Mountain Larnin’

If you need a new character or dialect, an old book might be a treasure chest of inspiration…

While browsing through a used book store, I chanced upon an ancient copy of “The Code Of The Mountains” by Charles Neville Buck (pub. 1915).

Scanning through the pages, the first thing that caught my eye was that the character dialog was all written in dialect! For example, instead of “How far might it be to Winchester?” they say “How fur mout hit be ter Winchester?“.

This was an amazing way to learn a new dialect, or create a brand new character.

You can read the entire book here:
“The Code Of The Mountains” on Project Gutenberg
(warning: antiquated thinking may be potential offensive to sensitive individuals)

Below, you’ll find some select quotes from the first 20-or-so pages…

We open with Newt Spooner, a boy from Troublesome Creek in the Cumberland Ridges of Virginia. Or maybe Kentucky. Around 1897. He’s just gotten out of prison: Continue reading →