Who is Rosetta Stone?

[Wilson Gray]

You're wrong, Dennis. Rosetta Stone was a founder of the National
Association of Colored Women's Clubs. Though born in a sharecropper's
shack in the Mississippi Delta, by listening to recordings of the
speeches of Eleanor Roosevelt, she managed to lose her Southern-Negro
brogue and train herself to speak Proper Anglish, to the extent that
she was often mistaken for an upper-class white woman when she spoke
to the colored masses over the radio, thereby commanding their
respect, attention, and admiration. Hence, her connection with
language-learning by the use of recordings and the fact that the
company doesn't use her likeness in its ads.

Little-known fact: The late, great Gospel-songstress, "Sister"
_Rosetta_ Tharp[sic] was named in her honor.

-Wilson

On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 12:36 PM, Dennis Baron <debaron at illinois.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dennis Baron <debaron at ILLINOIS.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Who is Rosetta Stone?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I thought Rosetta Stone was one of the early organizers of the ILGWU,
> a labor leader who fought for the rights of exploited acronym makers
> in the early 1900s.
> ____________________
> Dennis Baron
> Professor of English and Linguistics
> Department of English
> University of Illinois
> 608 S. Wright St.
> Urbana, IL 61801
>
> office: 217-244-0568
> fax: 217-333-4321
>
> http://illinois.edu/goto/debaron
>
> read the Web of Language:
> http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 6, 2008, at 11:28 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Who is Rosetta Stone?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I notice that in=A0the latest commercial, Michael Phelps (always)
>> and the a=
>> nnouncer (predominantly) both favor the "Coretta King" stress pattern.
>> =A0
>> Since a tiny Rosetta stone is the company's emblem, I can only
>> presume that=
>> they've abandoned their project of underestimating the knowledge of
>> the Am=
>> erican people.=20
>> =A0
>> Look for: future ads with=A0a lady=A0in Sarah Palin glasses ("flying
>> off th=
>> e shelves," according to Fox) saying, "Want to learn a language
>> fast? Hi! I=
>> 'm=A0 Rosetta Stone...."
>> =A0
>> JL=0A=0A=0A
>>
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