Markie Rhodes
August 28, 2007
Chapter 2: What Are the Distinctive Features of African American English?
Today, it is becoming a widely accepted fact that African American English is a rule-governed variety of speech containing several distinctive characteristics that separate it from Standard English. These differences arise in categories such as vocabulary, slang, historical words to the culture, novel meanings, obscenities, pronunciation, spelling, grammar, rhetoric, and discourse strategies.
The vocabulary of AAE contains several words that are unique to West African languages. For example, Smitherman discusses several examples when he lists, “ the traditional black church (e.g., git the spirit), black music (e.g., funky), and racial oppression (e.g., the Man)” (20.) These sets of words are the first of many aspects of AAE that make it distinct.
Similar to the vocabulary of AAE is the choice of slang. Once again, there are several phrases unique to AAE that are not used in Standard English. As stated in the text, these phrases include, “ hat up (‘leave’), lame (‘out of step’), and nickel n’ dime (‘petty’)” (20.) These phrases are generated from multiple outlets in the culture including famous Hip Hop music. There are also several “historically black words” said to “extend across generational, geographical, and social boundaries in African America” (23.) These words provide further insight into many defining characteristics of African American lifestyles. Some of the examples listed included, “ ashy (‘dry skin’) and suck teeth ( ‘to suck air through the teeth to express annoyance’)” (23.) These terms differ from slang in that they are more widely accepted among the culture. In conjunction with these historical words are words that AAE has assigned novel meanings to. These words cannot be found in the English Dictionary and often baffle teachers when used by students for class writing assignments. However, there are several words and phrases that most teachers will not encounter in their students’ writing assignments. Some of these words include what Standard English would label obscenities.
Obscenities in African American English can often be used with a different connotation than obscenities belonging to Standard English. Smitherman discussed in the text, “ the notorious AAE term muthafucka (or mutha or M.F.). Although it can sting like a curse word (that no good muthafucka), it can also express admiration (he a bad muthafucka) or add weight to a statement (you muthafuckin right)” (24). The important thing to understand when encountering these phrases is that many people do not consider them to be obscene.
Pronunciation of syllables and vowels is another unique aspect of AAE. When making vowel sounds there are several differences in the way ing/ink endings are pronounced along with complex vowels and the “E/i” sound. There are also variations with consonants such as “Th”, “r”, “l”, “V” and “Z”, “Str”, “Ing”, consonant clusters, and adjacent consonants. Pronunciation also has a dramatic effect on spelling patterns. Many words in AAE are spelled in the same manner that they are pronounced rather than by Standard English rules. The example listed in the text stated, “The –er ending on words with two or more syllables is spelled –a, -uh, or –ah, as in brotha (‘brother’)” (27.) These alternate methods of spelling commonly appear in formal writing assignments.
Grammar is yet another important distinction of AAE. There are several unique methods of using nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, and sentence patterns. Various linguists have been able to establish eight principles to keep in mind when studying AAE grammar. First of all, AAE is becoming streamlined in the United States. Second, AAE depends less on word endings and more on context. Third, AAE uses a verb system that emphasizes how something happened instead of when. Fourth, there are parallels in the languages spoken by West Africans before slavery. Fifth, many grammatical forms are assigned different meanings. Sixth, use of AAE varies according to demographic characteristics of a person. Seventh, AAE is currently in a transitional stage in convergence with Standard English. Finally, AAE grammatical features should not be considered errors because they conform to a different set of standards than implied by Standard English. (29). Surprisingly, when composing essays many students still conform to Standard English rules. Therefore, it may not be as likely that a teacher will observe this grammar in formal writing. However, it is extremely common for teachers to observe AAE rhetoric in writing.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
In-class exercise-Sociolinguistics
In todays society of planes, trains, and cars; it is easy to meet someone from another country or state right in your own backyard. However, their culture and language might be completely different from what you are used too.
In my case, I talk to people all over the United States. I work at a shoe store and most of the time I am talking on the phone with different companies and retailers. I encounter the most interesting accents and use of dialect on a daily basis. For example, I am always calling the south (Texas, Tennesee, and South Carolina) sometimes it is hard for me (someone from Southern Illinois) to dicipher just exactly what the person on the other end of the phone is saying. Their words seem to go together and they can talk so quickly that it sounds like a mesh of one word when it is really a sentence. The best thing I have heard is "Djeet" which means, Did you eat ? Another classic example is "Doyawatyate" now obviously that looks like some word that comes from another language however, in translation it is, Do you want your tea?I have however noticed that when I talk to these retailers my accent becomes much more southern than its normal tone. I guess I feel I want to fit in with their society and changing my tone creates the illusion that I am one of them. But, if I meet anyone from a northern state, I hear the phrase "Gee, you have a thick accent"
Granted, this particular dialect can only be found in our southern states but, the northerns have a different interpretation of certain words as well. Once I over heard a comedian commenting on a gentleman from New York asking him if he wanted a "Slice of pie" now to myself and this comedian we are probably thinking "cherry, apple, chocolate." Well obviously, a slice of pie in New York means a slice of Pizza.
