AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofSarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
WIVINA TOMAS Student Number: 034214079
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofSarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
WIVINA TOMAS Student Number: 034214079
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2007
JUST DO THE BEST,
AND LET GOD DO THE REST.
The past is gone,
The future is unpredictable.
All we have is now,
Then make great use of it.
-Still Thoughts
My highest gratitude goes to Father Jesus and Holy Mary for the endless blessing, love, and grace upon me in every single path of my life.
I would also like to thank:
My advisor, Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M. Pd., M.A., for the patience and guidance in doing the undergraduate thesis.
My co-advisor, J. Harris Hermansyah S., S.S., M. Hum., for checking, correcting and giving me advices for my thesis.
My academic advisor, Dewi Widyastuti S.Pd. M. Hum., for watching and supporting the undergraduate thesis completion.
My lecturers in English Letters Department and USD staff, for the help, knowledge and friendliness.
Thanks to Mbak Nik for all information and help.
My great family: My loveliest Mother, Father, Brothers (Da Ge & Xiao Ge), and especially My Inspiring Sister (Miss Yulie): “You’re great! I’m really proud of you.”
My sisters in Legi 6B: Nit&Ko, Toi&Ga, Pan&Wan, Ci Nurie&Her Someone.
Thank you for coloring my days inJogja.Everything is as wonderful as a dream!
My great partner inWarta Nusantara MandarinJogja TV, Kristina Yappy. I love our happy-crazy moments so much. They were so memorable!
And to all friends of 2003 English Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
Wivina Tomas
APPROVAL PAGE ... ii
A. Background of the Study ... 1
B. Problem Formulation ... 3
C. Objective of the Study ... 4
D. Definition of Terms ... 4
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ... 6
A. Review of Related Studies ... 6
B. Review of Related Theories ... 8
Theories of Character and Characterization... 8
1. Language and Dialect …... .. 9
2. The Dialects Spoken in the USA ... 13
3. Relationship Between Language and Society ... 16
a. Language and Social Class... 17 b. a b. Language and Ethnic Group…...………... 19
c. Language and Geography………. 21
C. Theoretical Framework ... 26
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ... 29
A. Object of the Study... 29
B. Method of the Study ... 31
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ... 35
A. The Main Characters in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ... 35
B. Speech of Huck, Jim, and Tom ... 38
C. The Main Characters’ Social Background as Reflected in Their Speeches. 56 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION... 61
English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2007.
The existence of language varieties in English language can be found not only in this real world, but also in literary works. One American famous author who presents this phenomenon is Mark Twain in his bookThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.Twain states in the beginning of the novel that a number of dialects are used in
this literary work. Therefore, this study aims to find out the varieties of English language used by each main character in the novel. Besides, what social background can be learned from those language varieties will also be the topic of this study.
There were three problems formulated in this study. First, the writer analyzed who the main characters are found in Mark Twain’sThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Second, the writer went further to the dialects which are used by those main
characters. Third, the writer answered what social background is reflected from the dialect used by each main character.
Some steps were taken in accomplishing this study. First, the writer read and reread the novel. Then, the writer collected all the utterances of the three main characters and then put them in a list. Further, the writer put them into groups based on the ‘who spoke to whom’ way. Next, the writer made a deep analysis on each character’s speeches. Last, the writer described about the social background which was reflected from the dialects of the main characters by using some theories about the relationship between language and society.
The present writer concludes Huckleberry Finn, Jim and Tom Sawyer as the main characters in Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Then, the writer
analyzes that Huck and Tom speak the Southern dialect from the characteristics of their speech, while Jim speaks the Southern Negro dialect. By viewing the dialect spoken by each main character, each character’s social background is analyzed. First, she concludes that Huck is a lower class white American boy who does not experience much formal education in school. Moreover, Jim is a black person who speaks Black English but has quite poor language competence in Standard English and comes from poor society. He also never experiences the formal education in school. The last one is Tom, who comes from a higher social class than Huck and has a good educational background. It means that Tom does not come from a poor family.
Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2007.
Adanya keberagaman bahasa dalam bahasa Inggris tidak hanya dapat ditemukan dalam kehidupan nyata, tetapi juga dalam karya-karya sastra. Salah seorang pengarang terkenal dari Amerika yang menyajikan fenomena ini adalah Mark Twain dalam salah satu karyanya yang berjudul The Adventures of Huckleberry.
Twain sendiri menyatakan bahwa dalam karya sastranya yang satu ini terdapat beberapa macam dialek yang berbeda. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis keberagaman bahasa Inggris yang digunakan oleh karakter utama dalam novel tersebut. Disamping itu juga akan diteliti latar belakang sosial yang dapat dipelajari dari keberagaman bahasa itu.
Penulis mencoba menjawab tiga permasalahan yang telah dirumuskan. Pertama, penulis menganalisis siapa saja karakter utama yang terdapat dalam karya
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Kemudian, penulis menganalisis lebih jauh
tentang dialek yang digunakan oleh karakter-karakter utama dalam novel tersebut. Ketiga, penulis mencoba menjawab latar belakang sosial yang tercermin dari dialek yang digunakan oleh setiap karakter utama.
Ada beberapa langkah yang dilakukan untuk menyelesaikan penelitian ini. Pertama, penulis membaca dan membaca ulang novel ini. Kemudian, penulis mengumpulkan ucapan-ucapan dari ketiga karakter utama and memasukkannya ke dalam sebuah daftar. Setelah itu, penulis mengelompokkannya ke dalam grup berdasarkan siapa berbicara kepada siapa. Selanjutnya, penulis membuat analisis mendalam terhadap ucapan setiap karakter. Di bagian terakhir, penulis mencoba mendeskripsikan latar belakang sosial yang tercermin dari dialek yang digunakan oleh setiap karakter utama dengan menggunakan teori-teori mengenai hubungan antara bahasa dan masyarakat.
Penulis menyebutkan Huckleberry Finn, Jim dan Tom Sawyer sebagai karakter utama dalam novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn karangan Mark
Twain. Kemudian penulis menganalisis bahwa Huck dan Tom menggunakan dialek daerah Selatan, sedangkan Jim menggunakan dialek Negro daerah Selatan. Dengan meninjau dialek yang digunakan oleh setiap karakter, penulis mencoba menganalisis latar belakang setiap karakter. Pertama, penulis menyimpulkan bahwa Huck adalah seorang pemuda kulit putih yang berasal dari kelas bawah dalam masyarakat Amerika, dan juga tidak mendapatkan banyak pendidikan formal. Selanjutnya, Jim adalah seorang kulit hitam yang mengunakan Bahasa Inggris orang Negro tetapi mempunyai kemampuan berbahasa Inggris baku yang memprihatinkan dan berasal dari masyarakat kelas bawah yang tidak pernah merasakan pendidikan formal di bangku sekolah. Yang terakhir adalah Tom, yang berasal dari kelas menengah dalam masyarakat Amerika. Terakhir penulis menyimpulkan bahwa Tom memiliki latar belakang pendidikan yang cukup memadai yang juga berarti bahwa Tom tidak berasal dari keluarga yang miskin.
