At 13:13 20-06-03 +0000, :
>Miker wrote:
>
><<Twain's HUCKLEBERRY FINN, and thinking surely
the
>whole narrative isn't slang, so I checked it out. It
is.>>
>
>Then Mario wrote:
>
>"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."
>
>What is Southern if not slang? What is slang if not a
dialectic veering away
>from standard english, such as Southern? Are you
saying Southern is an
>exception to the "abuse of slang" rule? And if I put
across a speech (in a
>character) in regional slang is the character
necessarily cutting clever?
>Can he not be authentic?
>Charlie Williams
SLANG I totally support Mario's point of view. Southern is a
dialect, not slang, as any regional variation of a language
is. Otherwise, with the opposite approach, the Queen's
English is what… American slang?
I'm not a specialist for the American language and its
variations, far from it, but from the books I red I never
found HB/Noir written in the USA using
*exclusively* slang. The closest I found are in the "Black
American" popular lit, but even there it's applied mostly to
dialog and to the use of some specific terms inside the
narration which remains in colloquial or even plain American
English. The same for "junkies" novels of the 60-70s, and for
some fiction or realistic books by, or describing, jazzmen
and their sphere. Even "Really the Blues" (1946) memoirs by
Mezz Mezzrow, if I remember correctly, does not use
exclusively slang for the narration.
On the contrary of some tradition in Europe, especially in
France, where slang was used as the full language for poetry,
novels…etc. as there was a very old tradition of describing
the underworld and the anti-establishment social groups from
within and in literary treatments. The oldest example I
remember is Fran篩s Villon, poet, troublemaker, thief, several
time incarcerated (around 1455 to1463- end of the Middle
Ages) sentenced to be hanged… and we can find existentialist
and even Noir approaches in some of his best-known sets of
poems. He was partly living with the Paris underworld and
therefore used "jargon"- the French slang of these social
groups in Paris, amongst these also the Jobelin slang- to
write some maybe less-known poems. Even if you understand
15th century French, you will not get a single correct
meaning of what you will read in that "jargon" set
(tittled:"Ballades en Jargon"- Ballads in Jargon). Anyway the
language specialists did not come with a coherent
"translation" of these poems in modern French before 1885 due
to the cryptic complications of the texts. This tradition
staid in French literature, and even during the 19th and
early 20th century some reputed authors wrote in slang:
poems, songs or even novels (see Francis Carco for instance,
or even parts of the memoirs written by Vidocq).
I think that in the English lit (from England) similar
approach must exist along its history, but not persistently
to the 20th century… but here I do not have sufficient
knowledge.
In modern French HB/Noir of the 40-50s, there were many
writers writing their novels in slang or at least in heavily
distant colloquial French. Often mediocre novels… But one of
the founders of French Noir, Albert Simonin, wrote his 7
novels about French underworld and outlaws in Parisian
*slang*, a cryptic language used by these groups and in some
parts of populist Paris. The whole text was with that form,
not only the dialog. His most famous novel was "Touchez pas
au grisbi"-1953 (Don't touch the Bread) novel that was
adapted for a top film by Jacques Becker, who started with it
a real rejuvenating of the mystery French film, this film
being one of the direct roots of French Noir on screen.
Another one was Andr頌e Breton starting with his famous "Du
rififi chez les hommes"-1953 (slang for : 'Clash amongst the
Though Guys'), and followed by many more. But his Parisian
slang was mixed with the slang of French prisoners and real
thugs. The film adaptation of "Rififi" (1954) shadowed the
realistic side of the language… but it was still a very good
film by Jules Dassin.
Some parts of the novels in slang were even very difficult to
understand for the general public, and often a short glossary
of the most obscure words was added to the novel. This trend
of using slang to write complete novels disappeared around
the end of the 60s and does not exist anymore in contemporary
French HB/Noir.
Definitely, slang is not colloquial or dialect, it's always a
kind of cryptic language used by small social groups, during
a typical period.
E.Borgers Hard-Boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
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