The most hated dialect

I'm not sure, but I think Philadelphia, in addition to being the home of self-loathing sports fans, is also the home of America's most self-loathing dialect speakers.

just hearing the long gravelly ignorant snore that passes for speech among
our native (mostly Northeast and DelCo) population is enough to make steam
come
out of your ears, grab the speaker by the collar, and shoutspit into
their
faces, “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW FUCKING STUPID YOU SOUND?”

WTF has Labov been doing here for the last 50 years?!? You'd think a town that is home to the most important socio-linguist in the world would have a little more pride in it's dialect. And what about Language Log who's plaza is nestled along the banks of the Schuykill? Oh they'rr too busy moderating comments and reposting Zippy the Pinhead cartoons. (I think they've lost their way.)

At least Monica Weymouth at the City Paper comes to the defense of her fellow Philadelphians.

Since when did tense vowels have anything to do with intelligence? And to be honest Philebrity, you bore me. But I do happen to know Sweeney is from Fishtown, so I can't quite figure out how you get off acting like you're any better than the Northeast — or the Applebee's waitress, or Marnie Hall.

Well, mybe a little short on the phonetic facts, but her heart is in the right place.

My new neighbor

Eric Too Long in Cali

Young Eric Wrote:

ʉ fʉw pʉple, sʉme ʉf whʉm mʉy rʉd thʉs blʉg (whʉn thʉ’re nʉt jʉst rʉ-dʉrʉctʉd frʉm Lʉnguʉge Lʉg), hʉve prʉbʉblʉ wʉndʉred whʉ ʉ’ve bʉn grʉwʉng mʉ hʉr sʉ lʉng (ʉr ʉs ʉ ʉmʉgʉne ʉd pʉts ʉt, “whʉ ʉ’ve bʉn bʉcʉmʉng ʉ hʉppʉ”). Wʉll, hʉre’s thʉ rʉsʉn. (Rʉd mʉre hʉre.)

Bʉt nʉw, chʉnnʉlʉng Stʉvʉn Pʉnkʉr chʉnnʉlʉng Wʉdʉ ʉllʉn chʉnnʉlʉng Grʉchʉ Mʉrx, ʉ fʉl ʉdd jʉnʉng ʉ clʉb thʉt wʉld ʉllʉw ʉ pʉrsʉn lʉke mʉ tʉ bʉcʉme ʉ mʉmbʉr. Sʉ ʉ’m thʉnkʉng ʉ’ll jʉst chʉp ʉt ʉll ʉff nʉw — mʉbʉshʉve ʉt lʉke thʉs gʉ. (Nʉ, tʉ bʉrʉng.)

Hmmm...

In southern New Jersey there is a museum of a colonial era Swedish settlement. They claim Swedes are responsible for South Jersey dialect features.

The fort, a threat to Dutch shipping interests in New York, did not last long, but the settlements and the Scandinavian influence has endured over the years. Today, linguists theorize that certain speech patterns in Southern New Jersey, which differ from the rest of the State, are traceable to the mixed and changing Swedish-English vocabulary.

Could be.

Obligatory prescriptivist rant

Yesterday Leonard Lopate had Patricia T. O'Connor on for a regular language discussion, this time on pronunciation errors. I caught the tail end of the show and was predictably incensed. You can listen to the show here.

I posted some comments on the discussion board. It's moderated, so I don't know if they will make it on there (update: that was quick!). Here they are:

As a phonologist, I'm pretty disappointed by the lack of expertise of your expert, Ms. O'Conner. Especially when it comes to basic phonetics, phonology, and American dialect differences. Many of the questions listeners brought up have been studied extensively by American dialectologists and linguists. I suggest she look into that work before the next scheduled appearance. A good place to start is the American Dialect Society (on the web at www.americandialect.org).
In response to Jim's question above: the pronunciation of [or] as [ar] in NY (and other parts of the mid Atlantic] happens when the the [r] starts a new syllable in the word. You get it in 'sorry' but not 'for'. That said, all Americans pretty much have the [ar] in 'sorry' (unlike Canadians) but only some dialects extend it to other words like 'orange', 'Florida', or 'moral'. And many people have some idiosyncratic uses. For example, I (a native of SE Pennsylvania) have it in most of these words except 'moral'.
Some Brits may also have this pronunciation, although the only evidence I have for that claim is Roger Daltry's pronunciation of 'moral' in "Won't get fooled again". He clearly sings 'The m[ar]als that we worshipped were all gone.' I don't know if that is him affecting an American pronunciation or his native one.

