Li2 Language Variation

Transcription

Li2 Language
Variation
Race
Today’s topics
Ebonics vs. Urban English
Stereotypes and misperceptions
Some juicy samples
Ebonics as a rule-governed dialect like
any other
Linguistic features of Ebonics

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Ebonics vs. Urban English

Labels
Jive
Ebonics
Black
English Vernacular (BEV)
African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
Urban English
This speech variety is generally associated by
Americans with the African-American community,
but one finds many elements of it in the speech of
other urban communities
It also has significant covert prestige among younger
Americans as a whole; cf. dominance of hip hop
and speech patterns on MTV programs

Misperception #1: Ebonics as deficient

Baugh, Purnell, and Idsardi 1999

“The ability to discern the use of a nonstandard dialect is often enough
information to also determine the speaker’s ethnicity, and speakers may
consequently suffer discrimination based on their speech. This article, detailing
four experiments, shows that:

housing discrimination based solely on telephone conversations occurs,
dialect identification is possible using the word hello,
and phonetic correlates of dialect can be discovered.”
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Perceived race and guilt

Guilt may be influenced by “crime-related racial stereotypes” (Sunnafrank & Fontes
1983)
In a mock jury study, Black defendants who were accused of assault were evaluated
as guiltier than White defendants who were similarly accused (Gordon 1993)
A “Colored” suspect who switched from English into Cape Afrikaans speech was
rated as more guilty by White English-speaking listeners than a suspect who did not
exhibit speech divergence. Regardless of such accommodative shifts, however,
listeners’ attributions of guilt were stronger when the suspect was accused of a bluecollar crime (e.g., assault) rather than a white-collar crime (e.g. check fraud) (Dixon,
Tredoux, Durrheim, and Foster 1994)
Dixon et al. 2002

119 participants listened to a recorded exchange between a British male criminal suspect
and a male policeman.
Employing the matched-guise technique, this exchange was varied to produce a 2 (accent
type: Birmingham/standard) x 2 (race of suspect: Black/White) x 2 (crime type: blue
collar/white collar) independent-groups design.
Follow-up Newman-Keuls tests indicated that the Brummie accent/Black suspect/blue
collar cell had significantly higher guilt ratings than the five other cells.
Misperception #2: Ebonics as funny slang
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Misperception #3: no differences

Many linguists, activists, and PC types deny that there are
any identifiable consistent differences between black and
white speech patterns.
Reality:

c. 30 studies have found that listeners can distinguish recordings of:

AAVE vs EAE (European American English)
AASE (African American Standard English) vs EAE
see Thomas and Reaser 2004 for survey of these studies
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The facts
Speakers control a range of registers, from
which they choose according to the social
situation.
Children acquire the language(s) to which they
are exposed, regardless of race, class, etc.
Humans can express their ideas equally well in
whatever language they happen to learn first

The Notorious B.I.G., "One More Chance (remix)"
And my jam knock in the Mitsubishi
Girls pee pee when they see me,
Nava-hoes creep me in they tee pee
As I lay down laws like I lay carpet
Stop it-if you think you're gonna make a profit
I enjoy playing my music loudly on my car stereo.
Apparently, women enjoy this also because they become
sexually aroused when they see me driving. Oddly
enough, when I visit the Native American reservations,
some of the more sexually promiscuous Indian women
attempt to seduce me in their homes. Their intent is to
divest me of my earnings. Such actions are
unacceptable.
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Vowels

/aj/ pronounced [a˘] or [A˘] (in time, fine, etc.)

pin/pen merger

online paper on this in Detroit Ebonics
Outkast, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik:
See Juice and gin used to be my friend, from the begin
And now i'm just a player sippin sauce, every now and then

/I/ (short i) behaves differently than in Standard English

[Si´t] (as in Airplane sample)
merger of /i/ and /I/ before l

Destiny’s Child, bills : automobiles
Outkast, Return of the “G”
…Man a nigga don't want no trouble
a playa just want to kick back with my gators off
and watch my li'l girl blow bubbles
But still ready to rhyme
standin' my ground never back down
Willin' to rob steal & kill any thang that threatens mine…
Consonants

replacement of θ and ð:
word-initial: [th, d](thing, through; the, that)
elsewhere:

[f, v] (mouth, earth; mother)
r-deletion when not before a vowel
e.g.
Anfernee Hardaway, Mean Girls
N.B. deletes before vowel-initial word, unlike
Boston/NY/RP
{t, d} delete /C_# (east, past, lift, bend,
raised)
t becomes ʔ (glottal stop) before syllabic n

Martin,
nothin’ → [mÅ/In], [n√/In]
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Morphology

