've lived in Texas, by the way, I feel that I have earned the right to use y'all for second person plural, and I do. I grew up using "you guys" and didn't like it as much because it's masculinish (I can remember my daughters protesting once when I used it because "we're not guys!")
 

[This message has been edited by Keeley (edited July 21, 2005).]
 

Of course I never spent much time in the super-deep non-Appalachia south - southern Georgia or Albama, or South Carolina. So I could be wrong.

Newsbys, an excellent list. I've said many of them myself, and I reckon I still do regularly say a couple.

And MaryRobinette, I lived for a few years in Greensboro. Nice place.

Lisa

 

-K.