DCML digest #847

[Don Rosa]

Wow! I found all the comments about dialects or accents or lazy tongues and
how they are dealt with (or NOT dealt with) in Norewgian and perhaps other
European languages very interesting, especially Rob Klein's lil' lecture.
But one thing I'm having trouble grasping: the way that Barks or I or many
others write our dialogue has nothing to do with regional dialects, it's
simply slurred with speed... the "lazy tongue" as is said... and in English
it's easy to speak this way, and easy to imitate the words/sounds with
written dialogue. So... why isn't that the same in Norwegian? Surely
Norwegians slur certain words when speaking fast, or when they are drunk or
sleepy of drugged and depicted that way in a film, eh? How could a drunken
Norwegian speak with perfect diction? And then why can't this slurred or
lazy speech be depicted in written dialogue?
But if such is never done in films or books or comics in Norway, I feel
sorry for my Norwegian friends -- they are missing out on a very important
additional element of storytelling. It's like saying that paintings in
Norwegian museums have a certain portion of the color spectrum removed, or
that an orchestra in a Norwegian concert cannot play certain ranges of
notes.