putative bidialectalism

[Beverly Flanigan]

In fact, if you all haven't seen, and used, Baugh's 10-minute interview
with "Dateline" (or "20/20"--whichever) on linguistic profiling, called
"The Color of Your Voice," you should.  He demonstrates with his own
undergrads the ability to recognize AAVE (and less so Chicano English) from
faceless voices alone, admits this common recognizibility, and then says
"It's how you act upon this knowledge that's important."  He switches
himself from SAE to a (not very deep) AAVE and cites cases of housing
discrimination based on telephone voice recognition (vs. Johnnie Cochran's
pious assertion to the contrary in the Simpson trial).  The video works
powerfully with classes, and I've even conducted two workshops on
cross-cultural communication using it.  I have the clip; it's one of those
extras I appended to my long video list, sent earlier.  Maybe over Winter
break I can get around to making copies of some of these videos I've
promised to people!

I too wondered about Rickford's putative bidialectalism; his acrolectal
Guyanese English is very evident, it seems to me.

At 08:35 AM 10/23/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>I'm with Ron here; perghaps there is a John (Baugh) - John (Rickford)
>confusion. John Baugh is not only authentically bidialectal (which he
>even publicly performs from time to time) but has even been examined
>acoustically (and found to be distinctive) in his imitations of
>African-American, European-American, and Chicano accents in his work
>on fair housing ("linguistic profiling").
>
>dInIs
>
>PS: Well, maybe one or two of those accents are not imitations, but
>let's not get into imitation versus performance (yet).
>
>>In a message dated 10/22/04 5:15:32 PM, wilson.gray at RCN.COM writes:
>>
>>
>>>  On Oct 22, 2004, at 4:27 PM, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>>>
>>>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>  > -----------------------
>>>  > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  > Poster:       RonButters at AOL.COM
>>>  > Subject:      putative bidialectalism
>>>  > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  > --------
>>>  >
>>>  > In a message dated 10/22/04 3:47:34 PM, wilson.gray at RCN.COM writes:
>>>  >
>>>  >
>>>  >> FWIW, he is the best bi-dialectal speaker that I've ever heard,
>>>  >> including myself, and that's saying a taste. He's in a class with
>>>  >> Leonard Brezhnev's nameless personal interpreter, who's the best
>>>  >> bi-lingual speaker that I've ever heard.
>>>  >>
>>>  >
>>>  > Does this refer to Allan Metcalf or John Rickford? Both are very
>>>  > talented
>>>  > guys, and I THINK I know them both quite well. I've never heard either
>>>  > one speak
>>>  > in anything other than what I have always taken to be the same dialect,
>>>  > fundamentally, that he spoke at age 16 or so. The idea of Allan
>>>  > Metcalf doing rap or
>>>  > John Rickford doing Frank Sinatra is delightful, though, and I hope we
>>>  > can
>>>  > get them together for a duet in San Francisco in January. I'd
>>>  > particularly like
>>>  > to hear John's rendition of "My Way" and Allan's "Me So Horny."
>>>  >
>>>
>>>  My reference is to John Rickford. Once upon a time, I had a speaking
>>>  acquaintance with John, but that was a while ago.  If you mentioned my
>>>  name to him, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he replied that he had
>>>  no idea who I am. IAC, I have heard him speak before various audiences
>>>  and I've also chatted with him on a personal basis. I know nothing at
>>>  all about Allan Metcalf. His name means nothing to me. I've never heard
>>>  him speak a single syllable under any circumstances nor have I read
>>>  anything by him. As a consequence, I am unable to voice an opinion of
>>>  any kind regarding Mr./Dr./Prof. Metcalf.
>>>
>>>  Now, what is the point of your reply? That only your opinions based
>>>  upon your experiences are the only valid ones? Or is it your claim that
>>>  Rickford is unworthy of such praise?
>>>
>>>  -Wilson Gray
>>
>>My point was first of all to find out if it was REALLY John Rickford who was
>>being referred to here. My experience with John--formed over the past 20 or
>>more years--is that I have never heard him speak with anything other than an
>>identifiable Caribbean accent. (Walt Wolfram has never strayed too far from
>>Philadephia accent, either, and Bill Labov would never be mistaken
>>for someone from
>>Atlanta).
>>John is an extremely talented guy, and perhaps he has a non-Caribbean
>>register that I have never heard him use, but no, my experience is
>>certainly not the
>>"only valid" experience, and even if I thought that that would scarcely have
>>been the "point" of my e-mail. However, because my experience with John
>>stretches over a long period of time (during which I have been
>>reasonably attentive,
>>if only because I admire him so much), I personally would be at least a bit
>>surprised if there were not some other explanation for Mr. Gray's
>>memory (e.g.,
>>perhaps it was actually John Baugh, not John Rickford, whose accent he is
>>recalling). But if I am wrong, well, it would be a delight to hear
>>Dr. Rickford
>>actually do it!
>>
>>Being able to imitate another dialect is certainly not unpraiseworthy, but it
>>is far down on the list of praiseworthy accomplishments that a linguist might
>>aspire to, in my book. John Rickford's career speaks for itself: his work is
>>brilliant and has been consistently brilliant for over two decades. There
>>only
>>a handful of living American linguists that I can truthful say I admire as
>>much as I do John.
>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
>Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
>A-740 Wells Hall
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48824
>Phone: (517) 432-3099
>Fax: (517) 432-2736
>preston at msu.edu