[Ads-l] Tea, and more

[Geoffrey Nathan]

With apologies for a long post..
There is an article in the current Atlantic by Dan Brooks (probably paywalled, but I subscribe) about the fact that slang that used to be a signal of membership within some subculture (ethnic, such as AAVE), hobbies (dressage, plastic model-making) has now become universal, so that it no longer signals group membership. The removal of membership-signalling occurs because the terms appear in social media, and non-members see the words and use them.
He gives the example of the word 'tea’, meaning something like ‘details’, particularly ‘juicy details’. Normally I would have found this mildly interesting but here comes some actual ‘tea’.
As some of you know, I occasionally perform in Wayne State’s Theatre productions, and I made some friends a few years ago when I understudied a major role in Angels in America (Roy Cohn). One of my friends from that show just posted a plea on Facebook for instances of (non-sexual) abuse that took place during that production (and others around the same time).
That unleashed a flood of replies from other colleagues (understand these are all now mid-twenties folks). There was extensive use of the word ‘tea’ in exactly the sense referred to in the article. When this happened (three days ago) I was mystified by the word, but then this morning I read the article and all is now clear. FWIW the person who started the thread is Black.


Geoffrey S. Nathan
WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
http://blogs.wayne.edu/proftech/

geoffnathan at wayne.edu

Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send it to anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email looks.

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