Slave dialect comparison/ Re: Official Philip Nel Question #9: House Elves

[blpurdom]

No: HPFGUIDX 39218

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "ladjables" <ladjables at y...> wrote:
> Now Dobby and Winky in GoF:
> 
> "You is not insulting my master, miss!  You is not insulting Mr. 
> Crouch!  Mr. Crouch is a good wizard, miss!" 
> 
> "He said we is free to call him a- a barmy old codger if we likes, 
> sir!"  (GoF, p. 380, US Edition) 
> 
> "They isn't my masters anymore, Winky!"
> "Oh, you is a bad elf, Dobby!"
> "...oh what is they saying if they knew Winky was freed?"
> "You is seeing my master?  You is seeing him here at Hogwarts?"
> (p. 381)
> 
> "You is killed him!  You is killed him!  You is killed master's 
son!"
> (p. 683)
> 
> "You isn't ought to tell them, we is getting in trouble...." (p. 
685)
> 
> "Master Barty, Master Barty, what is you saying?" (p. 690)
> 
> 
> Read aloud, they are quite similar.   

Actually, what I noticed about Dobby's dialect is that is changes 
when he moves to Hogwarts.  Before that, he mostly speaks perfectly 
grammatical English.  What he actually does before GoF (if there are 
exceptions I haven't found them--which isn't to say they don't exist) 
is he speaks of himself in the third person.  He says things 
like "Dobby is afraid that if Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts...."  
(or something to that effect)

If it weren't for the fact that Dobby is the one saying this, we 
would find nothing wrong with the grammar in this sentence (not an 
exact quote, but very close).  Most people do not refer to themselves 
in the third person (perhaps Dobby should be the official mascot of 
Theory Bay? <g>).

Why does JKR have Dobby change his speech when it was slightly 
irregular but otherwise correct?  I have no idea.  It seems to me 
that the above quotes are mostly from Winky (only #2 and #3 are 
Dobby).  Perhaps she's a bad influence on Dobby.  (And she's the one 
who thinks Dobby's the bad influence!)  

However--I still think it's going a bit far to characterize even 
Winky's speech as 'black.'  Black American English is a recognized 
dialect among linguistics experts, and it has firm rules of usage 
that are more complex than simply failing to conjugate the verb 'to 
be' (Winky uses 'is' to accompany all nouns and pronouns.)  She never 
says 'I been,' 'I done been,' or any other phrases that have specific 
meanings and appropriate times for use.  I think JKR was simply 
attempting to simplify Winky's speech by reducing her one version of 
the most basic verb.  This is definitely not a direct lift of a 
dialect.

--Barb

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HP_Psych
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Barb

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