non-rhotic ( MLK tidbit)

[Tim Frazer]

Maybe AAE varies along the lines of more r-lessness among southerners than
among those who grew up in the North.  One bit of evidence that AAE speakers
in Chicago were self-conscious about r-less ness 30 years ago:  in 1967, 68
and 69 I used to see these gang graffiti all over the Chicago "L":
"Blackstone Rangers.  All Up in Heah." (sic).  "59th St. D's.  Hey Heah!"
I would also see the same graffiti else where with conventional spelling,
that is, with the <<r>> where it normally would appear in "here."  (I don't
remember an r-less spelling for "Rangers" tho.)  Unfortuantely, I didn't
have the foresight to go around the city and take systematic notes.
----- Original Message -----
From: Nancy Elliott <nelliott1 at EARTHLINK.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2001 10:02 AM
Subject: MLK tidbit


> For Martin Luther King Day, here's a linguistic tidbit about Southern AAVE
> rhoticity.
>
> In MLK's 1963 "I have a dream" speech, King (born in Atlanta) is 85%
r-less,
> 115 out of 135 tokens (the rhotic pronunciations are virtually all in a
> stressed or unstressed central V).  Compare Miami-born actor Sydney
Poitier
> in Patch of Blue (1965) at 69% and in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
at
> 62%... versus Philadelphian Bill Cosby in Mother Jugs & Speed (1976) at
11%.
>
>
> Thirty-seven years later, Jesse Jackson (born in South Carolina) was still
> 79% r-less in his speech at the 2000 Democratic National Convention -
> 187/237 tokens - (but rather than being purely phonologically conditioned,
> it looks like his rhotic tokens are mainly a few lexical items such as
> 'workers' - both syllables, 'center, deferred, surplus').   A fun contrast
> to him is Ted Kennedy, whose r-less rate in his DNC-2000 speech was 11%
> (27/252 tokens), confined mainly to the words 'mother,' 'brother(s),' and
> 'seniors' - but not 'father.'  (Oh, and Caroline Kennedy's address at the
> DNC was 0% r-less.)  I'll eventually get to the other African-American DNC
> speakers (M and F) so I can compare them.
>
>
> Happy Martin Luther King Day,
>
> Nancy Elliott
> Southern Oregon University