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What does eye dialect mean?
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Why do writers use eye dialect?
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Feb 12, 2020 · Eye dialect is the representation of regional or dialectal variations by spelling words in nonstandard ways such as writing wuz for was.
- Richard Nordquist
Eye dialect is a writer's use of deliberately nonstandard spelling either because they do not consider the standard spelling a good reflection of the pronunciation or because they are intending to portray informal or low-status language usage.
May 23, 2024 · Eye dialect is a literary method for portraying speech patterns visually on the printed page. This is achieved by altering the spelling of words, so that, for example, “your highness” might be spelled “yer ‘ighness.” In this way, readers can get the effect of a strong accent or dialect by phonetically pronouncing dialogue while they read.
- Alan Rankin
EYE DIALECT. A term first used by George P. Krapp in The English Language in America (1925) for how colloquial usage appears in print; spellings in which ‘the convention violated is one of the eyes, not of the ear’ (Krapp).
Eye dialect can be used to illustrate that diversity. It clues the reader in on the character’s accent, place of origin, mannerisms, level of education, and other possible character traits. For example, many writers replace wh and th with v’s and z’s to demonstrate some German or Slavic accents: “Vat is ze meaning of zis vord?”
eye dialect, the use of misspellings that are based on standard pronunciations (such as sez for says or kow for cow) but are usually intended to suggest a speaker’s illiteracy or his use of generally nonstandard pronunciations.
Eye Dialect: Translating the Untranslatable. The term ‘eye dialect’ was first coined in 1925 by George P. Krapp in The English Language in America (McArthur 1998). The term was used to describe the phenomenon of unconventional spelling used to reproduce colloquial usage.