A. Background of the Study
Language, which is the principal means in human communication, can be analyzed as the reflection of some particular things in a society. As in her book
Language and Culture, Kramsch considers language as a system of signs that is seen
as having itself a cultural value (Kramsch, 1998: 3). Therefore, we can use language to study deeper about the cultural, social, or even educational background of the people who live in a particular society.
By most of the time speakers try to identify themselves and others through their use of language. They also view their language as a symbol of their social identity (Kramsch, 1998: 3). For instance, we can make our conclusion about someone’s educational background, whether he or she is well-educated or not, by analyzing the way he or she speaks. We might also get a clue about people’s origins by paying attention to their way of speaking. Moreover, there is no one speaking in the same way all the time even in one language, as stated by Wardhaugh in his book
An Introduction to Sociolinguistics:
When we look closely at any language, we will discover time and time again that there is considerable internal variation, and that speakers make constant use of the many different possibilities offered to them. No one speaks the same way all the time, and people constantly exploit the nuances of the languages they speak for a wide variety of purposes. (Wardhaugh, 1992: 5)
These different ways in speaking one language then lead us to language variation, in which each language might exist in a number of different varieties. English is one of those which exist in many varieties, since there are British English, American English, Black English, and kinds of English dialects. The existence of language varieties in English language can be found not only in this real world, but also in literary works. One American famous author who presents this phenomenon in his literary works is Mark Twain. In some of his novels, Twain tries to describe the different social background in one society by showing different kinds of dialects used by each character.
Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is chosen as the object of this
study since it is stated clearly by Twain himself that a number of dialects are used in this literary work. They are the Missouri Negro dialect, the backwoods South-Western dialect, the ordinary ‘Pike-County’ dialect, and four modified varieties of this last. Twain labels each character with their own particular way of speaking, in which the way of speaking of a character is different from another’s. For instance, we can take a look on the conversation below between Huck and Jim the runaway nigger after they think they have missed Cairo:
‘Maybe we (Huck and Jim) went by Cairo in the fog that night.’ He (Jim) says:
‘Doan’ less’ talk about it, Huck. Po’ niggers can’t have no luck. I awluz ‘spected dat rattle-snake skin warn’t done wid its work’
‘I wish I’d never seen that snake-skin, Jim – I do wish I’d never laid eyes on it.’
We might also find the entirely different way of speaking by another character in the novel. For example, the conversation between Huck and Colonel Grangerford:
I (Huck) says:
‘George Jackson, sir. I’m only a boy.’
‘Look here; if you’re telling the truth, you needn’t be afraid – nobody ‘ll hurt you. But don’t try to budge; stand right where you are. Rouse out Bob and Tom, some of you, and fetch the guns. George Jackson, is there anybody with you?’
‘No, sir, nobody.’ (TAHF, page 154)
From the two examples above we can see the differences in the way of speaking of each character. The way Jim speaks is entirely different from Huck’s or Colonel Grangerford’s. Therefore, this study aims to find out the varieties of English language used by each main character in the novel. Besides, what social background can be learned from those language varieties will also be the topic of this study.
B. Problem Formulation
There are three problems to be analyzed in this study. They are:
1. Who are the main characters found in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn?
2. What dialects are used by those main characters in Twain’s The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn?
C. Objectives of the Study
There are three objectives of this study. The first objective is to find out the main characters in Mark Twain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. The second
objective is analyzing and deciding what dialects are used by those main characters. Moreover, in the last objective the writer is trying to conclude what social background can be reflected from the dialect used by each main character.
D. Definition of Terms
In this study, the terms that will be used frequently are character, dialect, and social background. Therefore, the writer will explain the meaning of each term. a. Character
In Encyclopedia of Literature, the term character is defined as personality as
represented or realized in fiction or drama (Kuiper, 1995: 229). Meanwhile, Abrams in his bookA Glossary of Literary Termsstates more specifically:
Character is a person presented in dramatic interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say—the dialogue—and what they do—the action (Abrams, 1981:20). b. Dialect
In Dictionary of Sociology: And Related Sciences, dialect is defined as a
c. Social Background
In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, social is defined as
something related to the position in society that we have, according to our job, family, wealth, etc., and background is defined as someone’s family history, education, social class, etc. Meanwhile, in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary,
This chapter is divided into three parts: review of related studies, review of related theories, and theoretical framework. In the first part the writer presents the studies which have been done on the same topic or the same literary work. In the second part some related theories are provided in order to help the writer in solving the problems mentioned in the previous chapter. And the last chapter contains the contribution of the theories in solving the problems.
B. Review of Related Studies
There are some related studies that have been done on Twain’s The Adventure
of Huckleberry Finn. Some of them are undergraduate theses. In his thesis study
entitled English Negation as a Dialect Feature in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, Bagus Widyatmoko from Department of English Letters, Sanata
Dharma University, analyzes the negative constructions in Tom Sawyer’s dialect features. He finds out that Tom Sawyer uses the word ain’t, hain’t, warn’t, and
double negation as negative constructions in daily life. Moreover, Widyatmoko also concludes that Sawyer’s purposes in using one dialect to a certain person and another to other person are feeling solidarity and showing power (Widyatmoko, 1999).
Another thesis study on the same literary work was done by Edelbertus Witu, a student of Department of English Letters, Sanata Dharma University. Instead of
analyzing the dialect feature, Witu emphasizes his study on the American values found in Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: freedom and equality. He
concludes that the two values are revealed in the novel, as Huck fights for freedom by going out from a conservative family; by helping Jim to be free from slavery; Huck fights for equality by having a sense of tolerance to Jim; and by paying attention to education and process of learning from experience that emphasizes the abolishment of slavery (Witu, 1998).
Meanwhile, there is a study on language varieties done by Citra Rinanty, who is also from Department of English Letters, Sanata Dharma University, in her thesis study entitled English Varieties Spoken by Walter Morel in Lawrence’s Sons and
Lovers. Rinanty analyzes the English varieties used by Walter Morel, and then uses
the results to study the sociolinguistics factors influencing Walter Morel in using those varieties. As the conclusion, Rinanty states that 75.4% of Walter Morel’s utterances are non-standard English and the rest of them are considered Standard English. Further, she adds that Morel changes the varieties of English according to the setting, addressee, topic, status, formality, and function (Rinanty, 2006).
