Offensive vernacular?

[Sally Donlon]

First, my lifelong experience with people of color (here in South Louisiana and
New Orleans) tells me that the parody bears very little resemblance to any such
vernacular. It is more representative, I believe, of an amorphous, generally
uneducated, person responding to a perceived rebuke. My guess is that this
exchange, if it happened, is of a hierarchical nature (i.e., a mild rebuttal to
a secretary who had the audacity to "correct" a professor?).

sally donlon



Sam Clements wrote:

> What I would want to know is--why did your colleague choose to write this
> stupidity to his secretary in this instance?  It sounds like an urban legend
> or some exponentially forwarded message that is sent in e-mail to my mother.
>
> Is your colleague in the habit of doing this kind of thing in an official,
> office situation?    Did "Joyce" (not her real name) talk in a similar
> manner in her email?  WHY did he choose to reply to her the way he did? What
> did his message have to do with her message?
>
> SC
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joseph Nardoni" <JNardoni at AOL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 10:12 PM
> Subject: Offensive vernacular?
>
> > Hi, a colleague of mine is taking some heat for sending the following
> email
> > message.  I will give a brief situation. He missed class one day, and
> forgot to
> > tell the secretary he would be out, so she couldn't tell his students who
> > came looking for him.  She sent him an email request to remember next
> time.  This
> > is what he wrote:
> >
> > Shucks, Joyce, (not her real name), ya know, ah plumb forgot.  Mah Dean
> > alreddy new it, 'n ah told mah classes on Frahday ah wuddn't be their.
> Guess some
> > folks wuz out thet day.  Ah'll dismember it neckst tahme.
> >
> > Some people at my college are claiming this language is a clear attempt to
> > use a vernacular that "has been ascribed derisively, to people of color."
> >
> > While I'm not a linguist, it seems to me that this sounds more like the
> > dialect of a southern white hillbilly, or even a parody of one, ala Li'l
> Abner.
> >
> > What I am asking for is your considered opinions as to what dialectal
> > influences you see in this language, and any information you have that
> would suggest
> > this kind of language has been ascribed in derision towards people of
> color.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Joseph Nardoni
> >