Amin GirasolIs there some in-joke in the #discworld universe concerning "could of" and "should of" instead of "could have" and "should have"?
It's wrecking my head! This spelling is only ever used in reported speech.
Dror Bedrack@fluidlogic not that I noticed. probably just the way Nobby speaks?
@DrorBedrack a few other characters speak that way too. "Could've" and "could of" are indistinguishable in spoken English, but INCREDIBLY FUCKING JARRING in written English, so I'm left wondering why Pratchett chose that spelling. Perhaps just to pull the wire of pedants like me!
@fluidlogic I searched the web and found this interesting:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/whats-worse-than-coulda
"The verb form of of begins to show up in print more often in the 19th century, generally when an author is attempting to replicate the speech of an uneducated person "
It's an interesting observation. As a non-native speaker, I didnt even notice. Another way in which Pratchett, ah, characterises his characters
EdS"could of", "would of" and "should of" is being used by Pratchett as a class marker, I think. Or, if you prefer, an educational marker. I think of it as how Nobby would write, so it's how Pratchett renders his speech.
@EdS @DrorBedrack oh yikes. Right.
Geoffairey@fluidlogic I suspect it’s to show that someone “common” is speaking, it’s an easy way to show the difference between someone who’s been taught language in school (reading and writing), and someone who learned it by hearing it.
@Geoffairey I'm starting to get the feel that Pratchett was a bit of a right-winger. There are a few stabs at organised workplaces, too. That's unfortunate.
@fluidlogic Terry was so far from Right WIng (I suspect he’d have been quite offended by that observation), Terry had a massive talent which allowed him to be a satirist, to observe situations and stretch them into humour and comedy to show how wrong they were. if there was an angle there to examine in society, Terry could and would do so to show how obsurd real life is.
@Geoffairey I genuinely don't know what his politics were; I understood he was a humanist (with a small "h"). That stance tends to go with also having a social conscience. So I'm surprised to find Pratchett apparently using shibboleths to mock the uneducated.
I hope I'm right that it's me, the pedantic reader, that he's mocking.
LemLemsI find it interesting that you equate depicting a character as being uneducated and from a low social class to denigrating them for it.
Pratchett didn’t glorify or canonise Discworld’s working class or uneducated characters He didn’t glorify or canonise anyone, he was a satirist - he turned an accurate, mocking but affectionate spotlight on everyone and everything.
But his denigration and ire was reserved for oppressors and systems of oppression.
@Lemlems @fluidlogic 100% my take
@Geoffairey @Lemlems thank you! I'm sticking with the book. Good to have that context.