Different from the studies on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnabove, the
C. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
According to Laar and Schoonderwoerd in the book of An Approach to
English Literature,characters, which are the important elements in a fiction, are built
through the novelist’s imagination and actual life. What the actual life means here is how the novelist tries to recreate the image of the persons in an actual life imaginatively to the novel. The imaginative human being is put in human situation and behaves as human (Laar and Schoonderwoerd, 1969: 165-171).
As stated by Koesnosoebroto (1988), character can be distinguished into two types, namely major character and minor character. He explains that major character is the most important character in a story, and a story is usually about this character. However, major character can not stand on his own; he needs other characters to make the story more convincing and lifelike. Minor characters are characters of less important than those of the main (Koesnosoebroto, 1988:67). Furthermore, Koesnosoebroto states:
Characters may appear briefly as mere hints. These are minor figures who are there in the story to show us what is going on. Minor characters, appearing once only, may ornaments. They are bonuses thrown in for our enjoyment. Characters may also be secretaries whose function is little more than to
communicate something e.g., Marlowe in Lord Jim, a novel by Joseph Conrad (Koesnosoebroto, 1988:67).
Jacobs (1989) mention four different ways used by an author in conveying information about characters in fiction. They are:
a. What the characters themselves say and think. It is stated further that speeches can be accepted at face value to indicate the character of the speaker, and it may also reflect a momentary emotional or intellectual state.
b. What the characters do. By understanding the saying “actions speak louder than words,” then we can interpret actions as the signs of character.
c. What other characters say about them. By paying attention to the opinion of other characters, we might get some clue about a particular character. As a description given by Roberts and Jacobs, an author may give us a good impression of characters by having a bad character say bad things about them, since what a person’s enemy says is usually slanted, unfair or untrue.
d. What the author says about them, speaking as storyteller or observer. We usually accept what the author says about a character as the truth. When an author interprets the actions and characteristics of his characters, he himself assumes the critic’s role, and his opinion can be either right or wrong. (Roberts & Jacobs 1989:1147-148).
2. Language and Dialect
In his book,An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Wardhaugh (1992) states that
have one language and one variety, which is the language itself. We might tend to say that language and dialect become synonymous in that case (Wardhaugh, 1992:37). He also gives an example that some speakers of Black English insist that their language is not a variety of English, but it is a separate language in its own right. On the other hand, speakers of Cantonese and Mandarin state that they do not speak different languages but just two varieties of Chinese (Ibid., 35).
In his book Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
Trudgill (1983) considers language as not simply a means of communicating information about weather or any subject, but a very important means of establishing and maintaining relationships with other people. He also defines dialect as the differences between kinds of language which are differences of vocabulary and grammar as well as pronunciation (Trudgill, 1983: 17). On the other hand, the term
accentrefers to differences of pronunciation, and it is important to distinguish clearly
between dialect and accent. He states further that the term dialect can be used to
apply to all language varieties, not just to non-standard varieties, but also the standard one like standard English. Basically, dialect is divided into two types, namely regional and social dialect.
a. Regional Dialects
linguistics features (Wardhaugh, 1992: 42). Holmes in his book An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics gives some examples about the different vocabularies spoken in
some English-speaking areas:
Australians talk of sole parents, for example, while people in England call
them single parents, and New Zealanders call them solo parents. South
Africans use the term robot for British traffic-light. British while the word togs refers to very different types of clothes in different places. In New
Zealand togs are what you swim in. in Britain you might wear them to a
formal dinner (Holmes, 2001: 124-125).
Besides the differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, there are also differences which exist in grammatical forms. Sometimes we might hear ‘Did you eat yet?’ instead of ‘Have you eaten yet, or ‘She has gotten used to the noise’ instead of ‘She’s got used to the noise’.
Further, Holmes states that dialectologists in the USA can identify the distinguishing features of the speech of people from different regions. They make three main divisions namely Northern, Midland and Southern areas, and within those areas a number of further divisions can be made. Even the different towns and parts of town can still be distinguished. As it is explained specifically by Holmes:
Within the Midland area, for example, the Eastern States can be distinguished; and within those the Boston dialect is different from that of New York City; within New York City, Brooklynese is quite distinctive (Holmes, 2001: 127). He also adds that pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary are those which distinguish these dialects. One can also hear pronunciations such asaccrostandclifft,
as well as verbs with a-prefixes, such as a-fishin’ and a-comin’ in the rural
b. Social Dialects
Dialects, which can be simply distinguished by their linguistic varieties like pronunciation or vocabulary, can also be distinguished from different social groups, and it is called as social dialects. Some factors used to determine social groups are occupation, education, caste, and etc.
Standard English is classified into one of them. It has been the dialect used by well-educated English speakers worldwide and also used for national news broadcasts and in print. Generally, English-speaking schools teach their students using this variety. Some characteristics of Standard English are:
1. According to Thompson and Martinet (1986) inA Practical English Grammar,be
has three forms in the simple present tense: am, are and is. Am is used with the
subject I; are is used withyou, weandthey; andisis used withhe, she, andit. It is
also stated that verbs other than be (is, am, are) have two forms in the simple
present tense. They are the simple form and the –sform. Here, the –s form is used
with the third person singular subjects such as he, she, it, etc. (Thompson &
Martinet, 1986: 116).
2. There are two types of nouns, singular and plural nouns.
3. In Leech and Svartvik’s (1975)A Communicative Grammar of English, the
negative forms in English are made by addingnotafter the auxiliary verb, if there
is one in the sentence, as in the sentenceJohn is not here. In the bookA
Communicative Grammar of English, the contracted form–n’toccurs after the
Meanwhile, the linguistic form which are not part of Standard English are called non-standard one. Sometimes it acquires negative connotations since it is usually associated with the speech of less prestigious social groups. Holmes explains that non-standard forms are just simply different from the standard ones, and there is nothing linguistically inferior about them. Therefore, some sociolinguists prefer the termvernacularas an alternative to non-standard forms (Holmes, 2001: 132-133).
3. The Dialects Spoken in the USA
It is explained in The Dialects of American English that the establishment of
various colonial dialects, in which American English dialects are included, was led by the British colonization of other continents (www.pandora.cii.wwu.edu). Furthermore, it is also stated that the development of those dialects are caused by some following factors:
1. The language spoken by emigrants who first established the colony was a particular variety of British English, or calledthe founder’s effect.
2. This language may have mixed with some non-English language in the colony, which is then calledthe substrate effect.
3. There may have been further mixing with other English dialects in the colony, calledthe leveling effect of dialect mixing.
