WEBVTT - Dialects, Accents, and Linguistic Dexterity – Lab 069 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:04.240 Did you see Chet Hanks on Z Way, Yes, unfortunately. 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:10.560 I mean, I just don't understand why anyone would want 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:12.760 to make a fool out of themselves like that. 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:14.080 It's just embarrassing. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:17.560 And I am a huge fan of Thomas Jeffrey Hanks, 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:20.599 and I cannot believe that this is the spawn of 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:24.599 an American treasure. So Chet Hanks is out there doing 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:27.400 patois and he thinks it. 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:28.520 What he thinks is patois. 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:31.400 Yes, And he said he thinks he put it on 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.720 the map. That's colonizer language. You can't put something on 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:35.919 the map that was already on. 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:36.880 The map map. 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.040 Yeah, And so I think it really makes me think 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:46.120 about people laying claim to other people's language and culture 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:49.800 and the way they speak. We see this with people saying, oh, 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.199 this is TikTok talk and I'm like, no, it's not. 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.960 No, it's not. And it's just really got. 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.160 Our wheels turning right, And I think it's time we 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.040 put it under the microscope. I think this is very important. 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.120 I'm t T and I'm Zachiah and from Spotify. 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:19.760 This is Dope Labs. 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.520 Welcome to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that mixes hardcore science, 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.520 pop culture and a healthy dos of friendship. You know, 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:35.280 on the show, we love to talk too much, and 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.319 this week we're talking all about how much we love 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:40.440 to talk and how it influences how we talk. 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:41.200 All of it. 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.440 Yes, from you know, where we were born, from where 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:45.520 our parents are from. 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.080 Everything influences how we talk. 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:52.080 And so this week we're talking all about linguistics specifically. 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.960 We really wanted to know more about how the science 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.320 of linguistics shows up in our everyday lives and some 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:00.520 of the reasons that we speak the way we do. 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:13.520 Yes, let's jump right into the recitation. So what do 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:14.079 we know? Tt? 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.280 I think one thing that we know is that language 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.480 is complex. I mean, when you think about the number 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:26.000 of languages in the world and how many languages can 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:30.840 appear in like small sections of the world, it's really wild. 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.360 It's such a big part of our culture and how 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:35.239 we move. 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:35.800 Through the world. 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:40.480 Yes, I think we also know that there's so much 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.640 nuance even in the same words that you might say 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.240 how you say them. This is reminded me of like 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:52.320 a tweet that while where people were saying okay, oh, okay, okay, 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.240 like it was all the different things like bruh, yeah, bruh, 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.000 Like you know, the same word all these different ways. 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:02.359 So even like intonation and emphasis in different areas can 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:03.600 mean so many different things. 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:05.560 And what we also. 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:09.880 Know is is that language is influenced by everything that 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.640 is happening around us. So when we were younger, you know, 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.880 we spoke a little bit differently what you knew hip 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:22.280 young whipper snappers are saying these days, we're still trying 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:27.840 to catch up. Oh my goodness, t T is one 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:33.120 thirty two years old. Even if we take all of 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:36.920 those things into account, right, there's still so much more 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.840 I want to understand, like what does it mean, like 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:44.240 when we consider linguistics as a field, Like what's the 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:48.080 difference between a dialect and an accent? And is there 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:51.240 a such thing as an American accent? Right, you know, 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:52.760 like because it's just a melting pot. 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:53.720 That's a good point. 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:59.000 I want to know the linguistic history in the United States, 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.760 and I think specifically for us, I want to know 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:08.480 some of the roots of black or African American vernacular English, 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.160 like where we got some of our terminology from. Yes, 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.920 it's reminded me of when my friend from the Midwest 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.839 recently said, well better lick your caf over and I 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:25.320 was like, this is a real cowboys were long line cowboys. 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:38.599 Okay, so let's jump into the dissection. Our guest for 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:40.679 today's lab is doctor John Ball. 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:46.080 I'm the Margaret Bush Wilson Distinguished University Professor at Washington 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:50.719 University in Saint Louis, and I am currently President of 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:52.960 the Linguistic Society of America. 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:55.840 Doctor Ball has written several books on linguistics and is 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.000 known for his theory on linguistic profiling, which happens when 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.120 people discriminate agains others based on the way that they talk. 