Obama's sidiolect put down by a white yet again

[Ben Zimmer]

On Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 7:16 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> On Mon, Sep 3, 2012 at 5:04 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > Wow! I never guessed Sarah Palin was black!
>
> She's probably not. Of course, youneverknow.
>
> But the point would be that, in her case, "g-drop" isn't said by even
> the most left-wing, "socialist" political pundit to be just some
> linguistic bullshit that she sometime fakes in those desparate moments
> when politics requires her to make herself *appear* to be of the
> now-disenfranchised, white masses and to obscure the fact that she's
> really of the enfranchised-since-George-Washington elite.

>From the conservative end of the pundit spectrum, here's Peggy Noonan
in an Oct. '08 opinion piece for the WSJ, "Palin's Failin'":

---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122419210832542317.html
More than ever on the campaign trail, the candidates are dropping
their G's. Hardworkin' families are strainin' and tryin'a get ahead.
It's not only Sarah Palin but Mr. McCain, too, occasionally Mr. Obama,
and, of course, George W. Bush when he darts out like the bird in a
cuckoo clock to tell us we are in crisis. All of the candidates say
"mom and dad": "our moms and dads who are struggling." This is Mr.
Bush's former communications adviser Karen Hughes's contribution to
our democratic life, that you cannot speak like an adult in politics
now, that's too austere and detached, snobby. No one can say mothers
and fathers, it's all now the faux down-home, patronizing—and
infantilizing—moms and dads. Do politicians ever remember that in a
nation obsessed with politics, our children—sorry, our kids—look to
political figures for a model as to how adults sound?
---

Discussed by Mr. Verb at the time:

http://mr-verb.blogspot.com/2008/10/peggy-noonan-on-political-speech-and-g.html

And plenty more in the Language Log archives on tactical g-dropping by
a variety of politicians (including Palin):

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3193
+ links therein

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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