Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. [Vol. 5.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 25)

Studies - Szabolcs Szilágyi: Verbal Versus Non-Verbal Aspects in The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing

both Cree and Ojibway are used freely [...] for the reasons that these two languages, belonging to the same linguistic family, are very similar and that the fictional reserve of Wasaychigan Hill has a mixture of both Cree and Ojibway residents. (Highway 11) While The Rez Sisters (which received the Best New Play Dora Mavor Moore Award) is a moving and powerful portrait of seven women making their way to the biggest bingo in the world, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (awarded with the Best New Play Award in 1989) tells the story or rather several minor events of seven 'Wasy' men and the game of hockey of the mythical Wasaychigan Hill Indian. Almost without exception all the translations of words, phrases or passages are given in the text, but the fine task of deciding how to interpret these to the audiences is up to the directors. The English language is only a second language for the characters, just as it is for Highway himself, yet they choose to express themselves in this language but the peculiarity of the use of the language is apparent. Their English is broken English and it is a multilayered result of cultural oppression: a) English is not the mother tongue of the characters, and b) it is also due to the lack of proper education. Very often Natives happen to fall into both categories despite the fact that they do try to retain some form of their native language. In Wasaychigan Hill the use of English and all kinds of 'civilised benefits' (drinking beer, watching TV, playing hockey, shopping, etc.) are taken for granted. Even the title of Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (the play, which will be in the focus in the first part of this paper) itself suggests several things: while it can reflect the influence of everyday use of English on the Natives, it can also have the connotation that this is how the people of this place are thought of, this is how they are treated, and, as a result, this is how they will want to behave: uneducated, low-class, blue-collar, simple, inferior, common, everyday. The same feeling is expressed through the use of words like 'gimme', 'tank you', 'kinda', etc. and the consistent drop of 'g' at the end of gerunds or continuous forms of verbs like 'rattlin', iivin', 'shoppin', etc. Although these naturally imply real-life-like dialogues, the emphasis is placed on the 'broken-English' the Natives speak. 88