Editing Eye dialect (section)

{{Short description|Non-standard spelling emphasizing a pronunciation}}{{distinguish|Idiolect}}
'''Eye dialect''' is a writer's use of deliberately nonstandard spelling either because they do not consider the standard spelling a good reflection of the pronunciation or because they are intending to portray [[vernacular|informal or low-status language usage]].<ref>{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/eye_dialect |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027155639/https://www.lexico.com/definition/eye_dialect |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 27, 2020 |title=eye dialect |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref><ref>{{Merriam-Webster|eye dialect}}</ref> The term was coined by [[George Philip Krapp]] to refer to a literary technique that implies the standard pronunciation of a given word that is not well-reflected by its standard spelling, such as ''wimmin'' to represent more accurately the typical English pronunciation of ''women''. However, eye dialect is also commonly used to indicate that a character's speech is [[vernacular]] ([[nonstandard dialect|nonstandard]]), casual, foreign, or uneducated,<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Walpole|1974|pp=193, 195}}</ref><ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Rickford|Rickford|2000|p=23}}</ref> often to be humorous. This form of nonstandard spelling differs from others in that a difference in spelling does not indicate a difference in pronunciation of a word.  That is, it is a "dialect to the eye", rather than "to the ear".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815034439/http://www.viviancook.uk/SpellingNovel/EyeDialect.htm |title=Eye Dialect in English Literature |first=Vivian |last=Cook |access-date=11 October 2018 }}</ref>