-ass suffix

punk-ass, stupid-ass, but not *ridiculous-ass…
“Korn is just MTV's version of metal. All the stupid ass people at school who like Korn
are those fucking dicks who think they are cool or something cause apparently
liking Korn makes them different and strange, and therefore cool.”
it as existential:
your momma’s so dumb, I said it’s chilly outside and she ran to get a bowl
Holidae Inn, by Chingy and Snoop
P.I.M.P. (G-Unit Remix), by 50 Cent

In Hollywood, they say there’s no bidness like show bidness
Return of the G, by Outkast
In the hood, they say, it’s no bidness like ho bidness
. . .Return of the gangsta, bangsta
rich aspect system:
Them niggaz that think y'all somethin’
he go = completed action (past or future)
Say y'all be gospel rappin’ but
they be steady clappin’ when you talk about bitches
he goin = continuing action
and switches and hoes and clothes and weed
he be goin = repeated/habitual action
Let's talk about time travelin’, rhyme javelin,
SAE he's working = Ebonics he working, he be working
something mind unravelin’
Get down . . ."
steady

what examples do you hear in the following song?
The last line is aimed at rappers who claim to be
"gospel-rapping" (i.e. imparting positive morals and
values) but are seduced by the easy popularity of
rapping about "bitches and switches and hoes and
clothes and weed", which Andre opposes, suggesting
let's talk about time travelin'/rhyme javelin/somethin'
mind unravelin'.
Syntax

no inversion of subject and auxiliary
verb in questions
What
time it is?
What kind of dream you had?

copula deletion
as
rule-governed as in Standard English!
He bad/you bad/??I bad
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What’s Ur Fantasy (Ludacris and Shawnna)
I wanna lick, lick, lick, lick you from your head to your toes
And I wanna move from the bed down to the floor
[Somebody…who can go from a fly S Jetta] to a coupe Deville
Hotel telly ho or the Beverly Hills
merger
before l
A real nigga not the regular meals
Coming straight in make me shoot to kill
coronal
Bare nekkid in a bed of cash
deletion
Make you stu-stu-stutter when I bare my ass
Damn baby wanna buy shit thing of the past
Cause I'm a bad bitch and I'm offa the glass
r-deletion
Menage à trois
Getting buck wild no matter where we are
Indy 500 in the back of the car
In a dark ass tunnel
In the back of the bar
Where did Ebonics come from?
Southern/British dialect
decreolized creole with West African
substrate

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Southern origins?

Labov: “almost every feature of [Ebonics] can be found among some
white speakers in the South”
confusion of blacks and southerners on the phone
pronunciation

morphology

aj → a, pin/pen merger, r-deletion
no verb agreement (he sing in de choir)
no past marker for regular verbs
dem = those (e.g. dem gangstas)
y’all
Multiple modals

E.g. cab director at O’Hare: “talk to the limo driver--he might would know”
vocabulary
fittin/fixin to
chitlins, holler
ax ‘ask’, gwyne ‘going’: also found in British dialects
negative concord
Creole/African origins?

signs of aspect as opposed to tense in the AAVE verb
system might be causally connected to the aspect
systems of West African languages.
the verb dig might have an etymology in Wolof degan
"understand”
goober : Bantu nguba
cooter ‘turtle’ (< Niger-Congo; cf Mandingo kuta)
okra : Tshi nkruman
po(or) Joe ‘great blue heron’ : Vai pojo ‘heron’
mojo < Hausa
chigger ‘mite, flea’ < W African jigger ‘blood-sucking
mite’
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Influence doesn’t
always flow from
“dominant” varieties
wigging
bs in
on du 'z.
in
l
l
o
o
the h
e!!! R
z-ous e gets all
i
h
a
in th d... Flam
r
lame
Da F zin' Firebi
a
l
b
hiz
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Put pretentiously…
whites are “fascinated by [balck culture’s]
differences, drawn in by mainstream social
constructions [of black culture]…as a forbidden
narrative, [and] a symbol of rebellion” (Rose
1994:5)
“the adoption of African American speech
markers is an attempt by young middle class
whites…to take part in the complex prestige of
African American youth culture” (Cutler
1999:429)

Wigging

Hatala 1976, Hewitt 1986, Bucholtz 1999, Cutler 1999
acquisition of superficial phonological and lexical features (Labov 1972)
Cutler 1999 study of Mike, rich NYC white kid from expensive prep school:

at age 13 (1993) began to wear baggy jeans, reverse baseball cap, and designer
sneakers, and listen to rap
age 16 (1996) “Dis is gonna sound mad weird, yo…I’ll put THE SHIT OFF!...Chill,
don’t touch it!”
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Chavs

From urbandictionary.com:
“Whatever
their ethnic background, Chavs have a
built-in affinity to hip-hop/R&B”
“Look at the 20 inchers on me Nova, it's well phat
innit! Bling Bling!”
Conclusions

