The Speech of the Subaltern Transcribed: Quoting Practices and Language ‘Errors’ in Colonial Travel Writing

Abstract

Abstract This article analyzes the use of quoted speech in nineteenth-century European travel writing from around the Indian Ocean. A careful analysis of when speech was quoted directly, and how its phonetic characteristics were transcribed into printed form, elucidates the power dynamics embedded in the spoken word in colonial contexts while also opening up new perspectives on the rhetorical strategies of imperialism. Of particular interest here is the notion of erroneous speech: colonial travelogues regularly employed direct quotes to highlight what were construed as ‘mispronunciations’ or ‘grammar mistakes’ by indigenous and/or non-European-coded speakers of the language of the colonizer. Such a framing of differing language habits served to inscribe a cultural hierarchy and power differential into moments of interpersonal encounter. Moreover, in the firmly middle-class genre of travel writing, the speech of working-class Europeans was subjected to similar treatment, pointing to the diversity of different ‘subaltern’ positions within the colonial hierarchy.