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Letters to O‘Brien from Father McGrath also shows evidence of Irish English pp.
403-409 and pp. 548-551.
Muddle the carpenter repeatedly uses Latinate words incorrectly – e.g. mitigate
meaning ‗to secure‘
Some repeated comments about the French language, e.g. p. 211 ‗The French
soldiers appeared to side with O‘Brien after they had heard this explanation,
stating that no common English sailor could speak such good French‘. Some
French phrases introduced p. 223 ff. e.g. ―Vous le croyez possible!” but little
attempt made to represent a French accent.
Very interesting Methodist sermon given by ‗a tall negro‘ [p. 544] which combines
features of Barbadian dialect with religious register:
―And now you see, my dear bredren, how unpossible to go to heaven, with all
the faith in the world, without charity. Charity mean, give awy. Suppose you
no give – you no ab charity; suppose you no ab charity – you no ab faith;
suppose you no ab faith – you all go to hell and be damned. Now den, let me
see if you ab charity. Here, you see, I come to save all your soul from hell-fire;
and hell-fire dam hot, I can tell you. Dere you all burn like coal, till you turn
white powder, and den burn on till you come black again; and so you go on,
burn, burn, sometime white, sometime black, for ebber and ebber. The debil
never allow Sangoree to cool tongue. No, no cocoa-nut milk, - not a lilly drap
of water; debil see you damned first. Suppose you ask, he poke um fire, and
laugh. Well den, ab you charity?‖ [continues for another page pp. 545-47, very
interesting]
Bullough Collection No. 291 Percival Keene by Captain Marryat
1. Publication details
Author: Marryat, Frederick (Captain)
Author dates: 1792-1848
Title: Percival Keene
Publication: London : J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. ; New York : E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc., 1926
First published: 1842
2. Genre / subgenre
Sea adventure
3. Brief synopsis
First person narrative of Percival Keene who is conceived illegitimately. His mother
marries someone else to cover disgrace and he later joins a ship under the command
of his real father. Keene, who is very quick-witted and likes to play practical jokes on
people, undertakes a number of adventures on sea and land, ending up
acknowledged, married and wealthy.
4. Overview of varieties / dialects
Hero meets various dialect-speaking characters in his travels through society and
world, but all tend to be minor characters. Some peripheral characters who may be
expected to speak dialect do not do so. Although there is quite a lot of interesting
dialect here, there is perhaps less inventiveness with varieties of language than in
Marryat‘s earlier book Peter Simple.
5. Variety #1: Thadeus O‟Gallagher, schoolmaster from Ireland
5a. Sample of dialect
―Oh, by the powers! don‘t I know him?‖ cried Mr O‘Gallagher; ―It‘s the young
gentleman who bit a hole in his grandmother; Master Keene, as they call him. Keen
teeth, at all events. Lave him with me; and that‘s his dinner in the basket, I presume;
lave that too. He‘ll be a good boy, or it will end in a blow-up.‖ [p. 20]
―Why don‘t you bring back my ruler, you spalpeen?‖ [p. 21]
―Did you see what a tundering tump on the head that boy got just now‖ [p. 21]
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