Experimenting with dialect, being a true story concerning a cat.

[oneighty]

When I first met my wife and her family in the Low Country of South Carolina they spoke Gullah. Her people were know as Giechie. Years later now I am tryin to recapture what I learned of the Patois from my wife and her family and from my black friends Nate and Thomas and Louis and Moses.
The Wildcat

He be swimming 'cross de creek mile or so from where de Santee river be emptying to de ocean. I make my crab bo'at up close de cat thinking to be keeping alligator away. "Tricia" I say "Han me de net. I be going to catch dis cat." "Sure Ed." She say.

De cat he be right upset and he be clawing again de side o de bo'at. If he could be walking on water like Jesus do he be gittin up in de bo'at and Tricia and I be doing de swimming.

I pull de bo'at away from de cat. He swim on to de hill climb up dere 'n he turns give me de hard eye and he disappear to de trees be growing dere.

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[Pepperbelly]

1. Interesting.

And quite followable once you get the hang of the rhythm. Good flavor. Use sparingly and it would no doubt improve a work.

[Technowitch]

2. Any chance you could get a tape recording of your wife's folks?

That'd be the best way to ensure you're getting the dialect right.

Only detail I'd say up there that doesn't look quite right is the use of "thinking" -- I think last I heard it would've been pronounced "tinkin'". Trailing 'g' on 'keeping' is also probably misplaced.

"Agin" for "again". "Swimmin'" for "swimming". That sort of thing.

[Surikat]

3. If I remember correctly...

During the Great Depression government anthropologists made extensive recordings of people using the Gullah dialect. You might want to check with the Library of Congress.

I had a student from the Carolinas who seemed to have done a fair job. I've also been told that the Disney "Uncle Remus" film used a good Gullah speaker.

[JitterbugPerfume]

4. But you gotta admit

it be purty gud fer a boy frum NEW YORK

[oneighty]

5. No they are all gone

And over the years with advent of TV and such they lost the dialect. Mose and Thomas and Lewis and Nate had it real good. Lewis and Mose was de bestest and they are gone now too. And Tricia my wife sounds just like me, a NY Yankee. We left the creeks and river twenty five years ago. Left behind the clamming, oystering, crabbing and shrimping and offshore fishing all the fun things.

I am trying a little to capture the flavor of what was and pass it on.

The University of South Carolina was making an effort to preserve the Dialect.

Moses often say to me when we be out in de creeks tonging for oyster and de clam he often say "You crazy mon" to me. I do not think he meant it. One time he be hollering, pointing, arms a waving shouting out "De pint de pint!" so I hand him "The pint of Vodka" we be carrying to run the chill away. He say no no "De pint" Oh he be tellin me to steer de bo'at at the point. Den he say again "You crazy mon."

Mose passed away 'bout ten year begone now.

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[flying_monkeys]

6. Stories in dialect are a hard sell. Fun to write, tho (m)

Sadly, readerships are not very fond of pieces done entirely in "dialect" - - they just tend to not sell very well. But as an exercise in versatility writing in dialect is GREAT.

If you want to publish, maybe tone it down... If you want to stretch as a writer, keep it up :)

Just my "Before I Go To Bed Thoughts".....

[oneighty]

7. Yes

I have read that somewhere. The article continued; saying that the dialect must also be very correct to be believed. My attempts are not very correct. The flavor of Gullah is impossible to catch in print.

Fun trying though. flying_monkeys---Shades of the Wizard. OOOOH DEY BE SCARY DEM FLYING MONKEYS!

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[Philostopher]

8. You know, it's funny.

Back in the '80s, my first husband was stationed at Myrtle Beach AFB, right before they shut it down. One of the guys in his shop on base married a local girl who worked in the back office at the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum in MB. Her grandparents were Gullah, she said she could speak the dialect and occasionally did. You're not any farther off than anybody else who ever tries to write dialect -- when you try to do that, as I've done with both the West Texas and Appalachian accents, you run up against the limitations of English mnemonics and the 26-letter alphabet. Which is to say, there are sounds in spoken English dialects that were never meant to be written down, so if it sounds to you like the Gullah you heard, it's probably not a half-bad approximation.

Spanglish and Creole aren't easy, either -- and for the same reasons, I suppose. The mouth can do things the written word just can't.

[oneighty]

9. Myrtle Beach

We lived there for a while. We had a Dive Shop and Surf Board business in the sixties. We had a house in Ramsey's Acres next to the AFB.

My wife says my effort is not very good, sigh. I ask her to do better but she will not try.

She has forgotten her native language. (McClellanville, SC) a bit south of Georgetown.

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[patdem]

10. I agree with pepperbelly...it really adds flavor to a story

though it would be hard to read an entire book written in dialect. That is well done and gives me an insight into how these people 'probably' live, or stirs up some preconcieved notions I already have.

[oneighty]

11. The actual event

was something few people would ever be exposed to. I have told the story in plain 'ole English and it does not generate any interest. I try the exact same story with a little dialect (Correct or not) and the story gets interesting. In my opinion.

Mose and Louis and Thomas telling a story in their Patois and sounds and facial expressions was an exciting thing to hear and to see.

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[patdem]

12. Could you interject the facial expressions? Sounds like they might

add interest as well as the dialect????

[oneighty]

13. Animated, the

flashing white teeth contrast in dark faces body movement spontaneous laughter and good cheer. What can one say?

Might be we be drinking cold Millers Beer or passing a 'Bumbee bottle' of Vodka.

Louis one time look down at me in my boat while I am waiting to unload my catch of crabs. He say things to me and I do not have a clue as to what he is saying. But I know he is laughing at me because I do not "unnerstan" him. One day his arm get caught in the shrimp grading machine. With acetylene and oxygen torch I free him. He say "Hurry Ed hurry" the tears of pain running down his face. A few months later he was shot to death. Poor Louis.

I have stories about Mose and Louis and Thomas and Nate (The honorary Mayor of Buckhall) from long time ago.

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[patdem]

14. Are you compiling them into a book???

Sounds very interesting...I know you are a writer..but you imply you are just testing dialect??

[flying_monkeys]

15. More thoughts (m)

Give me a couple of days to run it down but my local paper did a piece on Gullah dialect just this past summer (I am in Charlotte so it was the Observer). There is a woman down in Charleston (I wanna say) who considers herself to be the Queen Knower of Gullah... I'll try to see if I can find her name and maybe you can contact her?

In any event, the article was a fun read between the self proclaimed Queen Knower and others who say she knows squat....