geechee

[Wilson Gray]

I missed it, dammit! But thanks for the heads-up. I'll watch for the
re-run.
-Wilson

On Jan 6, 2005, at 3:16 PM, Educational CyberPlayGround wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Educational CyberPlayGround <admin at EDU-CYBERPG.COM>
> Subject:      Re: geechee
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Hey Wilson & all,
>
> talkin about fascinating . . .
>
> did anybody watch the 3 hour TV document on PBS last night that
> focused on  American English?
>
> PBS gives an English lesson
> By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times  |  January 5, 2005
>
> In the linguistic travelogue ''Do You Speak American?" airing tonight
> at 8
> on WGBH (Channel 2), Robert MacNeil investigates the modern adventures
> of
> our gloriously unruly tongue -- not merely what is said, but how it's
> said,
> both the words we use and the way we shape them.
> <http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2005/01/05/
> pbs_gives_an_english_lesson/>
>
> I thought it was a little long. . .  and it did a pretty good job
> of explaining AAVE / regional dialect & Ebonics.
> I loved the effort made to explain once again what
> Labov, Baugh, Rickford and others are trying to teach the public
> and K12 educators which I totally agree with.
>
> I devote my area on linguistics toward that end!
> I also loved the way folklore - story tellers etc.
> were woven into the story - that was fantastic.
>
> FYI: see
> National Children's Folksong Repostiory
> http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Culdesac/Repository/NCFR.html
>
> but I was majorly bummed out by the
> complete and total omission of
>
> 1) American Indian languages which contributed
> to the first words used  - how
> could they have done that!!??
>
> 2) Louisiana Creole and it's influence
> on everything
>
> 3) American Virgin Island Creole and
> it's existence as literature.
>
> Yes, the show was already 3 hours long . . .
>
> but they could have stolen minutes away
> from the hip hop, surfing dude, valley girl, snowboarding,
> roller blading and ya know like the rest of like the words,like,
> ya know, like, what i mean? like what about the netglishes,
> dude, ya know?
> spanglish, netglish,
> SABE - Standard American- British English
> OVE - Oral and Vernacular Englishes
> ICE - International Colloquial English
> which of course, must be invading everyone's language, like like like
> ya know dude? like i'm so sick of like  . . .
>
> best,
> karen
>
>
>
>>>
>>> Sorry Wilson,
>>>
>>> Didn't mean to bum you out. This topic
>>> always brings up a lot of baggage.
>>> I run a mailing list called CreoleTalk
>>> for Linguists from all over the world
>>> interested in creole & dialect speakers.
>>>
>>> I used to live on St. Croix, USVI teaching
>>> elementary school.  see:
>>> http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/AboutUs/aboutus.html
>>>
>>> best,
>>> karen
>>
>> Don't worry. All is forgiven.;-) I find the topic fascinating. In
>> fact,
>> years ago, a friend of mine went so far as to suggest that none other
>> than the late great Raven McDavid would be interested in the change in
>> meaning of "geechee" in the course of its travels from, presumably,
>> South Carolina to Texas. However, I never had the nerve to contact the
>> great man about something that strikes me as rather trivial. To me,
>> the
>> fact that the word survived transportation to Texas is more
>> interesting
>> than the change in meaning that it underwent there. A lot of black
>> Texan families, including the family of your humble correspondent,
>> have
>> their roots in South Carolina. Interestingly enough, "geechee" is a
>> common household term that I learned as a child, but I know "Gullah"
>> only as a literary term. FWIW,  with reference to New Orleans and
>> other
>> locations in Louisiana, "creole" is pronounced as approximately
>> "kree-awl" in my native version of BE.
>>
>> Justice Thomas is a whole 'nother story. But I'm more than willing to
>> let that sleeping dog lie.
>>
>> -Wilson
>>
>>>
>>>>> Some of the resources below may be of interest.
>>>>>
>>>>> Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas [is/was] a Gullah speaker.
>>>>> (12/14/00) issue of the New York Times in Thomas's own words
>>>>> "When I was 16, I was sitting as the only black kid in my class,
>>>>> and
>>>>> I
>>>>> had
>>>>> grown up speaking a kind of a dialect. It's called Geechee.
>>>>
>>>> it's too bad that you had to bring up the man once lampooned -
>>>> correctly, in my opinion - as "The yard-jockey of the Republican
>>>> right." It's spoiled my whole day.;-) What a bringdown! Starting
>>>> from
>>>> the age of *13*, I, too, "was sitting as the only black kid in my
>>>> class, and I had grown up speaking a kind of dialect."
>>>> Additionally, I
>>>> was also only one of seven blacks among 800 students. I'll stop
>>>> here.
>>>> As the blues song puts it, "Don't start me to talkin', 'cause I'll
>>>> tell
>>>> everything I know. I'll talk about [him] low-down an' dirty an'
>>>> every
>>>> word I say will be true."
>>>>
>>>> -Wilson Gray
>>>>
>>>>> http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/GullahGeechee.html
>>>>>
>>>>> <snip>
>>>>>
>>>>> "Gullah, a word derived perhaps from Angola, draws to some degree
>>>>> on
>>>>> amix
>>>>> of West African languages like Ewe, Ibo and Yoruba."
>>>>>
>>>>> African Languages
>>>>> http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/aflang.html
>>>>>
>>>>> World Creoles
>>>>> http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/worldcreoles.html
>>>>>
>>>>> American Virgin Islands Creole
>>>>> http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/vi.html
>>>>>
>>>>> best,
>>>>> Karen Ellis
>
> <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>
> Guavaberry Books
> <http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/GuavaberryBooks.html>
> Domino - Traditional Children's Songs, Proverbs, and Culture U.S.V.I.
> Find Music Books by The Funk Brothers  - 2x Grammy Winners
>
> National Children's Folksong Repository
> http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Culdesac/Repository/NCFR.html
>
> The Educational CyberPlayGround
> http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/
>
> Hot List of Schools Online
> Net Happenings, K12 Newsletters, Network Newsletters
> http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/index.html
>
>
> 7 Hot Site Awards
> New York Times, USA Today , MSNBC, Earthlink,
> USA Today Best Bets For Educators, Macworld Top Fifty
> <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>
>