There are four main migrations of English speaking people to America, which caused the main dialect areas of the USA (www.pandora.cii.wwu.edu/2007). The following table shows the explanation of each migration:
No. Migration fleeing from
Britain Main linguistic features Result Dialect Areas 1. The Puritans, fleeing
as in word:guitar,police
final [r] in all places
It is stated further that some southern features from the poorer classes are shared with the dialects of the rural midwest since poor southerners helped colonize the midwest. Also, some features of Appalachian English are shared with the speech of poorer southern whites for the same reason. Besides, the use of double negatives e.g. ain’t, is avoided by the upper classes, which choose the innovative single
negatives preferred by the British upper classes. Moreover, we might also find the pronunciation of the sound -ng become –n. For example, we might hear the word
4. Relationships Between Language and Society
Most sociolinguists agree that language and society are related to each other. Wardhaugh states about some possible relationships between language and society in his bookAn Introduction to Sociolinguistics(Wardhaugh, 1992:10-11).
First, social structure may either influence or determine linguistic structure and behavior, since studies show that particular ways of speaking, choices of words, and rules for conversing are determined by certain social requirements. Second, linguistic structure and behavior may either influence or determine social structure. Third, the influence is bi-directional, which means that language and society may influence each other. Dittmar mentions that speech behavior and social behavior are in a state of constant interaction (Wardhaugh, 1992: 11). And the last possibility says that there is no relationship at all between linguistic structure and social structure. However, people do not really pay attention to the last possibility since most studies show that there is a relationship between language and society. Therefore, only the first three possibilities will be used further.
Trudgill in Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society
(Trudgill, 1983: 14) says:
For whenever we speak, we cannot avoid giving our listeners clues about our origins and the sort of person we are. Our accent and our speech generally show what part of the country we come from, and what sort of background we have.
social point of view. The first is the function of language in establishing social relationships and the second is the role played by language in conveying information about the speaker.
Bram in his book Language and Society (Bram, 1955:19) gives the
description about the relationship between language and society in the process of socialization of a child. He states that language is related to this process in a number of ways. First, the mastery of speech and techniques of writing and reading constitute a prerequisite to full participation in one’s society. Second, social beliefs and attitudes are communicated to the growing child through language as the principal channel. Third, language describes and clarifies the roles which the child will be called upon to identify and to enact. And finally, language initiates the child to theesprit de corpsof
his speech community, and provides the feeling of belonging.
a. Language and Social Class
Montgomery in his book An Introduction to Language and Society
(Montgomery, 1986:121) states:
We have in a sense already touched upon the relationship of language to social class. Accent and dialect, we noted, have more than a purely regional basis: they have come to act as indicators not of one’s relationship to a locality but also of one’s social class position.
According to Trudgill, the study on language and society will bring us to
social-class dialects, which is similar to social dialects. He adds that the internal
differentiation of human societies is reflected in their languages. Trudgill states further that the diffusion of a linguistic feature through a society can be halted by barriers of social class, age, race, religion, etc. And social distance may have the same sort of effect as geographical distance in regional dialect; the highest social group will affect the lowest social group. Studying social-class dialects then will lead us to
social-stratification, a term used to refer to any hierarchical ordering of groups within
a society (Trudgill, 1983: 34-35). Furthermore, Trudgill states:
In the class societies of the English-speaking world the social situation is much more fluid, and the linguistic situation is therefore rather more complex, at least in certain respects (Trudgill, 1983: 36-37).
Therefore, we can say that social classes in English-speaking world are not clearly defined since the social mobility—movement up and down the social hierarchy—is perfectly possible. He also adds that in obtaining a correct picture of the relationship between language and social stratification, we must be able to measure both linguistic and social phenomena so that we can correlate the two accurately (Trudgill, 1983: 43).
has the –s and it generally closely associated with higher social groups, it is said that there might be a direct correlation between social class position and the usage of –s (Trudgill, 1983: 43).
b. Language and Ethnic Group
When we view language from the point of view of ethnicity, we will find out on how great this ethnic problem influences the language in a society. According to Holmes inAn Introduction to Sociolinguistics(Holmes, 2001: 175), “Where a choice
of a language is available for communication, it is often possible for an individual to signal their ethnicity by the language they choose to use”. It is not a new fact that people may use short phrases, verbal fillers or linguistics tags, which signal ethnicity, when a complete conversation in an ethnic language is not possible. Another description on language and ethnicity is also shown by Holmes (Holmes, 2001:176), as he states that: “Food, religion, dress, and a distinctive speech style are all ways that ethnic minorities may use to distinguish themselves from the majority group”. Moreover, ethnic groups often respond to a situation by using the majority language in a way which signals their ethnic identity.
A very clear description shown by Trudgill is the language difference between the White and the Black Americans in the USA. He states that:
When Whites and Blacks have different ways of speaking, it means that there are different ethnic-group language varieties.
Trudgill prefers the term ‘Black Vernacular English’ (or abbreviated as BVE) to refer to the non-standard English spoken by the lower-class Blacks in the urban ghettoes of the northern USA and elsewhere (Trudgill, 1983: 60). We can find the peculiarities in the speech of the Blacks as shown in the example taken from a survey of New York speech led by Labov:
A Fifteen-year-old Harlem Boy:
‘You know, like some people say if you’re good your spirit goin’ t’heaven…’n’ if you bad, you spirit goin’ to hell. Well, bullshit! Your spirit goin’ to hell anyway. I’ll tell you why. ‘Cause, you see, doesn’ nobody really know that it’s a God. An’ when they be sayin’ if you good, you goin’ t’heaven, tha’s bullshit, ‘cause you ain’t goin’ to no heaven, ‘cause it ain’t no heaven for you to go to.’ (Trudgill, 1983:60)
From the example above we can see some peculiarities of the English spoken by the Black speakers in the USA. Some characteristics of phonological features of BVE as cited by Trudgill (Trudgill, 1983:61-62):
1. Many black speakers have do not have non-prevocalic /r/ as in the word cart or car. Many lower-class Blacks demonstrate loss of intervocalic /r/ like in the words Carol (Ca’ol) and Paris (Pa’is). Some black speakers also show loss of /r/ after
initial consonants, like protect (p’otect).
2. Many black speakers often do not have , as in thing, or , as in that, this.
3. Plurals of nouns ending in standard English in–st, -sp, and –sk are often formed
on the pattern of class:classesrather than of clasp:clasps. For example, the plural
ofdeskcan bedesses.
4. The nasalization of vowels before nasal consonants and the subsequent loss of the consonant.
Meanwhile, the grammatical differences between BVE and other forms of English are:
1. Many black speakers do not have –s in third-person singular present tense forms. Therefore, we might find the forms ashe go,it come, orshe like.
2. The absence of copula—the verb to be—in the present tense, e.g.She real nice,
They out there, etc.
