So what is dialect?

It is a form of language that belongs to a specific group or region.

We see it in a bunch of books. Take “The Awakening” for example. We see French, Spanish, and of course English.

However! Dialect isn’t just inserting a different language randomly. Dialect uses common phrases and speech that that language uses.

an example: we don’t see in English
- Hello, Julia how is your day
Although correct that isn’t how most people speak.

- How’s it going Julia! Hey Julia! Etc.

Dialect treats the character as if they do speak that language and they’re speaking naturally.

This technique can be used in many ways!

Raymond Hickey, an Irish Linguist, writes in his book Varieties of English in Writing: the Written Word as Linguistic Evidence, “... the insights they [writers using dialect] can provide into language attitudes and controversies in general.”

Hickey suggests that dialect has the ability to give insight into the attitudes and environment of the setting for the book.

An example is in Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” which perfectly captures this. There is a scene where Pablo and his wife Pilar, both Spanish, go from speaking with Robert Jordan in English than arguing in Spanish than going back to English calm as if nothing happened.

To many who haven’t lived in a Hispanic home this may seem random; however, this is common in Hispanic homes called Spanglish (Spanish + English). You practically see 1 person having 5 conversations in Spanish arguing and in English perfectly fine and vice versa.

Another concept that comes from dialect is social structure. The way someone speaks to another character says a lot. For example.

- Hello sir.
You can imagine a strict figure

- Hi baby.
You can imagine a mother speaking to her child

- An that’s why without a shadow of a doubt he is guilty.
You can imagine an eloquent speaker, lawyer, or anything else!

Just these three examples show how wording can add to a character (behaviour and place in society).

Of course an important part of dialect is double meaning. Although language has its barriers I can also be used to write something beautiful or interesting.

“Quiero amar Te con todo mi corazón.”

“I want to love you with all my heart.”

See that works, it translates perfectly but other phrases.

“Quere es poder”

“Wanting is to be”

In Spanish it’s something inspirational similar to our of you want it do it but doesn’t quite translate as well.

The dinner table is very important in a Hispanic house hold, no phones and make conversations are basically rules.

Like in For Whom the Bell Tolls the dinner “table”, or floor in this case, is a place of conversation but also drama and tension.

This is taking something in Spanish culture and using it as a storytelling method that is realistic.