This paper is based on the language of the graphic novel, Savage Town, published by Image Comics in 2017. In an interview with the Irish Times in September of that year, its writer, Declan Shalvey says with Savage Town, he wanted to ‘treat Limerick the way the [HBO drama] The Wire treats Baltimore,’ and this is one point of access for the present study. In the first instance, part of what contributes to the tone of realism and authenticity in The Wire is its attention to detail in terms of the representation of specific linguistic varieties in the city of Baltimore (Trotta & Blyahher 2011). The first aim of the study, therefore, is to identify how/if the characters in Savage Town ‘speak’ with a particularly Limerick inflection, and whether they might be said to be representing a localised, Limerick-based vernacular. Where Limerick English is concerned, there has been no systematic study such as Hickey’s (1999, 2005) work on the characteristics of Dublin English, and so the most that can be essayed is an analysis of what is being presented to the reader as emblematic of the voice of Limerick through the words in the graphic novel, and the related and relevant semiotic aspects of this representation. Language is not the primary or even the most significant semiotic resource of the graphic novel, a medium that is highly complex. The nature of comic narratives is concisely summarised by Potsch and Williams (2012) as cinema ‘without motion or sound’ but with a dynamic visual narrative propelled by the sequential presentation of images, and auditory phenomena such as sound, spoken dialogue and voice-over all ‘rendered as text’ (p. 13). The present paper looks to work such as Walshe (2009, 2012) to analyse the language of Savage Town, and to start to collate the rich variety of linguistic evidence available in diverse genres in print and online for accessing varieties of English in general, and Irish English/Limerick English in particular.
Barrett, P., D. Shalvey, J. Bellaire & C. Cowles, 2017. Savage Town. Portland, OR: Image Comics.
Hickey, R., 1999. Dublin English: Current changes and their motivation. In: P. Foulkes & G. Docherty (eds.), Urban Voices. London: Edward Arnold, 265-281.
Hickey, R., 2005. Dublin English. Evolution and Change. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Potsch, E. & R. F. Williams, 2012. Image schemas and conceptual metaphor in action comics. In: F. Bramlett (ed.), Linguistics and the Study of Comics, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 13-36.
Trotta, J. & O. Blyahher, 2011. Game done changed: A look at selected AAVE features in the TV series The Wire. Moderna språk 2011(1): 15-42.
Walshe, S., 2009. Irish English as Represented in Film. Frankfurt Am Main: Peter Lang.
Walshe, S., 2012. ‘Ah laddie, did ye really think I’d let a foine broth of a boy such as yerself get splattered…? ‘ Representations of Irish English speech in the Marvel universe. In: F. Bramlett (ed.), Linguistics and the Study of Comics, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 240-264.