3. The use of the formbeas a finite verb form, e.g. He usually be around,Sometime
she be fighting, etc.
4. The use of double negatives, e.g. ‘cause you ain’t goin’ to no heaven.
c. Language and Geography
According to Baugh and Cable in A History of the English Language, certain
features of pronunciation characteristic of New England and others which are associated with many parts of the South can be easily recognized, and those dialects in American English are being distinguished into main three main dialects—the New England dialect, the Southern dialect, and General American. General American here means the dialect of all the rest of the country (Baugh & Cable, 1978: 368).
In 1949 there was a study on the basis of lexical evidence,A Word Geography
of the Eastern United States, done by Hans Kurath (Baugh & Cable, 1978: 369).
Kurath distinguished eighteen speech areas, which he grouped into three main groups: Northern, Midland, and Southern. Within those three areas, six regional dialects in the eastern half of the country are said to be prominent enough to warrant individual characterization. They are:
1. Eastern New England
This area includes the whole or parts of states that lie to the east of the Connecticut River in Massachusetts and Connecticut and east of the Green Mountains in Vermont. The recognizable characteristic is the retention of a rounded vowel in words like hot and top, which the rest of the country has unrounded to a shortened
form of theαinfather. Another characteristic is the lost of r incar, hard, etc.
2. New York City
pronunciation of curl like coil and third as thoid, and the pronunciation of cot and
caughtare phonemically contrasted [kat, kOt].
3. Inland Northern
This area includes western New England, upstate New York, and the basin of the Great Lakes. Like the speech of eastern New England, Inland Northern distinguishes [o] in words likemourning andhoarsefrommorning andhorse. It also has regularly
in with, [s] in grease (verb), and [U] in roots. The speech of the Inland Northern
region differs strikingly form that of the eastern New England in its retention of postvocalic [r] and in the occurrence of the vowel [æ] in words like ask, it is
necessary to separate these two subareas of Northern. 4. North Midland
Similar to Inland Northern, “the North Midland dialect preserves the r in all positions and has [æ] in fast, ask, grass, etc.” (Baugh & Cable, 1978: 372). One of the two major subareas of this region is the Middle Atlantic which includes the eastern third of Pennsylvania below the Northern-Midland line, the southern half of New Jersey, the northern half of Delaware, and the adjacent parts of Maryland. The characteristics of this subarea are the unrounded vowel inforest,hot; the [є] of eggin
care, Mary, merry; and merging of [o] and [ә] before [r] in fourandforty. Moreover,
5. South Midland (Mid Southern)
This area includes all of West Virginia except the counties bordering on Pennsylvania and Maryland, the mountain regions of Virginia and North Carolina, most Kentucky and Tennessee, with a small portion of the states to the north and the south. The special feature of this dialect is [aI] is generally pronounced as [aє], or [aә] in the southern part of the area. Some dialectologists consider the dialect of this area as a variety of Southern rather than a Midland type.
6. Southern
The Southern dialect can be found easily in the old plantation country. Some important areas are the Virginia Piedmont and the low country near the coast of South Carolina. Similar to eastern New England, we might find the loss of final r and before consonant as incar and hard, but it tends to go further and omit the r before a word
beginning with a vowel as infar away[fa:ә’we]. The Southern dialect does not have
rounded vowel as intopandhot, or the broadaingrassanddance.
A distinctive feature of the Southern dialect is the treatment of the diphthong in
out. Instead of the usual [aU] the Southern speaker begins this diphthong with [æ]
before voiced consonants and finally, while in Virginia and South Carolina this diphthong takes the form [әU, AU] before voiceless consonants (Baugh & Cable,
1978: 373-374).
Moreover, a special characteristic of this type is the so-called Southern drawl, which is not only a matter of slower enunciation, but also involves a diphthongization or double diphthongization of stressed vowels. For example, yes becomes [jєIs] or
likely to suffer from a weakened articulation:las’, kep’, fin’,etc. for last, kept, find”
(Baugh & Cable, 1978: 374). As in New York City, the words third and curl are
pronounced as [ӨAId] and [kAIl] around New Orleans and Charleston, a pattern which
may be phonologically related to certain other diphthongizations in the Southern drawl. Finally, “many speakers pronounceTuesdayandduty with a glide [tjus-, dju-]
and in much of the homonomy of mid front vowels before nasals is general.” Therefore, there is no distinction between the words pin and pen (Baugh & Cable,
1978: 374).
Besides the six types of dialect mentioned above, Baugh and Cable also add two more, namely General American and Black English. Both varieties are
controversial and unlike the others discussed above in not directly reflecting geographical patterns of migration and settlement (Baugh & Cable, 1978: 374). Furthermore, it is said that general American is widely accepted as one of the three main dialects of American English, along with New England and Southern. It is characterized by the flata(fast, path,etc.), the unrounded vowel in hot, top, etc., the
retention of a strong r in all positions, and less tendency than British English to
introduce a glide after the vowels [e] and [O], late, note. While Black English, also
called as Black English vernacular, has been “one of the most intensively studied
English is mainly found in the South area, since many blacks lived and worked as slaves in these old plantation areas decades ago.
D. Theoretical Framework
All the theories cited above will help the writer in analyzing and solving the problems formulated in Chapter I. To answer the first problem, the writer will use the theories of character and characterization to find out who the characters are in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Some sources about character and
characterization are taken from E. Van De Larr and N. Schoonderwoerd’s An
Approach to English Literature(1969), Sunaryono Koesnosoebroto’sThe Anatomy of Prose Fiction (1988), and Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs’ Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing (1989). Those theories will help the writer in
analyzing and finding out the characters in the novel.
It is presented quite clearly by Larr and Schoonderwoerd in An Approach to
English Literature(1969) about the definition of character which we usually find in a
Then, the writer will go further to the second problem about the dialect spoken by each character. The theories on language, dialects and varieties, and also the dialects spoken in the USA will be applied in answering this problem. First, the writer is going to use some books related to the theories on language and dialects, namely An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (1992) by Ronald Wardhaugh,
Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society(1983) by Peter Trudgill, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (2001) by Janet Holmes, A Practical English Grammar (1986) by Thompson and Martinet and A Communicative Grammar of English(1975) by Leech and Svartvik. Second, some sources related to the dialects
spoken in the USA will be taken from internet (www.pandora.cii.wwu.edu/2007). Next, those theories above will be applied to answer the second problem on what dialects are used by each character.
In the process of answering the second problem, the writer will also pay attention to the definitions on language and dialect. It is important to understand clearly about the difference between language and dialect. The definition on regional and social dialects will also be presented in this part. Further, the description on dialects spoken in the USA which is taken from an internet site (www.pandora.cii.wwu.edu) will help the writer in understanding and differentiating the speech of each character in Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It is
Moreover, the writer will use the theories on the relationships between language and society in solving the last problem, which is what social background reflected from the dialect used by each character in the novel. Some sources that will be used in this part are Trudgill’sSociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and
Society (1983), Language and Society (1955) by Joseph Bram, An Introduction to Language and Society(1986) by Martin Montgomery, and A History of the English Language(1978) by Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable.
In Trudgill’s Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society
This chapter is divided into two parts. They are Object of the Study and Method of the Study. The first part, Object of the Study, describes the object or data of the literary work that is used in this analysis. Then, the ways or steps taken in analyzing the work are described in the second part, Method of the Study.
E. Object of the Study
The primary source of this study is a novel by Mark Twain, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. This novel was claimed as one of the greatest American novels,
and also the most important novel of the American nineteenth century since it gives clear description about the life of American society at that time. It was also one of the first major American novels ever written using Local Color Realism, or the African vernacular speech (http://www.wikipedia. com/the_adventures_of_huckleberry_finn. htm/2007).
As in the Introduction written by Peter Coveney, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn is a novel about freedom and integrity (TAHF: 15). Ernest
Hemingway considers Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as the greatest
work, inThe Green Hills of Africa, as he says:
All modern American literature comes from by one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn…There was nothing before. There had been nothing as good since (http://www.geocities.com/huckleberryfinn.htm/2007).
Mark Twain first began to write this novel in 1876 and finished it in 1884. It took him seven years to finish this story as he called it as ‘a kind of companion to
Tom Sawyer’. The novel, which consists of forty-three chapters, was first published
in London in 1884 with its 174 illustrations by the Chatto and Windus Inc,. In New York, this literary work was released by the Charles L. Webster and Co. and consists of 366 pages and 175 illustrations. Then it was published again by the Penguin Books in 1966 completed with an Introduction by Peter Coveney. It was also adapted later for stage performance and films. Moreover, the writer is going to use the novel which was published by the Penguin Books in 1966 as the primary source in her study.
The objects of this study are the English varieties which were spoken by the main characters in this novel. There are three main characters being analyzed in this study. They are Huckleberry Finn, the runaway slave Jim, and Huck’s best friend Tom Sawyer. Further, the utterances are taken from the first ten chapters of the novel. The reason for choosing the first ten chapters is there are many utterances spoken by the three main characters in those chapters. In the writer’s opinion, the first ten chapters are enough to analyze the dialects spoken by the main characters. Moreover, an author usually describes his or her characters in the beginning of the story.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a story about a young boy who runs
is told that Jim is a free man for two months already, when Miss Watson, his owner, dies and frees him in her will. Meanwhile, Huck chooses to continue his journey to Indian territory.
F. Method of the Study
In finishing the study, the writer did the library research as the method of gathering the sources in this study. There are two types of source that are used in this study, namely the primary and secondary sources. The primary source is the novel
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain, and the data were
collected from the utterances produced by the characters in the novel. The secondary sources are some books, which discussed theories on character and characterization, language and dialects, dialects spoken in the USA, and the relationships between language and society. To have more sources, the writer also took some further information from the internet.
In doing this research, some steps were taken by the writer. First, the writer read and reread the novel. By reading and rereading the novel, the writer hoped to get more information as well as specific data inside the novel. The more information or data got from the story would make the writer much easier in doing the analysis.
Approach to English Literature (1969) by E. Van De Larr and N. Schoonderwoerd, The Anatomy of Prose Fiction (1988) by Sunaryono Koesnosoebroto, Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing (1989) by Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E.
Jacobs.
As the next step, the writer collected the data from the primary source. The data were taken from the utterances produced by the main characters in Twain’sThe
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. During the process, the writer collected all the
utterances of the three main characters and then put them in a list. Further, the writer put them into groups based on the ‘who spoke to whom’ way. Next, the writer made a deep analysis on the speech of each character.
In this part, the analysis was based on some books related to the theories on language and dialect, namely An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (1992) by Ronald
Wardhaugh, Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society (1983) by
Peter Trudgill, and An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (2001) by Janet Holmes.
Moreover, some books on English grammar were used to get the information about the characteristics of Standard English. They were Thompson and Martinet’s A
Practical English Grammar (1986) and A Communicative Grammar of English
Furthermore, some sources related to the dialects spoken in the USA were taken from internet (www.pandora.cii.wwu.edu/2007). Those theories above played important role in this study, since it was not an easy task for the writer to analyze and differentiate the speech of each character in the novel. By seeing the result of the analysis on the linguistic features (phonological, lexical, and grammatical features), then the writer answered the second problem on what dialects are used by each character.
The last part of theories related to the relationships between language and society were applied to solve the last problem. They were taken from Trudgill’s
Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society (1983), Language and Society (1955) by Joseph Bram,An Introduction to Language and Society (1986) by
Martin Montgomery and A History of the English Language (1978) by Albert C.
Baugh and Thomas Cable. Then, the writer used those theories in analyzing the third problem, what social background reflected from the dialect used by each character in the novel. Those secondary sources were chosen in doing this research since they contained some facts that would help the writer in finishing her thesis analysis. For instance, we could find the difference between the speeches of Southern and Northern people by using Baugh and Cable’s theory on six regional dialects of the Eastern half area of the USA
This chapter is divided into three parts. In the first part, the writer will answer the first problem formulation, which is who the main characters are found in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the second part, the writer will
analyze the speech spoken by those main characters in the novel. In the third part, the writer will discuss about what social background can be reflected from the dialects used by each main character in Twain’sThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
A. The Main Characters in Mark Twain’sThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
As stated before in Chapter Two, characters are one of the most important elements in a fiction. They can be the images recreated by an author by seeing the people in an actual life (Laar and Schoonderwoerd, 1969: 165-171). There are two types of character, the major or main character and the minor character (Koesnosoebroto, 1988:67). The major or main character is the character which becomes the centre of a story. The plot of a story is mostly about the life of the main character. In a novel, we can have not only one main character, but also more than one. In this part, the writer will analyze the main characters found in the novel.
As in Mark Twain’sThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there are three main
characters. They are Huckleberry Finn, Jim, and Tom Sawyer. Here, the writer will
try to describe them one by one. The writer will also provide the number of utterances produced by each main character.
1. Huckleberry Finn
Huckleberry Finn, or Huck, is the narrator of this novel. He is a thirteen-year-old boy who lives in St. Petersburg, Missouri. He has a drunk and cruel father who dislikes any of the luck got by his son. In Twain’s earlier book The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer, Huck is said to be homeless and dirty. In the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he is tried to be civilized by Widow Douglas and
her sister, Miss Watson. He is taught to say prayer before eating, and also sent to a school to learn spelling, reading, and writing. However, all these things do not last longer when Huck’s Pap appears. Later, his journey begins when he escapes from his father and on the way he meets Jim, Miss Watson’s runaway slave.
