Comics language USA

[Halsten Aastebol]

At 19:01 24.02.02 +0000, Rob Klein wrote:


>Isolated Country folk from remote areas in the North of Norway, speaking a
>simple, uneducated country language ((a simplified generalised speech that
>might be attributed to less educated country folk which could be 
>understandable
>all over Norway) devoid (as much as possible) of regional differences.

One piece of friendly advice: Do never ever state the above when Norwegian 
dialect fanatics are present! Whatever you do or say afterwards can never 
save your skin.
Well, not being a Norwegian, you would be excused. But I, coming from the 
Oslo region, would face dreadful consequences. :-)

Calling country dialects "simple, uneducated" in public is probably one of 
the worst deeds you can do in Norway. One reason being that it's simply not 
true. The dialects are just as rich, maybe even richer, than the official 
written standard. The other reason being that quite a few people in Norway 
are extremely touchy about this subject.

Also calling country folk less educated would probably stir some commotion. 
There's a lot of hostility towards urbanization and centralization in 
Norway, EU-hostility being one result.

And one important point regarding the dialects. They are strictly located 
to geographical regions, and therefore there is no generalized country 
speech. Some of the dialects are so archaic that they are really difficult 
for other Norwegians to understand. As a result of Norway's topography some 
dialects are so differentiated, that if spoken properly, a dialect expert 
will be able to determine within a few kilometers where the person speaking 
is coming from. Just by listening to the dialect.

To bring this on topic: The above is also probably one reason why the 
editors in Norway have to be very careful with the language in the comics, 
using only standard.
Well, actually nowadays this is not so important anymore. But when the 
translator had the indians in Plain Awful talking a variant of a Norwegian 
dialect back in the 60s, it stirred so much commotion that the story 
(printed as a 5-parter) had to be stopped, and the dialog changed to 
standard. In later reprints the dialect has been reintroduced without any 
commotion.
But the tradition in Norwegian Disney comics is that that all dialog is 
written in standard bokmaal. Therefore it will stay that way. The dialog is 
still mostly well written, so that we do not loose to much.

Regards
Halsten