Obama and Black English in the NY Times

[Jonathan Lighter]

>Why search out more?

Ya got me....

JL
On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 9:50 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Obama and Black English in the NY Times
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Why call it "signifying" instead of "sarcastic understatement"?
> > Because the authors want to show how delightfully exotic Black English
> is.
> > The President's English isn't very exotic, as far as I can tell, and
> since
> > it's  fifty years since "I have a dream," his delivery isn't either,
> except
> > by Romney standards. (Of course, I'm long past the point where I think of
> > any English at all as "delightful," so pay no attention.)
> >
> > I'm not sure the Prez actually said, "Nah, we straight!" and not "Nah,
> > we're straight!"  To my ear it could have been either. Maybe "straight"
> in
> > this sense (not precisely "OK" but "even") really is overwhelmingly AAVE.
> > But my grandfather said "Nah!" every day of his life, as do I. (Perhaps
> our
> > vowel is too much like that in "gnat" to count.)
> >
> > "Some African-American critics have strongly objected to Mr. Obama=92s
> use =
> > in
> > the public sphere of phrases deemed to be part of black private
> > discourses."  Like what?  Surely not "We straight"? And why object, esp.
> > "strongly"? This could be the most interesting statement in the piece. I
> > wish it had been elaborated.
> >
> > But specialists aren't the intended audience, and newspaper essays on
> > language rarely satisfy; so let ten thousand flowers bloom. It was a
> > diverting read.
>
> Maybe _naw_ was intended. Though my own familiarity with this dialect
> is limited, a lot more of the colored say "naw" and not "nah" - use of
> the latter being distinctive of white speech (again, in my limited
> degree of familiarity) experience. But,
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> I haven't read the article and don't intend to, for fear that I'd find
> it more annoying than enlightening.
>
> "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
>
> Why search out more?
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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