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Please translate the dialect into standard English

 
 
Reply Tue 28 Jun, 2011 06:26 am

I've failed to understand the words in bold.

Context:

Mammy, who was waiting just inside the door, gave her an inscrutable look and followed her, puffing, up the stairs to the bedroom. She was silent while she stripped off the wet clothes and hung them over chairs and tucked Scarlett into bed. When she had brought up a cup of hot tea and a hot brick, rolled in flannel, she looked down at Scarlett and said, with the nearest approach to an apology in her voice Scarlett had ever heard: “Lamb, huccome you din’ tell yo’ own Mammy whut you wuz upter? Den Ah wouldn’ had ter traipse all dis way up hyah ter ‘Lanta. Ah is too ole an’ too fat fer sech runnin’ roun’.”“What do you mean?”

“Honey, you kain fool me. Ah knows you. An’ Ah seed Mist’ Frank’s face jes’ now an’ Ah seed yo’ face, an’ Ah kin read yo’ mine lak a pahson read a Bible. An’ Ah heerd dat whisperin’ you wuz givin’ him ‘bout Miss Suellen. Effen Ah’d had a notion ‘twuz Mist’ Frank you wuz affer, Ah’d stayed home whar Ah b’longs.”

More:

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/mitchell/margaret/gone/chapter35.html
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oristarA
 
  1  
Reply Tue 28 Jun, 2011 06:37 am
My guess:

“Lamb, huccome you din’ tell yo’ own Mammy whut you wuz upter? Den Ah wouldn’ had ter traipse all dis way up hyah ter ‘Lanta. Ah is too ole an’ too fat fer sech runnin’ roun’.”“What do you mean?”

==>> "My lamb, how come you didn't tell your own Mom what you were up to? (Den?) I wouldn't have had to travel all this way up the Atalanta. I is too old and too fat for such running around." "What do you mean?"

“Honey, you kain fool me. Ah knows you. An’ Ah seed Mist’ Frank’s face jes’ now an’ Ah seed yo’ face, an’ Ah kin read yo’ mine lak a pahson read a Bible. An’ Ah heerd dat whisperin’ you wuz givin’ him ‘bout Miss Suellen. Effen Ah’d had a notion ‘twuz Mist’ Frank you wuz affer, Ah’d stayed home whar Ah b’longs.”

===>>> "Honey, you cannot fool me. I knows you. And I seed (saw) Mr. Frank's face just now and I seed your face, and I can read your mind like a person read a Bible. And I heard that whispering 'you was giving him about Miss Suellen. Often I'd had a notion 'twas Mr. Frank you was after. I'd stayed home where I belong."

Am I on the right track.
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Tue 28 Jun, 2011 06:40 am
@oristarA,
Lamb (a term of endearment), why didn't you (huccume you din'=how come you din'=why didn't you) tell your own Mammy (Mammy is dialect for mother, but in this case, a black woman who acts as surrogate mother, an amah, is called Mammy) what you were up to? (What you intended to do) Then i wouldn't have had to make difficult journey (traipse means to walk or travel with difficulty) all the way up here to Atlanta. I'm too old and too fat for such running around.

”Honey (a term of endearment), you can't fool me. I know you. And i saw Mr. Frank's face just now and i saw your face and I can read your mind like a parson (a religious minister) [can] read a Bible. And i hear that whispering you were giving him about Miss Suellen. (An awkward locution, properly speaking: And i heard you whispering to him about Miss Suellen.) If I'd have had a notion (an idea) that it was Mister Frank you were after, I'd have stayed (at) home where I belong.

Shorn of explanatory notes:

Lamb, why didn't you tell your own Mammy what you were up to? Then i wouldn't have had to make difficult journey all the way up here to Atlanta. I'm too old and too fat for such running around.

Honey, you can't fool me. I know you. And i saw Mr. Frank's face just now and i saw your face and I can read your mind like a parson [can] read a Bible. And i heard that whispering you were giving him about Miss Suellen. If I'd have had a notion that it was Mister Frank you were after, I'd have stayed [at] home where I belong.
oristarA
 
  1  
Reply Tue 28 Jun, 2011 07:16 am
@Setanta,
Thanks.

Could you recognize where dialect it is in America?
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Tue 28 Jun, 2011 07:17 am
@oristarA,
It is a poor approximation of the dialect of slaves in the American South.
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McTag
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jul, 2011 02:07 am
@oristarA,

Interesting stuff. I always come to these threads late.

Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama I suppose.

The name Suellen is from Sue Ellen, two separate names originally.
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jul, 2011 03:27 am
@McTag,
Georgia, Boss . . . it's from Gone with the Wind. The dialects of Georgia are distinctly different from those found in Alabama and Louisiana. Within all three states, there are distinct dialects. The people of the Alabama hill country, for example, employ a different dialect than those of the Gulf coast.

All of that with the caveat that migration to southern states of people from the other states has eroded all of the dialects which were still very distinct as late as the 1960s.
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