Linguistics Discussion 2013 and Beyond discussion

Riddley Walker is a post-apocalyptic novel in which "the first person narrator, Riddley, writes in a distinct form of English whose spelling often resembles a phonetic transliteration of a Kentish accent. [Wiki]

It's a fascinating book, and the language is an intriguing challenge: some of the words are much easier to "translate" than others.

It's worth comparing with the argot of "Sloosha's Crossin'", the central story of David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas". That's set in a post-apocalyptic Hawaii, but the language includes childish mishearings and misspellings: I telled him, hurrycane that echo those used by Hoban.

The other novel with a very distinct slang that is partially derived from elsewhere, is the Russian-related Nadsat of Anthony Burgess' "Clockwork Orange".

My reviews of all three discuss and give some examples of the language:

Riddley Walker: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... (a short review from when I was new to Gr)

Cloud Atlas: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Clockwork Orange: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Thank you, Cecily. I'll check out your reviews. I enjoyed the "Sloosha's Crossin'" part of Cloud Atlas. I wrote a review, but didn't go into the linguistics part of that. There were too many other things to write about. Clockwork Orange has ben on my list for a while. I'll have to read it soon.

Oh! I love this book so much (possibly my favorite of all time), thank you for mentioning it!

Yes, anyone who is interested in languages should read the book (and anyone who isn't for that matter!). I imagine that at first glance, people figure that Russell Hoban just made up some random stuff, but when you really look at it and realize what he did, you find that it's a credible speculation of what English might look like in a far post-apocalyptic future.

Kyle, have you read "Cloud Atlas" and "Clockwork Orange"? If not, you may find them good counterpoints to "Riddley Walker".

I can't vouch for this book at all, but I know of The Book of Dave: A Revelation of the Recent Past and the Distant Future, which I believe is supposed to be similar to Riddley Walker. A friend of mine was reading it a few years ago; looked interesting.

Cecily wrote: "Kyle, have you read "Cloud Atlas" and "Clockwork Orange"? If not, you may find them good counterpoints to "Riddley Walker"."

I read (and enjoyed) Clockwork Orange, but I have yet to read Cloud Atlas or see the movie. I've had a lot of people recommend the movie to me, but I've kept myself from watching it or reading it (not sure why).

I've read "Cloud Atlas" a couple of time, but not seen the film (it won't be released here for another month). I gather the film is less subtle and, more crucially, makes too much of the birthmarks and possibly gives them to people who don't have them in the book. However, I haven't read enough reviews carefully enough to be sure if that's the case.

I've heard some interesting things about this book...

I actually think you would love it Jonathan! Though, I might be a bit biased since I have this [not so]secret desire for everyone to read it and love it as much as I did.

Linguistically though, Russell Hoban does some tremendously interesting things.