The Li'l Abner Syndrome: Written Representations of Speech

L INGUISTS, ESPECIALLY SOCIOLINGUISTS, have long been interested in measuring attitudes to spoken language. There is, however, a dearth of studies (outside literary analyses) of reader attitudes towards writing which reports speech. The concern here is with the inaccurate representation of informant status (or reporter's regard or estimate of that status) which arises from the use of misspellings in the WRITING OF SPEAKINGa practice common to linguists, folklorists, sociolinguists, and others who provide written transcripts of spoken language. The use of alternate spellings in the representation of character in creative writing is not treated here.