<<Twain's HUCKLEBERRY FINN, and thinking surely the
whole narrative isn't slang, so I checked it out. It
is.>>
That's not slang, son. It's Southern. None of the characters
is trying to cut clever, either. They speak authentically.
Twain knew how bad the phonetic humorists sounded (they were
his competitors, after all), so he was very careful about
using folksy renderings of speech. I think Huck works much
better in Southern, but it would remain a great book in
Yank.
Best,
MrT
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