An Innocent Client discussion

Several times in the book a person said "Well I swan, blah blah blah" One character with a southern accent in particular said this several times.

I swan? Is that a phrase in the English language that I'm just ignorant of? Did the author mean "I swear"? After reading it several times I think that's what was intended but swan doesn't sound like swear to me with any accent (that I know of).

Just curious if anyone else noticed this and if they know what was meant.

Hi Laura,

I have read all of Scott Pratt's books. I have no idea what "Swan" means, but I can tell you I have come across many typos in his books. In fact I have personally brought it to his attention. His response was, "Typos are like cockroaches, you can't get them all." What happened to proofreading?

I am taking a guess here but could "Swan" be a colloquialism?

If you find out, I would love to know.

Cheers,

Michael Burton
Author of the Croker Diaries Series

Thanks Michael,

I've seen this in a couple books where a certain odd word crops up repeatedly. Sometimes it seems like someone did an ill-fated find/replace where a word was replaced with the wrong word, or a homonym got swept up during a replace that was intended for another word.

Interesting about the Typos...

Since getting my Kindle, I don't think I've read a book that didn't have some typos. Yet I don't recall ever noticing typos 10 - 20 years ago when I was always reading paper books.

My guess is that in this digital age where many independent authors are publishing, there is a lot of competition and pressure to produce many books quickly and author's just can't afford the money or time to eradicate all typos.

I have a friend who published a book independently and she spent thousands of her own money on an editor and the book still had many typos and other issues like repeated sentences. When she complained, the editor basically told her "It wasn't that kind of edit" and wanted a few thousand more to fix it...

As a reader, I find the typos distracting, but I am starting to think they are just a fact of life if I want $2 - $5 dollar books to read.

I don't know if Scott Pratt is independent or goes through a publisher but I know I have not read one single e-book that was under $6 that didn't have at least 5 - 10 typos.

Michael wrote: "Hi Laura,

I have read all of Scott Pratt's books. I have no idea what "Swan" means, but I can tell you I have come across many typos. In fact I have personally brought it to his attention. His ..."

Laura wrote: "Several times in the book a person said "Well I swan, blah blah blah" One character with a southern accent in particular said this several times.

I swan? Is that a phrase in the English language..."

Hi Again Michael,

Well - right after posting to you I did an internet search for "Well I swan" and it turns out it IS a southern colloquialism. Funny because I swear I searched for it before posting my original question! Guess I did a better job this time... It seems it is an abbreviation for "I shall warrant" used in the deep south. Who knew?!

So this at least was not a typo!

http://wordoriginsorg.yuku.com/topic/...

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/s...

It sounds really weird to me, I have never heard anyone say it.

Thanks for the info. I find it interesting Scott Pratt would use such a colloquialism. He is originally from Michigan.

The character was southern and spoke very southern.

http://www.word-detective.com/2013/09...

Although Scott Pratt may be from Michigan originally, he has for several years lived in NE Tennessee, about ten miles from me. I find his dialogue to be right on point.

Grew up in the south. "I swan" is short for "I swear on", in which "the Bible" is either understood without being spoken, or is unknown to the speaker, who most likely is just repeating an expression they've heard others use.

OH! Thank you so much for that information! I swan I thought it was a typo at first - until it kept recurring.

Zowie. Never expected a reply to a comment concerning a four year old conversation. That's almost scary; however, I hope it helped. I'm an (ahem) year old southern born man whose grandmother used that clause frequently, although I've been gone from there for thirty years and have never heard it used in Ohio. By the way, if you like Scott Pratt, check out Robin Yocum. His books aren't attorney books, but they're set in similar settings to Pratt's. Great characters.

Or if that language is your thing, Faulkner takes many liberties with words/spelling as well.

Laura wrote: "Several times in the book a person said "Well I swan, blah blah blah" One character with a southern accent in particular said this several times.

I swan? Is that a phrase in the English language t..."

Still haven't fixed it by 2021