Dialect is something that can be found in any society of people, its thier own social club of communication. My social club just happens to be Southern Illinois and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. My accent defines who I am and probably a whole host of others feel the same way.
In my case, I talk to people all over the United States. I work at a shoe store and most of the time I am talking on the phone with different companies and retailers. I encounter the most interesting accents and use of dialect on a daily basis. For example, I am always calling the south (Texas, Tennesee, and South Carolina) sometimes it is hard for me (someone from Southern Illinois) to dicipher just exactly what the person on the other end of the phone is saying. Their words seem to go together and they can talk so quickly that it sounds like a mesh of one word when it is really a sentence. The best thing I have heard is "Djeet" which means, Did you eat ? Another classic example is "Doyawatyate" now obviously that looks like some word that comes from another language however, in translation it is, Do you want your tea?I have however noticed that when I talk to these retailers my accent becomes much more southern than its normal tone. I guess I feel I want to fit in with their society and changing my tone creates the illusion that I am one of them. But, if I meet anyone from a northern state, I hear the phrase "Gee, you have a thick accent"
Granted, this particular dialect can only be found in our southern states but, the northerns have a different interpretation of certain words as well. Once I over heard a comedian commenting on a gentleman from New York asking him if he wanted a "Slice of pie" now to myself and this comedian we are probably thinking "cherry, apple, chocolate." Well obviously, a slice of pie in New York means a slice of Pizza.
Dialect is something that can be found in any society of people, its thier own social club of communication. My social club just happens to be Southern Illinois and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. My accent defines who I am and probably a whole host of others feel the same way.
Dialect
I believe it's very true that students use slang to try and fit in with different groups in their city or school. I have noticed, after attending here, that even students from Chicago have accents, it's not something that only happens when someone is from another country. Often times, slang is considered a sort of rebel language. Some may even call it the language of a uneducated person. I disagree. I believe that slang is just another way to speak informal. In Spanish there are almost two different ways to say everything.
There's the way you would speak to an elder or stranger, then there's the way you could speak to a best friend or sibling. Slang is just another way to communicate quicker with your peers. As far as accent goes, this country has many different types of people in it, and whether you’re from St. Louis and talk faster than the speed limit, or Carbondale IL-with that sweet southern tang. It's doesn't matter. Dialect is everywhere, we might as well embrace it, instead of judge it.
There's the way you would speak to an elder or stranger, then there's the way you could speak to a best friend or sibling. Slang is just another way to communicate quicker with your peers. As far as accent goes, this country has many different types of people in it, and whether you’re from St. Louis and talk faster than the speed limit, or Carbondale IL-with that sweet southern tang. It's doesn't matter. Dialect is everywhere, we might as well embrace it, instead of judge it.
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics:
Living in the same small town my entire life, it wasn't until I moved to Southern Illinois for college that I encountered any dialectal mishap.
The first thing I noticed, of course, was the slow, southern drawl the local people used. I couldn't figure out why I felt like I was in Alabama, when I was still in the same state of which I grew up!
I heard words like "ya'll" and phrases like "a lick of difference" and couldn't figure out what these people were trying to say. A lick? Like to a lollipop?
Not to mention the name of the little towns around here; all of them end in ''boro''. Murphysboro, Jonesboro, Hallidayboro; a little further south in Kentucky there is Murfreesboro, Hollowsboro. There are ''boros'' in the south; what exactly is a ''boro''?
But perhaps the biggest surprise of all was when these slow speaking locals labled me a "city girl". City Girl?! I grew up on a farm in a town with less than 2,000 people and you're going to call me a city girl?
"Well, you have that Chicaahhgo accent," they'd say, holding their nose on the Chicago apparently to imitate my nasaly dialect I had previously been unaware of.
But, I don't have an accent...do I?
After living in Carbondale for four years, I've learned the truth. If you live in southern Illinois, anything north of Champaign is "Chicago" and therefore anyone with the slightest Chicaahhgo accent is labeled such.
But I've also learned that my dialect changes with my environment. It is easy to fall into step with the laid back, slow speaking style of the south. However, once I am back home to "Rural Chicago", I revel with my northern peers in whining out our "a" sounds and even talking through our nose from time to time.
As they say, "When in Rome..."
Living in the same small town my entire life, it wasn't until I moved to Southern Illinois for college that I encountered any dialectal mishap.
The first thing I noticed, of course, was the slow, southern drawl the local people used. I couldn't figure out why I felt like I was in Alabama, when I was still in the same state of which I grew up!
I heard words like "ya'll" and phrases like "a lick of difference" and couldn't figure out what these people were trying to say. A lick? Like to a lollipop?