Ebonics is systematic and rule-governed like all natural speech
varieties.
It appears to have developed from a Southern dialect, with an
admixture of Creole and African elements.
Characterizations of Ebonics as "slang," "mutant," " lazy,"
"defective," "ungrammatical," or "broken English" are based on
nothing more than superficial observation, and are wildly
inaccurate.
Source of stigmatisation and prestige is social, not directly
linguistic

“if a certain group of speakers uses a particular variant then the social
values attributed to that group will be transferred to that linguistic variant”
(Labov 1972:25)
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Holidae In

rendered as “there’s” in lyrics!
[Chorus: Snoop + Girl, then Chingy + Girl]

(Whachu doin?) Nothing chillin at the Holidae In
(Who you wit?) Me and my peeps won't you bring four of your friends
(What we gon' do?) Feel on each other and sip on some Hen
One thing leading to another let the party begin
[Verse 1: Chingy]

Chingy
Peeps call me up [phone ring] said it's a ho-tel party
Just bring the liquor it’s already eight shawties
I'm on my way (way) let me stop by the store
Get a 12 pack of Corona, plus an ounce of 'dro, ya know?
Now I'm on Highway 2-7 need a natural graze road I'm already blowed, hit third I'm a be be blowed some mo'
Pulled up, stop parked, rims still spinning Valet look like he in the game and must be winning
To room 490 I'm headed, on my way up it’s three girls on the elevator like "wassup"
I told em follow me they knew I had it cracking B
One said "ain't you that boy that be on BET?"
"Ya that's me, Ching-a-ling equipped wit much ding-a-ling" Knock on the door I'm on the scene of things
Busted in, Henny bottle to the face! Fuck it then, feel like my head a toxic waste
It’s some pretty girls in herre, I heard em whispering Talking bout "that's that dude that sing 'Right Thurr' he glistening“
I ain't come to talk (talk) I ain't come to sit (sit) What I came for was to find out who I'm gon hit, aww shit
[Chorus: Snoop + Chingy]
[Verse 2: Chingy]

Ma showed up like "what's the hold up?" Man know what get them wraps and roll up
I took a chick in the bathroom seeing what's poppin You know what's on my mind, shirts off and panties dropping
Niggaz knocking on the do’ drunk, and silly The girl said "can I be in yo video" I'm like "yeah!", "oh really?"
Now she naked strip teasing, me I'm just cheesing…
steady as aspect marker
Now you been maxing out my card
Fuck You, by Ja Rule
…
Yeah!
Y’all feelin' my pain?
Y’all been runnin' wild time and again
Y’all swerve in my lane,
I'll pull up and start poppin' ya brain
Fuck knowin' these broads names..
extravagant champagne
Y’all niggas is lame.. my niggas ain't sane..
Who you fuckin' with?
Y’all niggas wanna dead.. (who?)..
Then wanna ride.. (who?)
Y’all know the niggas who steady screamin'..
(Fuck you!)
It’s murder murder
You know it’s murder murder
We screamin’
We yellin’
We livin’ murder murder murder…
No L.O.V.E., by Jhene
(card)
Giving me bad credit
…
Buying me gifts in my own name
Haven't paid the first bill
Who in da world is dis
But you're steady heading to the mall
Callin’ me at 2:26 in the morning
Going on shopping sprees
Crack of dawn and, got me yawnin’ perpetrating
Telling your friend that you be balling
Why you tyin’ up my line
Sayin’ you apologize for all the lies you told me (lies)
Said you was chillin’ wit da homies (lies)
You was chasin’ all da shorties (dass right)
And now you claimin’ you adore me (you gets no)
You gets N-O-L-O-V-E from me
you be steady gamin’ all the time
So get O-U-T my F-A-C-E
baby outta sight outta mind
You gets N-O-L-O-V-E from me
Can’t keep tellin’ yo’ lies
No more K-I-S-S-I-N-G me
baby outta sight outta mind
…
Rickford, John. 1999. Steady: Progressive Aspect in African American Vernacular English. In Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African
American Language and Educational Malpractice.
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References
Baugh, John, Thomas Purnell, and William Idsardi. 1999. Perceptual
and phonetic experiments on American English dialect identification.
Journal of Language and Social Psychology 18.1:10-30.
Bucholtz, Mary. 1999. You da man: Narrating the racial other in the
production of white masculinity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3/4:443460.
Cutler, Cecilia. 1999. Yorkville Crossing: White teens, hip hop and
African American English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 3/4:428-442.
Dixon, John, C. Tredoux, K. Durrheim, and D. Foster. 1994. The role of
speech accommodation and crime type in attribution of guilt. Journal
of Social Psychology 134:465-473.
Dixon, John, Berenice Mahoney, and Roger Cocks. 2002. Accents of
Guilt? Effects of Regional Accent, Race, and Crime Type on
Attributions of Guilt. Journal of Language and Social Psychology
21.2:162-168.
Gordon, R. 1993. The effects of strong versus weak evidence on the
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