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"Here's yer mornin' paper!" yelled a newsboy.

"Mine, did you say?" she asked.

"Sure! Chronicle, 'Quirer, R'public 'n' 'Spatch! Wot'll ye 'ave?"

"What are they for?" inquired the wax lady, simply.

"W'y, ter read, o' course. All the news, you know."

Source: http://www.classicreader.com/book/2953/1/

I suppose that the passages in bold indicate non-standard spoken English. While I think that the first one could be transformed into "which one do you want"" the second one I am not able to understand.

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    It's not only non-standard spoken English - it's very non-standard written English. The orthography W'y, for example, would be completely unfamiliar to most native Anglophones (I can't recall ever seeing it before, and it gives me no clue whatsoever as to how the newsboy speaks. Your text is written in an oddball register combining unusual "stereotypical" vernacular and dated Victorian usages presented in an almost archaic "fairy story" style. It's not a good text for learning about current, normal English, spoken or written. Jun 29, 2017 at 17:30
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    @FumbleFingers: The orthography why probably means that the newsboy pronounced why with a "w" rather than a "wh" (in IPA, /w/ and /ʍ/). Since nearly everybody uses a "w" today, this eye dialect spelling is obsolete. (And people would probably use "hwy" to indicate those few dialects that retain the /ʍ/.) Jun 29, 2017 at 17:35
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    @Peter: Actually, I just thought of that after posting the comment. I still don't recall seeing that orthography, but having watched quite a few (mostly US-produced) westerns lately, I have been struck by how often they were still saying hw- even just a few decades ago. But I assume most young Americans find the Family Guy "Now say cool whip" skit funny, so I guess it's now as rare in the US as in the UK. Jun 29, 2017 at 17:42
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    @FumbleFingers: I think it's very rare in most regions of the U.S. I wouldn't be too surprised if it was still hanging on in a couple of places. Jun 29, 2017 at 17:44
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    @FumbleFingers In the US, it sounds more cultured, if anything ... but then so does anything that sounds even close to a British accent. Still, I'm with Brian that it sounds weird, especially when repeated.
    – Andrew
    Jun 29, 2017 at 18:14

1 Answer 1

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I'm sure English isn't the only language where an author can imitate how a particular dialect sounds with alternate spellings and odd punctuation to indicate missing phonemes.

Chronicle, 'Quirer, R'public 'n' 'Spatch = The Chronicle, The Enquirer, The Republic, and (I'm guessing) The Dispatch. (all names of newspapers)

Wot'll ye 'ave? = What will you have?

W'y, ter read, o' course = Why, to read, of course

This adds color to the narrative because the reader can "hear" the dialogue as if spoken by the character, whose accent and diction illustrate his personality and social class.

You have to sound the words out and make your best guess what they mean. Even native speakers can have trouble doing this, if the accent is garbled enough.

This, of course, happens frequently in real life. Like when an American travels to, say, rural England, and can't understand anything even though everyone is ostensibly speaking "English".

Sometimes you need a translator (from the movie "Hot Fuzz")

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