On the show a caller asked about [shtreet] for [street]. This is also a common phonological variation in American speech. It appears to be anticipatory assimilation of the [s] to the place of articulation of the [r]. A similar rule is found in Swedish where an [s] following an [r] is pronounced as [sh], for example [morshan] meaning "Mother".

Bleak House

I'm about finished with Bleak House. Why? The Brahmins in American Tongues told me to read it.

BRAHMINS:

What else have they got to live for? Sex, probably. Well, undoubtedly sex, they keep that very quiet. But, I know you don’t like Dickens.


BRAHMIN #2:

No, I don’t like Dickens. Yes, he’s post-Austen. Jane Austen, of course, is the greatest novelist in the English language..


BRAHMIN #1:

Well, she’s a great novelist, but not the greatest.


BRAHMIN #2:

I’m a Dickens man.


BRAHMIN #1:

Well, Dickens is messy, George.


BRAHMIN #2:

Of course he’s messy, but he’s lively.


BRAHMIN #1:

He only wrote one great book which is Pickwick Papers.


BRAHMIN #1:

I would put that way down compared to Bleak House.

.

I'm surprised more people aren't excited by the Great Vowel Shift. I mean, it has the word 'great' right there in it's name.

More on -ma-

Ben Zimmer, on the American Dialect Society List (ADS-L) pointed me to another use of the -ma-infix by Dr. Seuss:

The word Xylomaphone appears in the 1970 animated film "Horton Hears a Who", directed by Chuck Jones, based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name.

Very cool. He also pointed out that the infix probably comes from pseudo-nonsense words like thingamabob or whatchamacallit.
Here's a link to a previous post on the ADS-L that includes discussion of edumacation. This use goes all the way back to Popeye. Another example of the Recency Illusion, the belief that things YOU have noticed only recently are in fact recent.

It's odd that Yu's paper doesn't mention the most common example of "-ma-"
infixation: "edumacate" and its derived forms, particularly "edumacation".

"Edumacation" is chiefly associated not with Homer Simpson but another
epenthesis-prone cartoon character, Popeye.

-----
http://www.popeye-n-olive.com/characters.htm
Although Olive is equally smitten with her heroic sailor, she's still
easily impressed by anyone who has more "edumacation and ettiket" than
Popeye.
-----

The only example I've found so far from the archives of "Thimble Theater
Starring Popeye" is with the spelling "edjamacation":

-----
1959 _Lancaster Eagle Gazette_ (Ohio) 27 Aug. 31 ["Thimble Theatre" comic
strip by Tom Sims and B. Zaboly] Age makes no difference... Every blastid
people is guaranteed an edjamacation an' me pappy didn't get his!!
-----

There are also listings on eBay and the rec.collecting newsgroup for a
1962 Viewmaster reel entitled "Swee'Pea's Edjamacation".

The earliest examples for "edumacation" and "edumacated" that I've found
are from two 1925 columns in a Virgina newspaper written in jocular German
dialect spelling.

* edumacation

-----
1925 _Bee_ (Danville, Va.) 19 Nov. 7/6 (heading) What is, and by who comes
the right idea of edumacation in Danville, Virginia?
-----
1925 _Ibid_. Say, won't you please tell me once just what is Edumacation?
Gives it the real idea of Edumcation by so many other citizens of
Danville, or only by a few "trustys" of a habertacle. ... I don't know. I
lacks Edumacation and I wants to know. ... Even mit my little Edumacation
I read it that a house divided against itself can't stand it. ... Yours in
the cause of trusty Edumacation, Chulius Gansheimer.
-----
1925 _Bee_ (Danville, Va.) 21 Nov. 13/6 (heading) What gives it
edumacation, and dot "patriotism" in Danville, Va.
-----
1925 _Ibid_. Next I asks me vunce to help get der edumacation, you know.
... To me, it looks like the best defense Catolics got it now, is the
search-light of publicity; and I believe, mit my little edumacation dey
goin' now to use dot search-light. ... Yours in the cause of trusty
Edumacation, Chulius Gansheimer.
-----

* edumacated

-----
1925 _Bee_ (Danville, Va.) 21 Nov. 13/6 Yah! I writes me more questions
and dings to try to get better edumacated. ... Again you look 'em up if
you want to be edumacated on both sides.
-----

(The columns also have the forms "edumacational" and "unedumacational".)

