Language Insights from Netflix

Dialects!  I love them.  But sometimes dialects get a bad rap by those who draw a sharp line between dialects and languages.  Dialects are variations in language.  A noted modern linguist, John McWhorter, suggests that all we truly have are dialects, because everyone speaks a dialect of some type. But our natural tendency is to think that our own dialect is much superior to everyone else's, 

English Dialects

I began thinking about dialects while watching our recent favorite Netflix series, "Republic of Doyle," which is set in St. John's, Newfoundland.  I am a sucker for anything filmed in a foreign location.  This series has not disappointed me, with its seaside location and brightly colored buildings.  But the most intriguing cultural element has been the use of an English St. John's dialect by certain characters in the episodes. (Well, one of the main characters, the private investigator Jack Doyle, is fairly intriguing even when he isn't speaking, I must admit.)

Jake Doyle

I began noticing that the series characters have a slightly different twist on the English language in certain situations.  For example, Malachy, Jake's father and fellow private investigator, sometimes uses the objective pronoun "me" in place of  the possessive pronoun "my" (as in "I lost me cell phone")  when speaking informally, mostly to other family members.

Malachy Doyle

And I kept hearing a word at the end of their sentences that sounded like "boy." Closed captioning transcribed the word as "b'y," and I heard it used to refer to both sexes.  The word "dude" seems to be an American equivalent, being used for both sexes as well.

A recent story line on the series has a policewoman, Leslie Bennett, (and romantic interest for Jake) going undercover to catch a drug dealer.

Leslie Bennett

This clean cut, serious office of the law, changes her appearance dramatically to fit the character. She begins working in a bar, living in a small, messy apartment, and dressing in a provocative manner, using lots of makeup.  But most interesting of all, Leslie adapts her language to fit the undercover character.  The most noticeable element of Leslie's language change is her constant addition of "s" on the end of all of her present tense verbs.  "I knows how we can meet Mr. Big."  brags Leslie.

The Newfoundland dialect is much more complex than is depicted on the Netflix series, containing elements of, among other languages, Irish, West Country English, and French.  The writers of the series have selected a more standard Canadian accent with a few elements of the local dialect thrown in for authenticity.  I am grateful for that decision, because I would have a hard time with understanding if the series language were like the following:

Often the label of dialect is pinned on a language as a pejorative term, meaning "my language variety is better than your language variety." But I view dialects as an essential element to express cultural identity. In last night's episode of "Republic of Doyle," a visitor to St. John's was trying to act cool by saying something like, "How about a pint, b'y?"  Jake replied, "You can't use b'y.  You aren't from St. John's."

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Or not?

The well-known saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do,"  encourages visitors to adapt to local culture, customs and behaviors.  But is speaking the language of a different country or region part of that advice?  At first glance, I would be tempted to say "yes" because language is an essential part of culture.  But being addicted to foreign language study, I can attest that attempting to speak a foreign language to native speakers is often less than successful.

One of my earliest realizations that native speakers of a language are not necessarily volunteer language teachers occurred in Lisbon, Portugal, where I had enrolled in a Portuguese language school.  I set out confidently the morning after my arrival to find a cup of coffee.

The harried lady behind the coffee counter had to ask twice for my order because my Portuguese accent was not what she was used to hearing.  Then as we were discussing the milk, I became confused about the grammatical gender of milk in Portuguese. (The confusion arose because the word for milk is feminine in Spanish but masculine in Portuguese.)  So I asked the server if the correct word was "o leite" (with a masculine article) or "a leite" (with a feminine article). By now, she was completely confused and quite annoyed. Resorting to gestures, she pointed at the milk jar on the table behind me, shaking her head at the ignorance of tourists.

I had an important ah-ha moment in that small coffee bar.  My goal in using the native language and the server's goals were completely different.  She wanted, quite understandably,  to complete my order as quickly and efficiently as possible.  After all, customers were waiting in line.  I was completely focused on learning more of the Portuguese language.  Small wonder that my first attempt at communication in Lisbon was less than pleasant!

That long ago incident recently came to mind when I read a letter to Dear Abby in the El Paso Times dated September 5, 2016. 

A retired librarian in Texas (white, non-Hispanic) who speaks four languages wrote that a Hispanic friend had advised caution when choosing to speak Spanish to Hispanics. The writer confirmed the advice with a retired college-level Spanish teacher, who explained that languages are often used by speakers as a boundary to identify group members.

Having lived my entire life in El Paso, Texas, a bilingual English-Spanish city, and having had both positive and negative experiences speaking Spanish in my home town, I can affirm, speaking of language choice, that "It's complicated!"  And, I must admit that every time I choose to speak Spanish, I am hoping to get a mini-Spanish lesson, not just communicate or fit into the environment.

I will face a similar decision in Canada about use of the French language when my husband and I take The Canadian, a long-distance train across that country.  My guess is that all of the train employees will be bilingual in English-French, so attempting to use my fairly rudimentary French (along with my American accent!) seems counterproductive.  But maybe I will by chance run into a retired French teacher in the lounge car who really, really likes to discuss in detail the French partitive construction....