In the first ten chapters of the novel, Huck produces forty-five utterances, which directed to Tom, Jim, Pap, and Judge Thatcher (See Appendix, page 66-69). Jim is the most frequent person whom Huck talks to.
2. Jim
superstitious, has to face hard time along the journey since he is convicted as Huck’s murderer and named after two hundred dollars for those who can get him. There is a strong friendship created between Huck and Jim along the journey, and it can be seen on how hard Huck tried to protect his friend from being captured.
By the first ten chapters of the novel, there are about thirty-nine utterances produced by Jim. Among these utterances, about thirty-seven are directed to Huck (See Appendix, page 69-76).
3. Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer is Huck’s best friend and at the same age with Huck. He is the protagonist of Mark Twain’s earlier novel called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Unlike Huck, Tom is raised in a quite comfortable family in St. Petersburg, Missouri. It is his unusual imaginative way of thinking created from reading romance and adventure novel that gives him the idea of ‘playing robbery’. In the gang of those boys, he is considered as the leader and being admired by the other boys. In Twain’s
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom appears in the beginning of the novel,
specifically in the second and third chapter. Then, he appears again in middle of the story in the thirty-third chapter.
To sum up the utterances produced by the three characters above, a table is provided below in order to see the relevancy between the speeches of Huck, Jim and Tom which spreads in the first ten chapters.
Whom Who
Huck Jim Tom Others Total
Huck - 26 5 10 (to Pap)
4 (to Judge Thatcher)
45
Jim 37 - - 2 39
Tom 6 - - 11 (to boys of
His gang) 17
Though the most frequent conversation happened between Huck and Jim, the analysis could still be done on Tom’s speeches. Seventeen utterances are considered enough in analyzing Tom’s speech style.
B. Speech of Huck, Jim and Tom
1. Speech of Huck
From the forty-five utterances produced by Huck, there are some special characteristics which unlike the characteristics of Standard English.
a. The Loss of Vocal or Consonant Sound
The loss of either vocal or consonant in some words as can be seen in the table below.
Table 1.1 Huck’s Consonant or Vocal Sound Dropping The Words Consonant or Vocal
Sound Dropping The Frequency
Instead ‘stead 1
Let’s Le’s 2
Suppose S’pose 1
Them ‘em 1
Total 5
As seen in the table above, the loss of either consonant or vocal sound in Huck’s speech occurs only in few words. As the analysis, the consonant or vocal sound dropping in Huck’s speech, especially in the wordthem, occurs unintentionally
since the same word found in the Huck’s other utterances is pronounced in the proper way. For example, the word them is pronounced repeatedly by Huck in the proper
way when he talks to Tom Sawyer (See Appendix, page 65).
b. The Use of The WordAin’t or Hain’t
In the following table, the writer presents the occurrence of the word such as
Table 1.2 Huck’s Use of WordsAin’torHain’t
The Words The Frequency
Ain’t 6
Hain’t 3
Total 9
Based on the theory of migration in The Dialects of American English
(www.pandora.cii.wwu.edu/2007), the use of the word ain’torhain’tis found in the
Southern dialects, American Tidewater speech, and Black English. Hence, the occurrence of the wordain’torhain’tin Huck’ speech can be treated as one effect of
the Southern dialect characteristics. People who use these words instead of the standardisn’torhasn’tare considered as the lowest class in English speaking society,
since they are avoided by the upper class (www.pandora.cii.wwu.edu/2007).
c. The Retention of Preposition in Progressive Aspect
The retention of a preposition in the progressive aspect causes the wordgoing
become agoing. Some of Huck’s speech characteristics above can be seen in the
following speech:
‘Well, I did. I said I wouldn’t and I’ll stick to it. Honest injun I will. People
would call me a low down Ablitionist and despise me for keeping mum—but that don’t make no difference. I ain’t agoing to tell, and I ain’tagoing back
there anyways. So now, le’s know all about it.’ (TAHF, page 96)
writer can not judge this phenomenon as a special characteristic of Huck’s speech. According to Holmes (Holmes, 2001: 127), this characteristic is found in the rural Appalachians. In The Dialects of American English, this characteristic can also be
found in the Scottish-Irish dialects and the backwoods or highland Southern dialects (www.pandora.cii.wwu.edu/2007).
d. The Use of Double Negatives
Table 1.3 Huck’s Use of Double Negatives
The Double Negative Forms The Frequency
Ain’t you had nothing 1 Don’t make no difference 1 So you ain’t had no meat nor bread 1 I wouldn’t to be nowhere else 1 Nobody never told her 1 I hain’t got no money 2 Don’t you ask me no questions 1 And don’t ask me nothing 1 I won’t have to tell no lies 1
Total 10
The use of double negatives in the speech of Huck occurs quite frequently. Therefore, it can be treated as one of Huck’s speech characteristics. As stated inThe
Dialects of American English, the using of double negatives is found in the Southern
By viewing this characteristic, the writer concludes that Huck uses the non-standard English in his daily conversation. As the non-standard language is usually taught in the school or formal institution, then Huck can be considered to be lack of formal education during his childhood.
2. Speech of Jim
Below are some phonological characteristics found in the thirty-nine utterances produced by Jim.
a. The Loss of the /r/ Sound
Table 2.1 Jim’s Middle Sound /r/ Dropping
The Words Middle /r/ Sound Dropping The Frequency
Considerable Considable 3
First Fust 3
Fourteen Foteen 1
From Fum 1
Hundred Hund’d 4
Pretty Pooty 3
Through Thoo 1
Worth Wuth 1
Yourself Yo’self 1
Table 2.2 Jim’s Final /r/ Sound Dropping
The Words Final /r/ Sound Dropping The Frequency
After Aft 1
Ashore Asho’ 1
Door Do’ 2
Four Fo’ 3
Here Heah 2
More Mo’ 7
Poor Po’ 5
Shore Sho’ 2
There Dah 4
There Dey 10
Your Yo’ 6
Total 42
As seen in two tables above, the loss of the /r/ sound occurs frequently in the speech of Jim in either middle or final position. According to Trudgill, the loss of the /r/ sound is considered as one of phonological characteristics of Black Vernacular English, an English variety spoken by Black people (Trudgill, 1983:61-62). Therefore, it can be a clue that Jim speaks the Black English.
b. The Loss of Final Consonant Sound
Table 2.3 Jim’s Final Consonant Sound Dropping
According to The Dialects of American English, the loss of final consonant
people in the Southern areas, Tidewater speech and Black English. The same thing also presented by Baugh and Cable in their booksA History of the English Language
(Baugh and Cable, 1978: 374). Hence, the loss of final consonant in the speech of Jim is considered as the influence of both Southern dialect and Black English.
c. The Change of Consonant or Vocal Sound
In the speech of Jim, there are some words that experience the consonant or vocal changing.
