The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #45639 Message #675462
Posted By: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
24-Mar-02 - 02:52 PM
Thread Name: Hans Breitmann Gife a Barty
Subject: RE: BS: Hans Breitman Gife a Barty
Here in Canada, a similar type of verse was written by a man named Drummond, using the French-Canadian ("By Gar!") dialect of the time. Now deemed politically incorrect and racist, it is no longer acceptable. Joel Chandler Harris and Roark Bradford wrote similar dialect tales based on Negro speech of the 19th C. and the pre-WWII period which now are condemmed. Some of of the Brer Rabbit tales by Harris survive in modified form but Bradford's "Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun," unfortunately, is outside the pale. It seems only the Scots (and others in the British Isles and Ireland) take delight in their native dialect or language and seek to preserve it.