Their Eyes Were Watching GodName______Understanding Vernacular Language

I. Vernacular Language:Using a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary, cultured, or foreign language.

Books/films with vernacular language

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Effect of/purpose for vernacular language?

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II. Their Eyes Were Watching God

Context: The main character getting ready to tell her story to her best friend. “So ‘tain’t no use in me telling you somethin’ unless Ah give you de understandin’ to go ‘long wid it. Unless you see de fur, a mink skin ain’t no different from a coon hide.”
Word for Word Translation: So it isn’t any use in my telling you something unless I give you the understanding to go along with it. Unless you see the fur, a mink skin isn’t any different from a raccoon hide.
More Accurate Translation: I need to do more than just tell the story. I need to help you really understand it. A story is like animal skin-- unless you can actually see the fur (understand the story), animal skins (stories) are all the same.
Context: After a character is served some food, she says to the cook, “Gal, it’s too good! You switches a mean fanny round in a kitchen.”
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Context: A friend tells another friend that she doesn’t mind if the friend tells her story for her. “You can tell ‘em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat’s just de same as me ‘cause mah tongue is in mah friend’s mouf.”
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Context: A group of gossips are talking about a woman who has recently returned to town after an affair. “She sits high, but she looks low. Dat’s what Ah say ‘bout dese ole women runnin’ after young boys.”
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Context: The woman returns to her town and complains about gossips: “Mose of dese zigaboos is so het up over yo’ business till they liable to hurry theyself to Judgment to find out about you if they don’t soon know.”
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IV. Considering 1) what you know of your own and other writer’s uses of the vernacular AND 2) what you can observe from the examples from the novel we will read, WHY might Hurston have her characters speak in the vernacular?

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