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Allusions
Dialect
Explanation and Analysis—The Dialect of Iping:
Most of the characters in the town of Iping speak in dialect. Their accent is meant to convey how they live in a more rural culture than other characters. For example, the residents of Iping say the following things: “Ow do?” instead of "How do you do?", "wim" instead of "women," and “You gart whad a wand?” instead of "You got what I want?" These heavy accents are not just hard to understand from a modern-day or American perspective—they would have been difficult for the majority of Wells’s contemporary British readers as well.
Having the Iping residents talk like this emphasizes that Iping is a very different place from London; it is a place that has its own culture. The different dialects increase the distance between the sophisticated scientist and the common townspeople who surround him. The use of non-standard English pronunciations may demonstrate that the townspeople are more provincial and less erudite than Griffin, perhaps suggesting that they're more predisposed to small-town behaviors like suspicion and in-group behavior. What's more, the various linguistic differences throughout the novel also emphasize how much of an outsider Griffin is—after all, he sticks out like a sore thumb just because he sounds different than the other residents of Iping.
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