Not to mention the name of the little towns around here; all of them end in ''boro''. Murphysboro, Jonesboro, Hallidayboro; a little further south in Kentucky there is Murfreesboro, Hollowsboro. There are ''boros'' in the south; what exactly is a ''boro''?
But perhaps the biggest surprise of all was when these slow speaking locals labled me a "city girl". City Girl?! I grew up on a farm in a town with less than 2,000 people and you're going to call me a city girl?
"Well, you have that Chicaahhgo accent," they'd say, holding their nose on the Chicago apparently to imitate my nasaly dialect I had previously been unaware of.
But, I don't have an accent...do I?
After living in Carbondale for four years, I've learned the truth. If you live in southern Illinois, anything north of Champaign is "Chicago" and therefore anyone with the slightest Chicaahhgo accent is labeled such.
But I've also learned that my dialect changes with my environment. It is easy to fall into step with the laid back, slow speaking style of the south. However, once I am back home to "Rural Chicago", I revel with my northern peers in whining out our "a" sounds and even talking through our nose from time to time.
As they say, "When in Rome..."
In-Class Exercise
I graduated from high school many years before most in the class and we had a different language. I grew up in the 1970's and we had the terms groovy and cool, which are not used today or have a different meaning. One word that has changed dramatically is gay. When I was younger, the word meant happy and carefree. The word is now used as a slang for homosexual. Using this word now has a very different connotation than what it did when I used it as a teenager. There are many words that change meaning over time.
(by Cindy)
(by Cindy)
Monday, August 13, 2007
Welcome to Grammar 300!
Hello students,
This is our blog for posting the summaries of our class readings, and our reactions to them, or to our peers' responses.
During the course of this semester, each of you will do one summary that contains a short personal statement in the end about what you think of the reading, and nine responses. They will be graded for content and depth of thought.
You are welcome to include cartoons as long as you indicate where you got them from (to avoid copyright issues and plagiarism) by linking them to their source.
We will practice blogging in the computer room 3208 on Thursday, August 30th.
Below is an example of a summary for our first class reading, the ENGFISH text. I've left out the personal statement, because we are going to discuss this text together in class.
Summary of Chapter 1, “the poison fish,” from Ken Macrorie, Telling Writing
The chapter begins with an explanation of the coinage of the word “Engfish” - a college student deemed unfit to teach English by her professor wrote a critique about him in James Joyce’s style using messed-up English: “Eets too badly that you someday fright preach Engfish.”
The term was then employed by the author to describe the “phony, pretentious language of the schools” (Macrorie 12), the kind of language students write because they think it’s what their teachers want to hear. In reality, however, teachers are “fed up” with reading such texts.
Macrorie gives several examples from students’ writings in Engfish; thus, one student wrote sentences like “my impression was quite impressive,” or “the hustle and bustle was going on.” We can easily see that “Engfish” means to write mere “blah,” and to employ nice sounding words or idioms without understanding them, or using them in the wrong connotation. Another textual example shows that “Engfish” can also consist of abundant repetitions which use text as page filler. Engfish texts, according to the author’s definition, don’t employ a “fancy, academic language, but simple everyday words that say nothing …” (Macrorie 13). Such texts are quickly forgotten.
The chapter begins with an explanation of the coinage of the word “Engfish” - a college student deemed unfit to teach English by her professor wrote a critique about him in James Joyce’s style using messed-up English: “Eets too badly that you someday fright preach Engfish.”
The term was then employed by the author to describe the “phony, pretentious language of the schools” (Macrorie 12), the kind of language students write because they think it’s what their teachers want to hear. In reality, however, teachers are “fed up” with reading such texts.
Macrorie gives several examples from students’ writings in Engfish; thus, one student wrote sentences like “my impression was quite impressive,” or “the hustle and bustle was going on.” We can easily see that “Engfish” means to write mere “blah,” and to employ nice sounding words or idioms without understanding them, or using them in the wrong connotation. Another textual example shows that “Engfish” can also consist of abundant repetitions which use text as page filler. Engfish texts, according to the author’s definition, don’t employ a “fancy, academic language, but simple everyday words that say nothing …” (Macrorie 13). Such texts are quickly forgotten.
However, it’s not only students who use “Engfish.” It can happen to everybody, and “Engfish” can even be found in textbooks; for example, when they begin with statements such as “If you are a student who desires assistance in order to write effectively and fluently, then this textbook is written for you.” (Macrorie 13) The author argues that students think textbooks are unfailing, and a model for good language, so they give the teacher precisely that language they are fed with through their textbooks.
Macrorie mentions a textual sample from a third-grader which – although clearly in faulty English – is written in a vivid voice, containing sharp and true pictures. He argues that college students have lost much of this original truth and sharpness, because they employ the extremely boring language they have learned all the years in school: Engfish. However, according to Macrorie, there is a way out of this dilemma.
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