a quotation from Mark Twain:
"Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?"
-"NO, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said--not a single word."
-"Well, now, I be ding-busted! How do dat come?"
-"I don't know; but it's so. I got some of their jabber out of a book.
S'pose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy--what would you
think?"
-"I wouldn' think nuff'n; I'd take en bust him over de head--dat is, if he
warn't white. I wouldn't 'low no nigger to call me dat."
-"Shucks, it ain't calling you anything. It's only saying, do you know
how to talk French?"
-"Well, den, why couldn't he SAY it?"
-"Why, he IS a-saying it. That's a Frenchman's WAY of saying it."
-"Well, it's a blame ridicklous way, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout
it. Dey ain' no sense in it."
-"Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?"
-"No, a cat don't."
-"Well, does a cow?"
-"No, a cow don't, nuther."
-"Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?"
-"No, dey don't."
-"It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't
it?"
-"Course."
-"And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different
from US?"
-"Why, mos' sholy it is."
-"Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a FRENCHMAN to talk
different from us? You answer me that."
-"Is a cat a man, Huck?"
-"No."
-"Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man. Is a cow a
man?--er is a cow a cat?"
-"No, she ain't either of them."
-"Well, den, she ain't got no business to talk like either one er the
yuther of 'em. Is a Frenchman a man?"
-"Yes."
-"WELL, den! Dad blame it, why doan' he TALK like a man? You answer me
DAT!"