forwarded query and more:
>>> "Marilyn Ohlsson" <[log in to unmask]> 04/03/01 06:28PM >>>
Hi!
I'm a "lurker" on the Twain web. I teach at a small high school in
California's Central Valley. Since my students are second-language
learners, I read dialect portions aloud in Huck Finn when I can see it will
pose a challenge to the readers. However, I'm only doing the best I can.
I'm looking for ways to perfect my oral reading of these passages. Can you
offer any advice for training? One of the passages that gives me fits is
when Old Mrs. Hotchkiss gets going with her s'I business. Obviously, it's
short for "says I" but I have never heard anyone use this, so it's very
difficult for me to imagine. It's been a heart's desire of mine to see Huck
Finn on tape as sort of a reader's theater with absolutely authentic voices
and dialects. Has such an endeavor ever been undertaken? Until this
happens, I would like to hone my own skills.
I would greatly appreciate a response. I tried once to post a query through
the list group, but I reckon I didn't have the proper credentials!
Marilyn Ohlsson
Livingston High School
Livingston, CA
******************
David Carkeet, in a note in American Literary Realism, Spring 1981, pp.
90-92, argues convincingly that the language of Mrs. Hotchkiss and the other
sisters was based on a short story by Joel Chandler Harris (Uncle Remus),
published in the Atlantic in the summer Twain was finishing Huck Finn. So
Twain may actually switch to Harris's Georgia dialect while the location
remains in the Mississippi Valley.
Authentic voice? Keep looking, but good luck. It brings to mind the
supposedly true story of the reporter who went to Cairo, Illinois, to learn
the authentic pronunciation of the city's name. He looked up an old-timer
who assured him that it's pronounced "KAA-RO, like the syrup". Satisfied,
the reporter prepared to leave town. Before he left, however, he happened
upon another old-timer, and he decided to ask the same question of him. The
response:
"KI-RO, like the syrup".
thanks, Larry
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