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Cross-examined by Mr. England: ―Hev a sorter dislike to swear positively to prisoner
as having been in company with Lawless on that Friday. To the best of my belief he
was the man.‖ [p. 87]
5b.1 Orthography
Respelling hoss, skeer, workin‟, hev, sorter (for sort of)
5b.2 Grammar
None noted – quite educated
5b.3 Vocabulary
Lexis skunk, critters, gulch, durned
5c. Dialect area represented
American
5d. Density of dialect representation
Lightly marked
5e. Location of dialect
Dialogue, single scene
5f. Characteristics of dialect speakers
Male, reasonably well educated, convincing witness in court
5g. Consistency of representation
Consistent
6. Narrative comments on dialects and varieties
Interesting comment on the impression created by h-dropping:
The passengers of the Red Jacket had in a general way too much to think
about to bother their heads about the accidental likeness existing between
two young fellows in the second class, still the story leaked out. It was said
‗that one of them was an eldest son and heir to an old historic name and a fine
estate. The other was a very fine young man, but evidently a nobody,
inasmuch as he dropped his aitches and so on. But they were so wonderfully
alike that you could hardly tell them apart. [p. 18] of Lance and Lawrence
Trevanna.
p. 187 The address was, ―Mrs. Vernon, Toorak, South Yarra, near Melbourne.‖ The
aboriginal sounding names gave no information as to distance.‖
p. 193 ― ―That is so,‖ answered Tom, putting on a little Yankee touch […]‖‖
Estelle reads fake letter (written by Lawrence not Lance)
Now, she experienced a kind of minute analysis of her sensations, distinctly
painful in its intensity. She read and re-read Lance‘s letter, and, among other
things, marked with surprise an occasional lapse in grammar, or the use of a
small letter when a capital was imperative. Even the handwriting, though more
like Lance‘s letters from school than his latter-day epistles, seemed cramped
and laboured. [p. 285]
7. Other points of interest
p. 21 Drayman surprisingly seems ‗an educated person‘ (e.g. uses the word
‗extemporise‘). Also the manacled man p. 28 turns out to speak standard English
too.
other very minor characters with some kind of dialect marking include Lance‘s
landlady (p. 22); p. 77 brief generic low-class ‗diggers‘, p. 125 warder, p.
23
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