Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The use of nonstandard spellings, such as enuff for enough or wuz for was, to indicate that the speaker is uneducated or using colloquial, dialectal, or nonstandard speech.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable The deliberate use of nonstandard spellings to indicate that the speaker uses a nonstandard or dialectal speech, even though the spelling is pronounced the same way as the original word.
- n. this sense?) (uncountable) The written representations of dialect speech in which words are spelled in a manner which indicates a non-standard pronunciation.
- n. countable A set of such nonstandard spellings, collectively used to reflect a certain form of speech.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the use of misspellings to identify a colloquial or uneducated speaker
Etymologies
- From eye + dialect. First used by George P. Krapp in The English Language in America (1925) in reference to written dialogue that uses nonstandard spelling but doesn't indicate an unusual pronunciation. (Wiktionary)
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘eye dialect’.
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Eye Dialect
eye dialect, lessee, coinkydink, wuz, yod, zay, ze, yerb, yellocute, moider, heah, loike and 17 more...
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A spoonful of sugar
Words I should learn/I want to learn/I just learned, with a quotation to help the medicine go down.
approbation, assuage, chicanery, abscond, effrontery, enervation, equivocate, ennui, aftertaste, filibuster, perfunctory, abide and 391 more...
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Linguistic Terms
eye dialect, pugnacious, portmanteau, sesquipedalian, vocative, ghost word, pyrrhic, subjunctive, surd
Tweets
Looking for tweets for eye dialect.
rolig Is "eye dialect" pronouncing words the way they are spelled (like coinkidink or spelling words the way they are pronounced (like wanna). I think it's the latter.
I think the origins of the term lie in attempts to convey something perceived as "dialect" in writing, especially attempts in the 19th century to convey forms of English associated with minorities (African Americans, South Asians, Chinese), with the result that certain spellings became emblematic of illiteracy, naivety, etc. The idea was to find a visual representation of oral non-standard speech, hence "eye dialect." Jun 7, 2011
sionnach Even after bouncing around over on Wiktionary, I'm not entirely sure I understand this term correctly. There is a lack of examples. Would writing "coff" for "cough" be considered an example of "eye dialect".
*Coffs nervously, feeling stewpid, hoping that someone will provide further clarification* Jun 7, 2011
ruzuzu I ask because according to Wikitionary's usage notes, "The term eye dialect may have a negative connotation; pronunciation spelling, respelling, or pronunciation respelling may be considered more neutral." Jan 10, 2011
ruzuzu What's the etymology for this? Dec 1, 2010