Day 14. The Language of Brer Rabbit

So, two weeks into the Tales, and the summer officially began today! I've only got one more day before going to Austin, but I'll have some good procedures in place before I go so that I'll be ready to pick up and just run with it when I get back. I started taking notes on the Baer book (types, motifs, and parallels), plus standardizing the spelling on the Harris Brer Rabbit stories, as you can see here: Calamus Root.

Basically the idea is that in Harris's book, the stories are framed by Uncle Remus and the little boy (or someother storytelling framework); those are the versions you can find in Harris's books, which are available online. I've been removing the frame when I post the stories at the blog, like this: Calamus Root (original spelling). Now I'm going through those un-framed stories and standardizing the spelling, but in a way that I hope still conveys a good sense of the style. I'm not changing any of the grammar, but I am getting rid of the attempt to convey the pronunciation, aside from the use of apostrophes to mark missing final consonants, and the occasional apostrophe for a missing initial sound or, more rarely, inside a word Here's an example: Calamus Root.

These are the first two paragraphs side by side:

Bimeby, one day, atter Brer Fox bin doin' all dat he could fer ter ketch Brer Rabbit, en Brer Rabbit bein doin' all he could fer ter keep 'im fum it, Brer Fox say to hisse'f dat he'd put up a game on Brer Rabbit, en he ain't mo'n got de wuds out'n his mouf twel Brer Rabbit came a lopin' up de big road, lookin' des ez plump, en ez fat, en ez sassy ez a Moggin hoss in a barley-patch. 

By an' by, one day, after Brer Fox been doin' all that he could for to catch Brer Rabbit, an' Brer Rabbit been doin' all he could for to keep him from it, Brer Fox say to hisself that he'd put up a game on Brer Rabbit, an' he ain't mo' than got the words out of his mouth til Brer Rabbit came a lopin' up the big road, lookin' jus' as plump, an' as fat, an' as sassy as a Mo'gan hoss in a barley-patch.

I'm guessing I will get a better idea of how to do this as I keep on working through the stories, but so far, I am happy with this as something that will make the stories easier to read, but without completely losing the sense of language that Harris did work so hard to include in his renditions of the stories (the framing parts of the story are all in completely standard English; only the words of Uncle Remus and the other slaves appear in dialect). Eventually it might be useful to have a version in completely standard English, but at that point it might be better just to retell the story.

Anyway, I did Baer notes and standardized spelling for three stories today: Calamus Root, Tar Baby, and Tickling Possum. They were all so fun, and I'm excited to do a few more tomorrow.

(image source; colorized)