Texan! was Problems of translation (was Editing literature to conform to current custom)

[Amanda Geist]

Amy baited:

> Whenever these issues arise, I think of a translation of Lysistrata
> which grappled with the fact (I'm trusting that it's a fact, not
> knowing classical Greek) that Aristophanes made the Spartans (IIRC)
> sound like ignorant hicks.  I don't know how he did it; word choice,
> accent, whatever, but clearly the fact that he did it was important
> to his meaning.  So how does one get this across in modern English?
> The translator made them sound like the US stereotype of a hick:
> southern accent <grins in the direction of a certain Texas editor>,
> characteristic phrases, etc. . . . you could just *see* the guys
> scratching themselves.

*ahem* Texans do not have the Southern accent. Dialect maps that show
Southern extending into east Texas were based on data gathered in the 1940s.
>From about the turn of the century, east Texans have the
mostly-Midlands-sounding accent of south Texas. [West and North Texans do
have accents, but they are not standard-issue Southern, they are *Texan.*
I'm not sure how they're classified.] My grandmother was born in Brenham or
Huntsville or something in 1900, and had a charming Southern accent (r-less
and all). My mother did not.

Texan "accents" these days tend to fall more into word usage, not diction.
Texans use words like "fixin to," "y'all," the double modal (might should),
etc. These usages, I think I read, are on the increase. Tremble.

--Amanda