Recently in Language & Speech Category
I was reading this on Topix in the African-American forum, and Topix reader Bruhman wrote:
"The stereotypical "Southern Black" accent is acually derived from Africans learning broken English from their Liverpudlian transporters, and overseers. The black accent has been traced directly back to 17th century Liverpool.
Even blacks in the midwest, and west coast. three to four generations removed from the South still maintain vestiges of this accent. One reason Southern rap became so popular was that WEST COAST rappers like Too Short, Hammer, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg all sounded so "country" to people in the South that people in Texas, Georgia, Florida, etc. began to make rap records themselves.
The "standard American accent" that most Americans speak is actually taught to television broadcasters, and is derived from Ohio. Even white and Black people from the south, who speak with an accent colloquially, and amongst themselves, are able to employ this "standard" accent in certain situations, i.e. business, or in legal matters.
Interesting, Bruhman...
The Chicago Tribune has some wonderful features on race issues, and I was reading some comments on their site where visitors can pose questions comment on their experiences. The naivety of some is funny and sad at other times. Here is what one of the reader named Goldie wrote on an experience with another mom, who happened to be white:
"When our youngest daughter (we are African American) was 12 she was hospitalized for pneumonia. Her room-mate was White. Joint motherly conversations ensued by the middle of the 1st day. As my child and her 17 yr old sister spoke to me and in general conversation the room-mate's mother asked me pointedly - "Where did you have your daughters tutored in English ?" They speak so well. My husband's and my grandparents & parents (rural backgrounds) are college educated as are we & many of our friends who are not speak standard English as the norm. An African American friend once commented that America's major conflict is one of class...& it so happens that class assumptions are made by many based on physical characteristics, limited by one's personal experinces. Some Appalachian truck drivers read Shakespeare...some Black folks enjoy country music, some Asians abhor rice, and ad finitum."
More of our kids need to know there is nothing wrong with speaking in complete and grammatically correct sentences, and this should be encouraged.
Watched Jerry Springer today 7-1-07 for 15 minutes with the caption "No More Beer!"
Tavares, a man objected to a fellow by the name of Jermaine dating his sister because he was a problem drinker, "No, he's not abrusing her no mo', said Tavares."
I have never heard of the word abusing pronounced in that way, Jerry corrected him, and he repeated the word "abrusing." Now, where along the way did he learn to pronounce abusing as "abrusing"? And on more than one occasion, I have heard the word “brutiful” on these talk shows.
Is pronouncing those words a regional practice of speaking or are these folks lacking in the most basics of abc's? Surely, they have heard the words pronounced correctly. What is their problem? It needs to stop.
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