TY - CHAP

T1 - The Gospels in Yorkshire Dialect: Functions and Linguistic Features

AU - Myachinskaya, Elvira

AU - Kovalenko, Ekaterina

AU - Kozhevnikova, Elena

AU - Ustinova, Olga

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - The paper is concerned with Arnold Kellett’s retelling of thirty Gospel tales in broad Yorkshire dialect. To some extent, this book is a simplified presentation of traditional biblical materials. In fact, it is a complex interpretation of profound religious ideas and the use of the local dialect, which is quite different from English standard. The audience of such a text may be twofold: young people who need religious instruction and are familiar with the dialect, and advanced diglossal dialect and Standard English speakers, who enjoy reading, hearing the dialect and speaking it. The purpose of Kellet’s book is to create the effect of orality by means of pronunciation, spelling, use of dialectal words, idioms and slang words, as well as colloquial particles and interjections. Retelling, unlike faithful translation, allows the narrator’s insertions in the text, which not only gives a personal human touch to the text, sometimes full of subtle humour, but also includes the audience into the narration. Thus, the situation of perceiving biblical stories is akin to the original oral communication of Jesus with his followers.

AB - The paper is concerned with Arnold Kellett’s retelling of thirty Gospel tales in broad Yorkshire dialect. To some extent, this book is a simplified presentation of traditional biblical materials. In fact, it is a complex interpretation of profound religious ideas and the use of the local dialect, which is quite different from English standard. The audience of such a text may be twofold: young people who need religious instruction and are familiar with the dialect, and advanced diglossal dialect and Standard English speakers, who enjoy reading, hearing the dialect and speaking it. The purpose of Kellet’s book is to create the effect of orality by means of pronunciation, spelling, use of dialectal words, idioms and slang words, as well as colloquial particles and interjections. Retelling, unlike faithful translation, allows the narrator’s insertions in the text, which not only gives a personal human touch to the text, sometimes full of subtle humour, but also includes the audience into the narration. Thus, the situation of perceiving biblical stories is akin to the original oral communication of Jesus with his followers.

KW - Gospels

KW - Yorkshire Dialect

KW - Orality

KW - Vernacular

KW - Retelling

KW - Simplification

M3 - Article in an anthology

SP - 64

EP - 70

BT - 2019 International Conference on Religion, Culture and Art (ICRCA 2019)

PB - Clausius Scientific Press

ER -