According to Holmes, the pronunciation of the words like acrost, chanst,
wunst, and wisht can be found in the rural Appalachians, which are a part of the
Southern areas (Holmes, 2001: 127). Moreover, the changing of the sound or into consonant d is another special characteristic of the Black English as stated in Trudgill’s Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Societys (Trudgill,
1983:61-62).
Table 2.5 Jim’s Vocal Sound Changing
In some cases, the changing, either consonant or vocal, does not occur systematically. For example, the word than and that might experience either
consonant changing (den, dat) or consonant dropping process (See Table 2.6).
background. Moreover, the words such asafraid, always are not changed only in the
vocal sound, but also in the consonant sound (afeard, awluz).
d. The Loss of Initial or Middle Consonant Sound
The loss of consonant sound in the initial or middle position in Jim’s speech can be seen in the table below.
Table 2.6a Jim’s Initial Consonant Sound Dropping The Words Consonant
Table 2.6b Jim’s Middle Consonant Sound Dropping The Words Consonant
As seen in the table above, Jim also frequently drops a consonant in certain words. Similar to the previous part, the consonant dropping in Jim’s speech occurs in a disorganized way. For example, the word them is pronounced as ‘em in some
places, but it is also pronounced as‘um by Jim in another place. Another example is
e. The Loss of Vocal Sound
The vocal sound dropping in either the initial or middle position in Jim’s speech can be seen in the words listed in the following table.
Table 2.7a Jim’s Initial Vocal Sound Dropping Initial Vocal Dropping
Table 2.7b Jim’s Middle Vocal Sound Dropping Middle Vocal Dropping
As seen in the table above, the dropping of vocal sound usually occurs in the unstressed syllables. For example, the wordaboutis pronounced as‘bout. The writer
f. The Change of the velar –nginto the alveolar –n.
As stated in The Dialects of American English, the change of the velar –ng
into the alveolar –n is one special feature that can be found in the Southern dialects and Black English (www.pandora.cii.wwu.edu/2007). This characteristic is found in the verbs with suffix –ing produced by Jim. However, there are also some nouns
which experience this phenomenon, such ascamp-meetn’, mawnin’, evenin’, etc. The
next table contains those words changed from the –ng into the –n sound, which are
found in the speech of Jim.
Table 2.8 Jim’s Velar Sound Changing The words Velar Sound
a. The Use of Double Negatives
The use of double negatives can be easily found in the speech of Jim. There are some negative sentences produced by Jim contain double negatives. Some examples are presented in the table below.
Table 2.9 Jim’s Use of Double Negatives
The Use of Double Negatives The Use of Standard Negative I hain’t ever donenoharm to a ghos’ I hain’t ever done harm to a ghos’
En doan’ donuffnto Ole Jim En doan’ do something to Ole Jim
I couldn’ gitnuffnelse I couldn’ git something else
It doan’ makenotrack It doan’ make track
But I didn’ havenoluck But I didn’ have luck
I see it warn’tnouse fer to wait I see it warn’t use fer to wait
An’ dey ain’nouse to a body An’ dey ain’ use to a body
But I ain’ gwyne to resknomore money But I ain’ gywne to resk more money
Dey didn’ none uv us gitnomoney Dey didn’ none uv us git money
I ain’ gywne to len’nomo’ money I ain’ gywne to len’ mo’ money
I wouldn’ wantnomo’ I wouldn’ want mo’
The occurrence of double negatives is usually found in the speech of Black people. It has considered as one of special features of the Southern dialects and the Black English (Trudgill, 1983:61-62). Therefore, the use of double negatives in Jim’s speech is absolutely the influence of the dialects spoken by the Blacks or those live in Southern areas.
b. The Use of the WordsAin’tandHain’t
In the speech of Jim, he uses the word such as ain’t, hain’t to substitute the
standard forms of English negativesis not, has not. It can be seen in the table below
Table 2.10 Jim’s Use of the WordAin’tandHain’t
The Use ofAin’tandHain’t
Ihain’tever done no harm to a ghos’
But you got a gun,hain’tyou?
I ‘uz powerful sorry you’s killed, Huck, but Iain’t
no mo’
an’ deyain’no use to a body
But Iain’gwyne to resk no mo’ money in stock
Iain’gwyne to len’ no mo’ money ‘dout I see de
security
De manain’tasleep
Similar to the speech of Huck, the occurrence of the words suchain’t, hain’t
in Jim’s speech can be treated as the characteristic of the Southern dialects and Black English. Moreover, the occurrence of those words in Jim’s speech can be considered as a part of the speech of the lower class society.
c. The Improper Use of the Be Form
Table 2.11 Jim’s Improper Use of theBeForm
The Improper Use ofBeForm The Standard Use ofBeForm
Whoisyou? Whoareyou?
Wharisyou? Wharareyou?
I knows whatI’sgwyne to do I knows what Iamgwyne to do Dey’s two angels hoverin’ roun’ ‘bout
him
Dey are two angels hoverin’ roun’ ‘bout
him
Which one gwyne to fetch him at de las’ Which one is gwyne to fetch him at de
las’
But youisall right But youareall right
You’sgwyne to git well agin You’regwyne to git well agin
Datyou’sgwyne to git hung Datyou’regwyne to git hung
I come heah de night arteryou’skilled I come heah de night arteryou’vekilled
How long you ben on de island’? How longhaveyou ben on de island’?
Well,dey’sreasons Well, deyarereasons
En de do’warn’tquite shet En de do’wasn’tquite shet
But deywuzpeople a-stirrin’ yit But deywerepeople a-stirrin yet
How yo’ pap come over to de town en sayyou’skilled
How yo’ pap come over to de town en sayyou’vekilled
I ‘uz hungry, but Iwarn’tafeard I ‘uz hungry, but Iwasn’tafeard
I’d made up my mind ‘bout what I’s
gwyne to do I’d made up my mind ‘bout what Igwyne to do am De men‘uzall ‘way yonder in de middle De men were all ‘way yonder in de
middle
How you gwyne to git’m? Howareyou gwyne to git’m?
En Iwarn’t gwyne to show myself on de
bank in de daytime En Ibank in de daytimewasn’t gwyne to show myself on de I knowed deywasarter you I knowed deywerearter you
Efyou’sgot hairy arms en a hairy breas’,
it’s a sign datyou’sagwyne to be rich
Ef you’ve got hairy arms en a hairy
breas’, it’s a sign datyou’reagwyne to be
rich
