Missing words, is it an accent?

[Amanda Deck]

I disagree, black southerners DO speak that way, though the poster who suggested it would have been "dis" instead of "this" has a valid point. I'd also expect to see "yo' pay grade" instead of "your" in that situation.

[Nditah]

Hi, I’m reading a book by an American author. It’s written in the first person and there are words regularly missing like

Saturday morning, I sat my front steps to wait for Mr. Crumley.

This way above your pay grade.

Am I looking at mistakes or is it a regional accent?

Thanks

When a mistake is repeated always, can it be attributed to an accent?

[Amanda Deck]

Nditah, that's what I would think. I was just wondering earlier how that would work. It seems difficult to "write with an accent" all the way through a book, especially if it's a main character! But only doing so occasionally looks like a mistake.

[DATo]

When a mistake is repeated always, can it be attributed to an accent?

I think if the author was intentionally trying to insinuate an accent he would do it frequently to the extent that the reader would understand that this was his intent.

One of my favorite books is A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. In this book the author uses many accents when writing his character's dialogue. In each instance he pulls this off well by remaining consistent with the specific character's delivery of their lines. There is a real art to doing this well and Toole, in my opinion, is a hands-down master of this art.

On the other hand, if the assumed accent is NOT consistent in the character's dialogue, or is limited to only one or two instances in the entire text, I think one may be sure that these are typos and not intentional on the author's part.

[sanykip]

It is an accent unless the mistake is repeated over and over it doesn't qualify

[bookowlie]

Hi, I’m reading a book by an American author. It’s written in the first person and there are words regularly missing like

Saturday morning, I sat my front steps to wait for Mr. Crumley.

This way above your pay grade.

Am I looking at mistakes or is it a regional accent?

Thanks

I believe these sentences each contain a missing word which is an error.

[Mary WhiteFace]

Saturday morning, I sat my front steps to wait for Mr. Crumley.

This way above your pay grade.

It should say, "On Saturday morning..." and "This is way..." Not regional in the written word, and very slangish in the oral word.

The first sentence should also have on after sat, "...I sat on my front steps..."

[FictionLover]

I have to respectfully disagree with the panel, especially if the character is African American.

When I was in college, I studied linguistics, and this looks like an example of what is called African American English (I learned it as 'Black Vernacular English').

One of the traits of BVE is to change the tense of, or completely delete the verb 'to be'. I don't remember what it used to be called, but now it is referred to as 'copula deletion'.

From the Portland State University website:

https://www.pdx.edu/multicultural-topic ... glish-aave

Copula Deletion

Many speakers of AAVE will sometimes delete certain forms of the copula "to be" (e.g., an AAVE speaker might say "they angry" instead of "they are angry," or "I don't know what he talking about" instead of "I don't know what he's talking about").