“My papa sad for the old country. He not look good. He never make music any more. At home he play violin all the time; for weddings and for dance. Here never. When I beg him for play, he shake his head no. Some days he take his violin out of his box and make with his fingers on the strings, like this, but never he make the music. He don’t like this kawntree.”
— My Ántonia by Willa Cather
Technique
In My Ántonia, Willa Cather uses dialect to provide a unique voice to a key character.
The above passage is a great example of how immigrant dialect can be accurately represented in writing. The character, Ántonia, mixes fragments and complete sentences to explain how her father is feeling. She applies articles (“the”) inconsistently like a non-fluent English speaker, and the phonetic spelling of country (“kawntree”) adds authenticity to the voice, as if Ántonia is sounding out every letter in the word. The combination of these techniques gives Ántonia a unique voice that’s similar to a non-fluent speaker’s today.
Use
- Use phonetic spellings and rhythmic phrasing selectively to maintain readability while creating a voice. For example, regional dialects or non-fluent speakers can pronounce words that lend themselves to abbreviated or phonetic spellings. Bilingual characters also often code switch, meaning they will use words from one language while speaking another.
The Periplous 