A Slave's Freedom Discussion: Vernacular? · 6:58pm Sep 25th, 2015
Learned something interesting in class today, and I might want to share it with you. Well, that is, if it wasn't so controversial. Of course, me being me, I'm going to show you it anyway. Why not?
Let's talk about the BEV. What the hell is that? BEV stands for Black English Vernacular, a term used by Steven Pinker, who wrote the book called The Language Instinct. If you haven't read this book, you might want to. The book has some insight on language that I honestly didn't think of. I'm still skeptical about the ideas that it has, but most of them I can say are agreeable, like how language came before culture. It makes sense, because without language, no one would have anything to talk about except gesturing each other about certain dangers, or if they are about to take a huge load and need some space.
You know, dangers. 
Getting to how this relates to A Slave's Freedom, the BEV that Pinker talks about is more modern, but the main basic principles are not. In A Slave's Freedom, I kinda missed this because I never really knew how complex the BEV was even in ghetto areas. Let's take a phrase, par example (taken from the book):
"You ain't goin' to no heaven."
Interesting, right? Well, let's highlight two important words:
"You ain't goin' to no heaven."
See that?
Black English Vernacular is damn interesting because this same negation is in French. You know, ne and pas? Like, Je ne aime pas les frites (not true though to me but just an example). The phrase means I do not like [french] fries. That's not the point, but look at the placement. Exactly the damn same.
Mind blown.
The language also removes certain words called copulas. These are words that we add to link sentences together (subject to predicate). For example, an BEV speaker would say, "If you bad..." when those who are SAE (Standard American English) would say, "If you're bad..."
I still haven't gotten to how this relates, have I? Well, here it is: the story's vernacular (for Dyson primarily) is wrong. "Ah" is not even fucking close to BEV, let alone what someone in the South says. I'm proposing here is to change those little derps and make them more accurate. However, I'm going to need some time to at least change them, along with some of the mixed modern vernacular.
Which brings me to my point: would it be better if I only changed those that are obvious (Ah and mah) along with some minor dupes (because to 'cause, until to 'til, about to 'bout, etc.), or would changing that would not only ruin understanding, but would it be harder for you all to read? Now I'm not saying that to spite anyone, but I need to know because I want this story to be as accurate as possible. If it sounds even remotely modern in terms of him sounding modern, then that needs to be changed. Leave a comment on this blog; it'd help me out a lot!
-Soaring
P.S. You can also discuss the interesting discovery between languages too, no stopping you there. Just be polite, okay?
Let me clarify, the changes will be made in dialogue and thought bubbles only, because doing that to all the narration would take weeks to do. Plus, I don't think changing the narration would be worth it for the purpose of understanding.
EDIT: Title fixed. The book is called The Language Instinct. Derp v2.
What I am curious about are the differences between 21st-century BEV, 19th-century BEV and various Southern dialects. This comes up in my writing because I'm trying to consistently translate the Sweet Apple Acres Apples' rustic dialect into Central Southern (Arkansas to Tennessee); I'm assuming of course that nopony is actually speaking anything remotely like English and that rendering it into English is a Translation Convention. Living in Oakland, I'm immersed in 21st-century BEV; I've also read renderings of 19th-century BEV by authors who heard it spoken, most notably Mark Twain (who also grew up hearing 19th-century Missouri Southern dialect, which isn't that far from what I'm trying to render the Apples' rustic dialiect into).
I'll be interested in the episode where AJ goes to visit the Pies at home, because the show has never depicted the Pies' dialect, if they're going to have one. I'm guessing given where they live that it's going to be something like Kansasan American, but I could be wrong. Pinkie's name and the way her family were shown acting might make them more like Pennsylvania-Dutch, whether nor not anyone in their area speaks that way. I've always assumed they lived about 50 miles west of Ponyville, in the foothills of the White Tails.
Given that Pinkie's family is Pennsylvania Dutch like and she's friends with Cheese Sandwich (voiced by Weird Al Yankovic) I'm wondering if the show's ever going to do an Amish Paradise joke?
Interesting little bit about BEV, thanks for sharing.
As for A Slave's Freedom, personally I would try and revise those past few derps, as to not let any new readers slip away. Your choice though.
Plus, it makes for a great reread.
Sure man, I like your passion for accuracy and it sounds like a fine decision.