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pages 103 ff.), nor do some of the very peripheral lower class characters
onboard ship (e.g. ship‘s carpenter)
Old Dutch gentleman turns out to speak ‗good English‘ with only the
occasional ‗Mein gott‘ to mark him as Dutch (p. 166)
American captain has no real marking of an American dialect: ―And I referred
to the spar, which is my business, and not to the vessel, which is no consarn of
mine,‖ replied the American captain. [p. 270] (only consarn seems to mark
accent)
French soldiers do not have much of a French accent, except a passing ‗Allons‘
(p. 395).
Bullough Collection No. 326 Gideon Giles: The Roper by Thomas Miller
1. Publication details
Author: Thomas Miller
Author dates:
Title: Gideon Giles: The Roper
Publication: London: Henry Lea, 1860?
First published:
Library reference: 200350787
2. Genre / subgenre
Literary fiction
3. Brief Synopsis
Tales of rural life, villages, and the larger-than-life characters therein, loosely
gathered around central character, Gideon Giles. Many anecdotes and amusing
sketches.
4. Overview of varieties / dialects
Incidental characters have marked dialect, but very little dialogue. For example,
―You‘ll find him at th‘ yeal-house, zur,‖ answered the peasant; ―he allos goes there
when he‘s pinned aught.‖ from an un-named ‗peasant‘ who does not re-appear in the
narrative. For characters who are more central, fewer dialect markers are used, and
these are often glossed in parentheses.
5. Variety #1: Cousin William, waiter/footman. Note – claims to be his written note.
5a. Sample of dialect
―Item. If yuve a lump of fat, or ought on yure plate yo don‘t like, don‘t go and slap it on
somebody else‘s plate, and say, ‗I can‘t eat fat,‘ cos it looks like as if you‘d had no
broughting up. Best way is, to slip it on, on the sly, when they aint (are not) looking;
same if yo want to take aught off their plates, do it, and say nought; but real
gentlemen never do these things. (pp. 30-31)
5b.1 Orthography
Respelling yuve; yure (possibly eye dialect?)
Elision aint (particularly unusual to such a common term glossed); cos;
5b.2 Grammar
Non standard pronoun yo (although note you‟d)
Non standard verb use broughting
5b.3 Vocabulary
Lexis nought; ought; aught (note ought/aught inconsistent)
5c. Dialect area represented
Claims to be set in Newbury. Many references to Gloucester nearby.
http://librarysupport.shef.ac.uk /bullough.pdf
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