Tóth József (szerk.): Nyelv, kultúra, megértés: új kutatási módszerek a humán tudományok területén
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2. Nyelvhasználat és interkulturalitás
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Dialects on screen. Display of dialectal significance in the series Poldark • Nóra Estélyi-Tala, Ildikó Hortobágyi
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3. Potential uses of dialects in literature and films

3. Potential uses of dialects in literature and films

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

As Koch (2009) refers to Herbst, “accents evoke clichés which modify the character of a figure”. Dialects, however, convey much more information than the sheer pronunciation, or the deviation from the standard speech. On the one hand, they represent an opposition to the homogeneity represented by television and advertising, allowing for individual creativity (Bonaffini, 1997). On the other hand, “[b]eing deeply embedded in a specific socio-cultural and geographical context, dialects represent independent linguistic systems belonging to specific speech communities and cultures” (De Meo, 2019).

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In literature, one of the first works of art to put non-standard dialects in focus was Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. In the UK, it was published in 1884, and in the US in 1885, and it pioneered as one of the first works of literature that was written in the native dialect of the narrator. “It also features a variety of different dialects among its characters that Twain himself said he worked on ‘painstakingly’ to get right. Rather than speaking in the standardised American-English of the time, the characters in Twain’s novel speak in numerous different dialects” (Language Insight, 2019). Since then, the representation of the variety of dialects has become more widespread, representing the diversity in population just as much in movies as in literature.

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

It has to be pointed out that in movies, the “choice of dialects or accents is not random” (Matkivska, 2014). Making use of the effects brought about by the accents, filmmakers consciously decide what effect they want to have on the audience, and choose the dialects accordingly. “The recent trend is for films to exploit regional language varieties and dialects to communicate cultural otherness and reinforce credibility” (De Meo, 2019). Dore (2017) speaks about slang, but it can also be extended on any kind of dialect, when she says: “slang is used to communicate and build the teenagers’ group identity” (p. 130). Similarly, any kind of accents can increase or decrease the relatability to the character, based on the similarity to or difference from the audience’s own environment.

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

Bruti and Vigozzi (2017) compare two movies, Gosford Park and Gnomeo and Juliet, examining the effect the accents are used to create.

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

The linguistic landscape of both films is characterised by a wide use of accents and dialects which are functionally exploited both to shaping the characters’ identities and to achieving different narrative purposes: in Gosford Park they are used to create a portrait of a certain epoch by distinguishing between the voices of aristocratic and non-titled people; in Gnomeo and Juliet, on the contrary, they are used to create humorous situations by reinforcing established stereotypes (e.g. refined Southerners vs. rustic Northerners) (pp. 42–43).

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

They also point out that the stronger and more recognisable an accent is, the more prominent the film character’s stereotypical traits tend to be.

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

This is a feature that literature and movies seem to share “since film language is thoroughly styled to be a mimesis of spontaneous speech, accents and dialects are sometimes represented, becoming an effective resource that filmmakers have at their disposal and with which they not only produce natural sounding conversations, but also give background information about characters’ lives and locations” (Bruti, Vignozzi, 2017: 48).

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

In acting, actors attempt to not only repeat the character’s words and imitate their behaviour, but also, “to take on the character’s behaviors, value system, fears, and dreams […] Adopting the linguistic peculiarities of that culture is perhaps the biggest challenge. For the way characters speak reveals much: where they are from, where they have been, and who they want to be” (Meier, 2012: 9).
 
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