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.720 So let's start with some linguistics basics. We act doctor 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.880 bad to break down what he means by linguistic science. 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:15.719 Linguistics is the science that tries to evaluate what all 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:19.919 human languages have in common, including sign language, and to 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:26.600 evaluate those commoniolies through some shared scientific principles and methodologies. 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:31.599 And my own specialty is called socio linguistics, which takes 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.040 all of this linguistic science and then looks at it 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.800 in a social realm. It really is a science you 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:42.680 can measure and break down all of the elements in language. 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.920 Okay, So linguistics is the study of languages, and there 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.560 are thousands of different languages in the world. Many of 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.039 them are very different from one another, but doctor Boss 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.640 says they all have certain elements in common. 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:58.080 They all have a sound system produced through articulation that 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:02.479 divides into me meaningful units of sound, whether it's full 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.960 words or prefixes or suffixes, and then they have to 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:11.000 be strung together in a grammatical sequence to have meaningful leutterances. 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.000 Doctor Bab says that we can see this in English 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:18.880 with the prefix un un by itself doesn't mean anything, 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.520 but when you use it as a prefix, it means 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:26.480 not so like unfulfilled means not fulfilled, or unreal means 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:29.760 not real. And whether you're a fan of prefixes or not, 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:32.000 one thing that we know is that where you grew 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:36.080 up in the world can determine how you speak a language. 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:37.359 Right, we were just talking about this. 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:39.920 I feel like if I'm on the phone with somebody 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.040 for like thirty seconds, I can figure out, Oh, this 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:43.880 person is from the East coast, or they're from the 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:46.239 West coast, or they're from the South, like my friend 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:51.760 who is Southern, Okay. And sometimes even when I hear 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.680 Southern folks h depending on what we're talking about. There 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:56.640 might be some key words in there, and if I 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.280 listen long enough, I can maybe narrow down the state. 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.760 And I feel the same way about folks that are 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.240 from the area of the country where I'm from. So 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.400 I'm from Maryland, and so they call the DC, Maryland 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.520 and Virginia area the DMV. And there's some slang or 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:16.480 ways of speaking that people from the DC metro area 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.280 the way they speak, so I can usually I hear 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:23.720 that and I'm like, oh, what's up. I have seen 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:26.120 her say that person is from DC, that person is 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.680 from the neighboring county, Okay, PG County, and then this 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:34.040 other person is from Baltimore. Yeah, because Baltimore is not 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:35.720 a part of what I'm talking about. 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:42.400 Baltimore is on separate state. I feel like we have 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:43.280 different accents. 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:45.400 But somebody recently told me that they can't tell the 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:47.680 difference between us on the podcast, and so I want 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:48.960 you to yes, So I. 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.600 Really want you to let that sink in. I don't 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:56.720 know what. Welcome to the South, you know what, I'll 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:57.760 take it as a compliment. 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.640 I feel like we have very different acts and speak 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:03.280 very different dialects at times. 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:07.840 But doctor All explain to us the difference between dialect 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:08.679 and accent. 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.400 When someone speaks a dialect of a language, that means 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:17.520 that they do so in a way that has unique 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:22.880 grammatical properties, and that often intersects with the fact that 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:28.840 speakers of different dialects will also have shared accents. But 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:31.240 accents are based on your pronunciation. 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:35.240 Okay, So some examples of different accents in English are 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:40.640 Southern United States, that's your girl, Midwestern New England, and 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:41.280 New York. 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:43.760 And there's a bunch of other ones too. Yeah. 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.240 Some examples of dialects of English in the United States 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:53.040 are Southern again, African American English, and Appalachian English. And 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:58.840 within these accents and dialects, there's still even finer kind 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:05.120 of differences. So there's variation based on region, generation, socioeconomic status, 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.840 so many other factors that we can't even name. So 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.520 let's take a minute for a pole, because tt I 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.040 know you have a very good ear and you can 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.440 tell somebody's accent in the United States where they're from. 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:18.720 But I wonder if everybody else can too. I feel 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:20.480 like it's easy for a lot of people. 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.800 Okay, So check the app right now and tell us 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:28.840 which one of these accents. Can you easily distinguish no problem, 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.559 no trouble, just hands down, I know this person's from 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:33.839 the Midwest, hands down, I know they're from the southern US. 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.520 I want to hear from you. 