Fwd: conversating

[Wilson Gray]

Being retired, I get to sit around all day watching trash TV, such as
Maury, Jerry, and various dating shows, all of which feature people
from all over the country speaking their native dialects as they would
back home. The people on a show like EimiDate  are indeed on their
home turf. On the basis of evidence garnered from these shows, it
appears to me to be the case that "conversate" is used by people of
all races, creeds, colors, and sexual orientations. It's more likely
to be used by members of the working class in the North and by members
of the, well, yokel class, for want of a better descriptor, in the
South than by members of the leisure class. When members of the
leisure class use "'conversate," from their speech mannerisms, facial
expressions, etc. it's clear that they are using the word as slang or
as a joke, a la, e.g. "fisticate." But, as far as I can tell, those
less-educated speakers who use "conversate" are completely unaware
that this word does not date back to Beowulf. In fact, they appear to
feel that their use of it shows "Klass with a capital 'K,'" to
resurrect a long-outdated put-down. The users, overwhelmingly male,
brag about their ability to, e.g. "conversate with the ladies."


FWIW, ElimiDate could give the naive watcher the impression that local
dialects are on the way out. The setting is, e.g. Natchez,
Mississippi, and the only thing clearly Southern about the speech of
the participants is their use of "y'all"? Black participants sound
like Tom Brokaw? To quote Richard Pryor, "Unreal! An' I ain' goin' fo'
it."

-Wilson

On 10/21/06, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at umr.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Fwd: conversating
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Well, if we can have pairs like "ameliorate--amelioration" and "(to) =
> elaborate---elaboration," I suppose it's not suprising that "conversate" =
> may arise as a back-formation to "conversation."
>
> Btw, is there any added prestige to saying "conversate" rather than =
> simply "converse"? I.e., if someone says "conversate" might this (at =
> least in the mind of the speaker) sound more educated?  Is it perhaps a =
> racial thing, preferred more by African-Americans than whites?
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Beverly Flanigan
> Sent: Sat 10/21/2006 12:25 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Fwd: conversating
>
>
> We've talked about this -ating inflection before, but here's another =
> example from a friend in Kentucky:
>
>         From: "Elizabeth Winkler" <vulturechick at accessky.net>
>         To: flanigan at ohio.edu
>         Subject: conversating
>         Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 07:47:09 -0500
> =09
>         I got it again this morning in the discussion board section of my =
> on-line class in SLA. Here's the question I asked and the response:
> =09
>         "Should classroom grades reflect both the ability to carry on a =
> reasonable conversation as well as test accuracy through written and =
> oral tests?  What should the balance be?"
> =09
>         Answer:  "These are questions I am thinking about now.  Conversational =
> skills as well as written skills are not equally important.  Some =
> students may want to learn specifically for conversating, others =
> specifically for reading, and still others for both.  Would it be =
> important to find out what each student is specifically interested in?"
> =09
>         The speaker is a working class woman, African American enrolled in a =
> 400 level SLA class.
> =09
>
>         My friend later added that she's only heard it so far from African =
> Americans.  As a sidenote, I also get pseudo-formal connectors like the =
> "as well as" substituted for "and" above.  "Although" in place of =
> "However" at the beginning of a presumably simple independent clause is =
> also increasingly common, even with a comma:  "Although, it wasn't =
> true."
> =09
>         Beverly Flanigan
>         Ohio University
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------ The =
> American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org=20
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
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race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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