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| re: Happy Talk racist?/Oklahoma | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 12:47 am EST 02/21/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Happy Talk racist?/Oklahoma - Chromolume 10:24 pm EST 02/20/19 | |
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| ***I won't dispute that Hammerstein may have borrowed from Riggs, Michener, et al, but...do they really say things like "womern" and "meader" in the state of Oklahoma? Do Oklahomans and people from Maine really say "keer" instead of "care"? Or "hev" instead of "have"? I've never heard ANYONE talk like that -- except in Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals lol.**** I think all of those dialect words are Hammerstein's not necessarily successful or accurate attempts to indicate various dialects by re-spelling words, rather than by using the phonetic alphabet :-) And I think this method of doing so is always going to read as kind of silly and embarrassing, regardless of the level of accuracy. (I would say that applies to PORGY AND BESS as well, regardless of the authenticity of DuBose Heyward's life experience of the way the real-life equivalents of those characters spoke.) |
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| re: Happy Talk racist?/Oklahoma | |
| Posted by: StageDoorJohnny 11:39 am EST 02/21/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Happy Talk racist?/Oklahoma - Michael_Portantiere 12:47 am EST 02/21/19 | |
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| I have heard 'meader.' I've also heard heighth for height, Warshington for the nations capital, droughth for drought (legit old time pronunciation), and i for e substitutions all over the place (pin for pen for example) I've heard 'shots' for 'shorts' in New England. In upstate NY they pronounce elementary (like school) with a long a, and mauve as mawv. If a regionalism isn't spelled out, as an approximation -- like keer or womern -- what you'll wind up with on stage is a bland standard English, which is not the author's intent. The sheet music for 'It's Delovely' used to specify pronouncing 'deluxe' as 'deloox' because that's what Porter intended. It may look or sound odd, I agree with you on that, but that doesn't negate the purpose of making the character(s) sound different or quaint rather than your neighbor next door. (another one for you -- 'loverly' in MFL, I doubt that ever came out of a Cockney's lips) | |
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| re: Happy Talk racist?/Oklahoma | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 04:00 pm EST 02/21/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Happy Talk racist?/Oklahoma - StageDoorJohnny 11:39 am EST 02/21/19 | |
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| (another one for you -- 'loverly' in MFL, I doubt that ever came out of a Cockney's lips) "Loverly" is a purposely made-up word - it has no connection to whether or not it's cockney, or any other dialect. Totally different kind of thing. |
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