Literary notes about Dialect (AI summary)
Literary works employ the term "dialect" to evoke regional color, signal social identity, or stress historical authenticity in a text. Authors often let characters speak in distinct linguistic forms—whether it is the Sicilian idiom that adds a lyrical charm to a narrative [1], the Venetian tone that recalls specific localities [2, 3], or even the Doric flavor present in ancient accounts [4, 5]. In some contexts, dialect also functions as a technical marker, differentiating refined literary language from everyday speech, as when a gentleman’s educated tone contrasts with more rustic, popular modes [6, 7]. Thus, across various genres and periods, dialect remains a multifaceted device that enriches storytelling by capturing the nuances of spoken language as it evolves with culture and time.
- It was this charming woman, who would never be more than a friend to me, who introduced me to the Abbé Melli's sweet poems in Sicilian dialect.
— from On Love by Stendhal - I accepted his invitation, and I found Christine as lovely as ever, and speaking the Venetian dialect like her husband.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - Thirty-two of her letters, dated between July 1779 and October 1787, written in the Venetian dialect, were preserved in the library at Dux.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - For this answer he banished him to Cinara 354 , suspecting that he taunted him with his former residence at Rhodes, where the Doric dialect is spoken.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius - The antient hymns, sung in the Prutaneia all over Greece, were [419] Doric: so sacred was their dialect esteemed.
— from A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume 1 (of 6) by Jacob Bryant - His dialect on all occasions is that of a gentleman, and a man of education.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 by Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb - The dialect of these speculations is now grown obsolete for us; but one still reads them with a singular attraction.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle