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.600 Doctor bad told us about the concept of linguistic dexterity, 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:47.400 and that's when people have the ability to modify their 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:49.160 speech based on their environment. 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:51.920 I think that's a really great point, tt and I 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.560 really like the term linguistic dexterity because it feels like 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.880 it's dignifying the skill that it takes to use language 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.160 in different ways to connect and communicate with people from 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:03.200 different backgrounds. 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:06.440 And we see this happening also with Native English speakers 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:07.680 depending on their environment. 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:09.560 We call this code switching. 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.319 But doctor Boss, it's technically a little bit of a misnomer. 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.840 Code switching is a term that's used quite commonly by 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.240 a lot of Americans. But if you're looking at it 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.880 from a scientific point of view, what most people mean 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.080 when they're talking about black people who code switch is 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:33.800 in linguistics either called bi dialectalism or style shifting, and 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.359 that's because you're not changing languages. 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:37.040 MM. 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.320 We talk about style shifting a lot. 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:44.040 Yes, absolutely, Like when we started doing dope labs. That 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.839 was really important to us to not style shift, yes, 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.679 and to speak authentically to who we are based off 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:53.840 of our life experiences and where. 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.000 We grew up, right, and to be honest. We've received 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:57.640 some pushback. 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.160 Right, people have said, oh, you should more academic or 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:03.480 more scholarly, and I'm like, this is what a scholar 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:06.719 sounds like exactly, you know, like, oh, you know, it 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:11.080 sound like a vad Well, I have one, so by defaults. 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:12.920 It is. 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.040 Doctor Bab helped highlight the difference between the two. Style 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.360 shifting is happening more along a continuum, whereas code switching 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.319 is when you have complete switching of languages. 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.560 And then even with code switching, there are distinctions between 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:33.000 something like Spanglish, which is a mixture of Spanish and English, 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.520 and code switching where part of the sentence might be 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.920 English and then you flip and then have the other 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:44.480 part of the sentence exclusively in Spanish, whereas Spanglish actually 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:49.040 kind of combines elements of some English words with Spanish words. 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:54.319 Who that is a lot to wrestle, Honestly, it's a lot. 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.160 And when you think about it, I mean in the 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.880 linguistic dexterity of it all. What we are able to 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:05.480 achieve through language is fascinating, and people are able to 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.680 do it at the drip of a dime so quickly. 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.600 It makes me think about people from immigrant communities who 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.240 speak English as a second or third or even fourth language. 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:17.959 They're going to have a lot more linguistic dexterity than 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.920 someone who was born in the US and raised in 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:24.400 an English only household. If you've ever tried to learn 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:28.080 a language, you know that the sentence structure changes, how 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.400 we handle verbs are differently than a lot of other languages, 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:35.440 and so it doesn't always overlay perfectly. 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.240 And so it can be really tough. 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.040 I think it sounds like a superpower to have this 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.440 type of linguistic dexterity and the ability to styleship at 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:46.800 the drip of a dime. But that's not how folks 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:50.520 are treated like in everyday life, and it's just like 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:54.280 everything in our society. Racism plays a huge role in 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:59.040 how society deems people who are in the linguistic majority 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:00.800 versus the minority. 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:08.040 You have many well educated speakers of mainstream, dominant forms 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:13.680 of American English who have very little linguistic dexterity. But 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.760 because they speak from a position of linguistic privilege, they 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.880 are not penalized for their lack of linguistic dexterity. Right, 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.560 The burden is always upon the group who is not 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.760 the dominant group. And we could take it international. You 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.720 can go to France or Germany or England, and the 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:35.720 well educated speech of the upper classes is the norm 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:39.280 by which everyone else is judged. And then that's true 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.760 here in the United States except for one wonderful exception, 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:47.600 and that's the fact that many very wealthy educated Americans, 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.800 most of them tend to be white, often speak with 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:55.920 different regional dialects. We see this beautifully displayed in Congress 0:13:55.960 --> 0:14:00.480 and the Senate. You don't see somebody saying to Lindsay Graham, oh, 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:03.800 you need to sound more like a TV broadcaster. Right, 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:07.200 Lindsey Graham's going to sound like the southern senator he is. 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:09.520 And oh, by the way, that's helpful to him in 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:10.920 his political context. 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:11.240 Right. 