convincing bidialectalism

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 10/23/04 11:07:36 AM, faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU writes:


> Could Wilson be thinking of John Baugh? I've heard him switch
> registers multiple times in the course of a single anecdote, quite
> convincingly, to my non-AAVE-native ears.
>

This is what I suggested in my last message, which you do not quote in full.
Baugh does indeed do a seemingly flawless SAE--enough so that I suspect most
hearers will assume that he comes from a middle-class background and that SAE
is his "first" dialect. If I remember correctly, he has also said that he had
to learn to speak a convincing AAVE when he was a lifeguard in Southern
California.