McWhorter on "Negro English"

[Geoffrey Steven Nathan]

He's not only black and a native speaker of AAVE, he has written eloquently about AAVE as well as on pidgins, creoles, and some general theoretical issues.  He's an occasional contributor to LanguageLog.
He has been occasionally identified as a conservative, he's actually hard to pidginhole.  So to speak.

Geoff



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Joel S. Berson wrote:

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At 1/12/2010 07:01 PM, Geoff Nathan wrote:

>And one of our own has much better things to say:

>

>http://www.tnr.com/blogs/john-mcwhorter



1)  Is McWhorter black?



2)  Is there really "the Biblical passage about trying to take a

speck out of someone's eye when you've got a log in your own"?  I'm a

non-believer, so I really don't know.  Please cite chapter and verse.



3)  McWhorter wrote "Inevitably there will be reminiscences of Joe

Biden's comment about Obama being "articulate." "  When I first heard

this comment of Biden's, I simply thought he was comparing Obama to

Adlai Stevenson, the most recent previous presidential candidate

(including those actually elected) I thought was articulate.  No

racism intended or perceived.



Joel



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