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.560 You know when sometimes people say, oh, there are sometimes terms, 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:21.280 there are sometimes accents, those are the hidden signals that, oh, 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:24.080 this person is like me. You know, where we get 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:28.840 different people associating grouping and social grouping when they hear 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:33.560 someone speak. This also makes me think about the linguistic 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.800 heritage when we talk about the South, right, Yeah, the 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:41.680 heritage and what has happened historically and how that's influenced linguistics. 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:43.480 And so, you know, we both want to learn more 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:45.720 about the linguistic heritage of black people in the United 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:48.720 States and understand how history has shaped the words and 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.040 phrases that show up in African American dialects, specifically in 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:54.320 the past and the present. 0:14:54.640 --> 0:15:00.560 There are unique properties to the linguistic dexterity exhibited by 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.600 African Americans. And then we need to take into account 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:09.560 that at this point in time, not all African Americans 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:14.480 are slave descendants, right, So the linguistic legacy that we're 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.720 speaking of has to do with the fact that slavery 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:25.920 created a unique set of linguistic circumstances that are not 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.160 shared by any other group that came. 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:33.880 The Transatlantic slave trade stole people from their lives in Africa, 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:37.840 taking away their freedom, family, culture, and languages, and so 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:42.040 much more. This experience is unique to the victims of 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:42.840 the slave trade. 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.320 Every immigrant group that's come to the United States had 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:49.880 their own volition. In other words, they decided, come on, y'all, 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.680 we're going to back up. We're moving to America right 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.280 where it was their decision. Where they were not enslaved, 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.880 they did so with others who spoke their same language. 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:07.440 That's why we have communities where Polish, Italian, German, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Vietnamese. 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:12.240 They all came to America intact. So how come no 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:16.840 African language made it across. Some people with racist stereotypes 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.240 would say, well, because well, the black people aren't smart 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:20.720 enough to remember their language. 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.200 No. When African people were captured during the Atlantic slave trade, 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.720 they were often separated by language to restrict and limit 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.560 their ability to communicate and to prevent uprisings. 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.360 One of the very first things they did, even before 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.560 the Atlantic crossing, was let's divide them up. Who speaks Tweet, 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:41.400 who speaks Ebo, separate them And so that created a 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:45.320 situation where you've already got dislocation from the mother tongue 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.120 even before you board the slave ships. You've already snatched 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.440 somebody from their family. You're about to put them into 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:54.800 slavery for the rest of their lives. They're going to 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.400 be trying to figure out out to escape. Well, if 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:00.320 everybody speaks the same language, they're going to be firing 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:01.040 pretty quickly. 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.560 This intentional separation and denial of language continued once enslave 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:07.200 people arrived in America. 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.960 Once you get to America and you're put on the 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:15.159 auction block, it's illegal to teach you to read and write. Okay, 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:17.440 you don't get to go to school. There's no such 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.200 thing as a public school for slaves. You're out there 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:23.480 into plantation. We need you picking cotton. So where do 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:26.560 you get exposed to English? You get exposed to English 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:28.920 by the white slave over here. Well, it turns out 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.480 most of them they didn't get here by their own choice. 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.760 They happened to be, for the most part, indentured servants 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:40.359 from Scotland and Ireland, and they would say things like 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:44.760 the bucket done be over yonder in their brogue. Well 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.520 that done be over yonder. You hear black people say 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.520 all the time, I'll be done. Told you that. That's 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.000 from the Scots Irish. And the fact that we were 0:17:55.040 --> 0:18:01.000 denied access to schools for hundreds of years. That linguistic fossilization, 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:06.359 which is grammatically productive, is passed from one generation to 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:08.000 the next in a very useful way. 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:09.439 I really like that phrase. 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:13.520 Grammatically productive people understand it and when you think about 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:15.119 the words, they make sense. 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:16.320 Absolutely. 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:18.920 Let's take a break and when we come back we'll 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:41.400 get into more of the linguistic nuances of Black American English. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.440 We're back, and don't get too sad, but next week 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:46.600 we're going to be out of the lab. 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:47.920 Don't worry. Don't worry. 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.399 We've got you covered with one of our favorite labs 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.760 until we return. Before the break, we talked about the 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.600 linguistic heritage of black people in the United States and 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.879 how the legacy of slavery shows up in our speech today. 