Compare and contrast the dialects spoken by the characters in the novel The Adventures of Huck Finn.

In what William Dean Howells defined as "nothing more and
nothing less than the truthful treatment of material," Mark Twain includes regional
dialects in his seminal novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
in order to create the illusion of everyday life within the given setting.  This
regional writing is but another expression of the Realistic movement in the desire to
preserve and portray distinctive ways of life and its humor and charm, as well as to
address the harsh realities that exist.

Now, much of
Twain's appeal is due to his magical and humorous power with language.  His love of
language is what has propelled him to preserve the dialects of his characters, for they
are a part of their personalities.  In the front of his novel, Twain has placed this
explanatory:

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In this book a number of dialects are used, to
wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern
dialect; the ordinary "Pike County" dialect; and four modified varieties of this last.
The shadings have not been done in a hap- hazard fashion, or by guesswork; but
painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity
with these several forms of speech.

I make this explanation
for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were
trying to talk alike and not succeeding.

THE
AUTHOR.

Twain's explanation
notwithstanding, the author takes some license with the dialects as he makes them a
little less authentic lest the reader not be able to understand them.  Still he gives
them enough "patois," one critic observes, to keep the novel from becoming rather
tedious.  Thus, even with dialects, Twain mixes seriousness with humor, a trope
throughout his novel.

Of course, Twain employs dialects for
identification of his characters.  Jim, as an uneducated slave who has learned whatever
English he knows from hearing other slaves or from listening to an equally uneducated
overseer, has the thickest dialect that at times is difficult to understand.  He cuts
off many of the cosonants from his words and utilizes an odd, but limited vocabulary at
times. The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, in contrast, are much more articulate in their
speech, finishing words with their consomants, although they yet retain certain
regionalisms such as "hain't" for "is/are not" and "Ill learn yer" for "I'll teach you";
and "lemme" for "let me."

Of course, a humorous episode
involving dialect occurs with the Duke and the King, who pretend to be an English duke
and a French dauphin, and must disguise their natural way of talking.  When the real
relatives arrive and make claim to the Wilks's inheritance, they recognize the
fraudulent dialects,

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"Keep you hands off of me!" says the doctor. 
"You talk like an Englishman--don't you?  It's the worse imitation
I ever heard.  You Peter Wilks's brother.  You're a faud, that's what you
are!"

In addition to the
effect of realism and humor in the use of dialect in The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, the regionalisms point to the geographic areas which
comprise this novel.  In this way, the reader is provided insight into the nature and
way of thinking of different levels of people from other areas than one's
own.