Comics language USA

[Rob Klein]

Hi Y'all! (translated: "How are you all?" wider meaning: Hello! How are you 
all?" Hiya' (translated: "How are you?")

Regarding Olaf's question about the non-official non-Dictionary English used in 
the "Carl Barks Library":

That language is a combination of coloquial, regional language, common national 
informal slang, and language of uneducated "country bumpkins(hicks, 
unsophisticated folk)".  The use of "de" for "the", "dose" for "those", "dem" 
for "them", etc. is used to portray uneducated, unsophisticated, simple folk, 
(as was the desired image of criminals in Disney stories.  The use of 
nonofficial language by the main characters was to bring everyday speech into 
the story to make it more realistic.  

Those of us who have spent any protracted amount of time in USA know that the 
local inhabitants do not speak the "Kings English" of the Oxford Dictionary, 
nor even the official USA English of the Webster Dictionary. They speak 
regional dialects, usually along with a "lazy" or informal variant of same. In 
addition, the uneducated people of that area would speak an even more simple 
or "lazy" variant.  

In addition to these local dialects, there is a "National slang" or informal 
language which approximates more closely, the most common everyday speech of 
the masses.  That is what Donald and the main characters speak most often in 
the original Barks stories. Examples:  "I'm gonna..." (I am going 
to...); "G'wan!" ((Go on!(Get going!) or (You cannot mean that!?); C'mon ((Come 
on!) or (I do not believe you!); "Whaddaya mean?" (What do you mean?); "You 
guys..." (you fellows);etc. 

Don Rosa and most of the other Disney Comics, and, indeed, most novel writers 
use that same convention, as it makes their universes more realistic.

I have spent some time in Norway, but am not an expert, so forgive me if my 
analogy is not reasonable; and also forgive me if I offend people from any 
given area, as I do not intend to do so.  Below is my attempt to make an 
analogy that might be of meaning to you:

Thuggish, brutish criminals from the rip-roaring times of the 1850s through 
1910 or so (with little education, because they joined The Merchant Marine or 
signed up with large fishing or whaling companies for a life at sea, or were 
thrown out of school and a young age for being incorrigible); speaking a 
simple, uneducated language.

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.  The 
exception here would be that in USA, a major stereotype of use of uneducated 
speech involves regionality to some degree, as "Southern country dialect" is 
used to depict persons of little education and sophistication. 

If we used the "hicky", unsophisticated "bumpkins" in the Narvik area, for 
example (NOT the educated, sophisticated persons there), as a stereotype of 
speaking a simple country "lazy" to a sophisticated Oslo university graduate, 
slang filled "Norwegian"; that might be an analogy to the Barks usage.

The language used by Donald would be more like "T.V. American", which is 
a "Lingua Franca" in USA, that most people should be able to understand, and 
recognise as familiar and realistic enough to them for the listener to get lost 
in a film or Television programme (which would not be possible, if the players 
were using dictionary language).  Examples might be everyday, relaxed (as 
opposed to "Dictionary")Hochdeutsch; the equivalent Hollands, the Lange d'Oil 
(Paris dialect)Francais.  There is an equivalent TV Canadian, I am not so sure 
that there is an equivalent in England, but to my ear there seems to be one for 
Scots and Irish English.

This everyday "Lingua Franca" would NOT be the "more proper" language used on 
national Television news broadcasts, but a more colloquial, everyday speech.  
In USA, howver, the relaxed version is now taking over, even on News 
broadcasts. I have noticed that it has even affected several Canadian 
newcasters, who were brought down to USA partly because of their superior 
diction (such as Robert MacNeil, Peter ? (on ABC),Lorne Greene and a few 
others), who are now,or have in recent years (UNBELIEVABLY)letting lazy 
language, slang and incorrect grammar slip into to their national newscasts.
(The current or recent newscast comment, of course, does not apply to Lorne 
Greene, who stopped being a newscaster in the early 1960s to become an actor.

The main point of all of this is that Comic writers should be using the 
comfortable, everyday language of the common people to represent common speech 
in their stories; otherwise it won't ring true. 

Rob Klein



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