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.520 Now that we understand that the slave trade was integral 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:07.159 to the way African American dialects formed in resistance to 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.080 the violence of white supremacy, we want to understand some 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.720 of the linguistic differences that we hear in these dialects. 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:18.800 So African Americans who are familiar with the colloquial vernacular 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:23.760 dialect will know well that one of the common words 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.840 used in ways that are not similar to other dialects 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.679 of English is the word be as in you know, 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:37.199 they be talking right, or she be sick. And what 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.600 a lot of people don't realize is that doesn't mean 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:45.880 the same thing as she is sick. Or sometimes that 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:50.440 particular expression where is would be used, the word is 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:52.720 doesn't appear. They just say she's sick. 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.880 Like we learned earlier, different dialects have their own unique grammar, 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.080 and it's not as simple as swapping out one word 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.720 for another. The grammar allows for meaning to change, and 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:04.880 we see people doing it wrong on the internet all 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:05.280 the time. 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:09.840 I'm like, that's not that's not for you. Talk about 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:10.600 what you know about. 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.359 Oh, come on, somebody, So what's the difference between he 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:19.000 happy and he'd be happy? He be happy means he's 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:22.720 usually happy all the time. It's an habitual state of affairs. 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:27.000 He happy, or he's happy, or he is happy could 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:30.480 be a momentary state. Unfortunately, because of the history of 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:34.360 the country, when people didn't know anything about linguistics and 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.080 slaves would say things like, you know, i'd be going 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.840 to the store or we be jumping, they would say, oh, 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.760 you know, they're not educated. They don't understand English properly. 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:48.480 And this just goes back to that myth where people 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:52.240 think that they can tell how educated someone is based 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:53.200 on the way that they talk. 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:55.160 The next example is ben. 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:59.400 Doctor Ba discusses the research of his colleague, doctor John Rickford, 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:02.240 a professor of linguistics at Stanford University. 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:08.040 The difference between the emphasis on the word ben as 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:12.560 in b e n as in we've been to the movies, 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.679 and the difference that he pointed out is if you 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:21.840 ask someone is your sister married? If you answered, oh, 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:26.560 she'd been married, okay, that means not only is she 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:28.959 married now, she's been married a long time. But if 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.960 you said she'd been married, that means she's no longer married, but. 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:33.560 She used to be. 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:37.480 In this example, the difference in meaning comes from the 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:41.240 tonal difference in the word ben. English is not a 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:46.160 tonal language, but some African languages are tonal languages. 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:51.800 So the slaves hearing the word ben began to impose 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:56.800 a grammatical distinction using tone that was not part of English. 0:21:57.080 --> 0:21:58.920 And again, because they weren't going to school, it wasn't 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:00.000 anybody correcting them. 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:02.840 It's so amazing how black people are able to maintain 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:05.679 that tonal aspect of their native languages in the creation 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:08.600 of this new dialect of English. Like one of my 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:13.000 favorite words that has a lot of different intonations, I 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:19.320 guess or tonalities is all right, like all right, like 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:22.160 all right, that kind of like all right, we're gonna 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:24.680 keep messing around, is gonna be a problem, all right, 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:27.960 all right, I got you. 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:33.440 Like, it's just so many things. Ah, I feel like okay. 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:41.560 Too, and bet and baby baby. The next example is 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:44.239 one that a lot of people have opinions on the 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:48.879 way we say ask, so ask and how Some folks 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:50.080 say acts. 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:53.960 So, like different pronunciations for the same word yes. 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:56.280 So ask and how some people say, oh, can I 0:22:56.359 --> 0:22:59.680 ask you a question? The linguistic term for this is metathesis, 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:01.640 where you invert to sounds. 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:04.960 If you're a parent of a child, when your child 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:09.040 was growing up, they said pasketti rather than spaghetti. Now 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:14.639 why would they do that? Well, Technically, having the syllable 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:18.439 S before a P and then a vowel sound is 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:24.200 difficult to produce, whereas pasketti has a consonant followed by 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:27.159 a vowel then followed by an S sound. Well, it 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:31.879 turns out that ask a vowel and then what we 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:35.399 in linguistics call a sibilant consonant and then a stop 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:41.159 consonant is more difficult to produce than a vowel followed 0:23:41.160 --> 0:23:47.200 by a stop consonant. So ax versus ask is easier 0:23:47.240 --> 0:23:50.199 to pronounce in terms of just the phonology of it. 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:54.280 And some people say, oh, well, on't they get confused 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:59.359 because an ax is a tool, Well, an ax is 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:04.920 also and ask is a verb. So therefore, if I say, 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:08.320