Journal #3

The Harlem Renaissance figure that I researched is Duke Ellington. He was a very well known musician at this time. His music appealed to both black and white listeners, which helped provide them with common ground. He wrote many songs and touched many people with his music.

I chose to do an east coast dialect because I am originally from New Jersey and I am accustomed to the dialect.
Pronunciation
-er endings go to -ah (ex: paper = papah)
Words tend to be fused into one (ex: five dollars = fi-dallahs)
er in the middle of words sounds like oye (ex: New Jersey = New Joisy)
beautiful is pronounced as beauty-ful
Vocabulary
Managutz = an Italian pasta dish
Gravy = tomato sauce
Gubalini = hat
Grammar
singular and plural get mixed up with words like don't or doesn't (ex: he don't like that)
some words are left out (ex: why did you do that? = why you do that?)
the word "eh" is added to the end of a question, used similarly as huh (ex: how are you today eh?)

Just to reinforce the stereotypical name for someone on the east coast, my character is named Vince.

As Vince walked down the street, he heard amazing music that he had never heard before being played very well by a man.
"That music is beautyful," said Vinny, "I'm Vince, got a name?"
The man took a break from playing and looked up.
"My name is Duke, Duke Ellington", he said.
Impressed and intrigued by this new music, Vinny couldn't contain his excitement.
"What do you call that music eh? Never heard it before", he said.
Pleased to enlighten his new fan, Duke said with a smile on his face, "Well, I hate to describe an entire type of music with one word, but it's known an jazz"
"Jazz eh? How come I never heard it before?", said Vince.
"Its just startin' up now, but it's gonna be big, believe me", Duke said with some excitement of his own.
"If it all sounds somethin like what you'se was just playin, you bettah believe I'll be listenin to it", said Vince.