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Here's how it starts off, be warned:

On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen.

He dint make the groun shake nor nothing like that when he come on to my spear he wernt all that big plus he lookit poorly.

He done the reqwyrt he ternt and stood and clattert his teef and made his rush and there we wer then.

Him on 1 end of the spear kicking his life out and me on the other end watching him dy. I said, "Your tern now my tern later."



That's an amazing opening. I'd like to read that now. (I have heard of this book before, but only in outline.)

Edit: Oh my word! He wrote the text of the children's book "Bread and Jam for Frances" (and, I now learn, a whole series of others with the same character). That's a lovely bit of writing. I had no idea.


Yeah, it's like that all the way through, and some of it is inspired


This sounds like the Sloosha’s Crossing last section of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Pretty cool.


Good spot! Riddley was influential on Mitchell.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/05/featuresreview...


Sounds very reminiscent of The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth[0]. Will check it out, thanks!

[0] http://paulkingsnorth.net/books/the-wake/


This is how we speak today, to the ear of a speaker of Anglo-Saxon or, here in Argentina, Latin. Only more so.


Yes. I guess that's what he was aiming at.


Reminds me a bit of Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, which is an incredible book.


One of my favourites too, although I wouldn't link them apart from the darkness and poetic beauty of the language.


But it's surprising how quickly you settle into it, honestly.


Agree completely, but I know several people who have struggled or just given up because it never clicked.


so it's not a completely made up language like klingon but just a dialect of english? sounds entertaining for an amateur linguist to study!


Yeah, "made up language" was a poor choice by me - its an attempt at imagining a transformed English.


Can you get it in English? I'd rather go to the dentist than attempt to read more than a paragraph or two of that gibberish.


It's not for everyone. Once I'd got my head round it I found it easy to follow and beautiful.




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