I would expect earlier examples could be found in Black English dialect
writing, either jocular or not. Here's a humorous example from Geneva
Smitherman:

-----
1976 G. SMITHERMAN in _English Journal_ 65 (2) Feb. 14/2 And if some of
y'all need some mo edumacation in this area, just pressure yo school
system to provide a staff development program.
-----

And here's a serious example, from the transcription of an ex-slave
narrative recorded by the Federal Writers' Project:

-----
c1941 R. WILLIAMS in J. Mellon _Bullwhip Days_ (2002) 129 Dere am no
edumacation for de niggers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0802138683/?v=search-inside&keywords=edumacation
-----

Mellon's _Bullwhip Days_ unfortunately does not give much background
information on the narratives, but I believe this is the reference for the
original transcription:

-----
http://people.albion.edu/JEP10/dp/research1.htm#_ftn22
Rose Williams, Manuscript Slave Narrative Collection, Federal Writers'
Project, 1941, vol. 17, Texas Narratives, Pt. 4, pp. 174-178, quoted in
Nancy Woloch, ed., Early American Women: A Documentary History, 1600-1900
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997), 245-246.
-----

The FWP slave narratives were first published in B. A. Botkin's _Lay My
Burden Down_ (1945). But Botkin cleaned up the transcriptions, as
explained in the preface: "In accordance with the same criteria of truth
and readability, the original attempts at dialect-writing, successful and
unsuccessful, were abandoned, except for a few characteristic and
expressive variations." So the above sentence from Rose Williams is
rendered as: "There am no education for the niggers."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/038531115X/?v=search-inside&keywords=education

A large portion of the online examples of "edumacation" and
"(un)edumacated" are used in the service of racist humor (particularly on
Usenet newsgroups).

It's always New York in Philadelphia

NJN was showing Edens Lost & Found--Philadelphia last night. It was really a nice look at Philly and inspiring. Another sad reminder that I no longer live in the City of Brotherly Love.

It also reminded me that Philly is on TV again with the Fox show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphi. Which then reminded me why I hate TV depictions of Philly--no one on the left coast understands the difference between a New York and a Philly accent. The idea seems to be, well it's a big east coast city they must talk like New Yorkers. Yeah right, Danny DeVito sure sounds echt Philadelphian.

Of course this isn't limited to Philly. It's the same sort of crap they pulled on NYPD Blue with that Sipowicz character (no one will notice a Chicagoan pretending to be a New Yorker). The only time I ever heard something approaching a Philadelphia accent on TV was Homocide: Life on the street. And there it was only because they used real Baltimorians as extras. None of the main characters tried a Baltimore accent.

WTF Comparative

I’ve got two versions of Jimmie Rodgers’ 1928 chart topper Blue Yodel (T for Tennessee) on my iPod. One version is from Johnny Cash and one is from the Everly Brothers. The Everly Brothers’ version was released in 1969 as a single and the Johnny Cash version is from his posthumous Unearthed box set. And both have the same line that makes me go "wtf?":

I’m gonna buy me a pistol just as long as I’m tall.

Both Johnny and the Everly Brothers sing it with emphasis on long and not on the I’m. As far as I can tell this line isn’t in the original. Any hint on where it came from would be welcome.

The most salient reading I get for this line is one where the clause just as long as I’m tall is interpreted as a sentential modifier something along the lines of: As long as I continue to be tall tall, I’m going to buy a pistol. However, I’m pretty sure the intended meaning is as a relative clause modifying the pistol: I’m gonna buy a pistol that is as long as I am tall. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why I can’t get the intended meaning.

There is a lot of stuff going on in this sentence. For one thing, there is the nonstandard reflexive buy me. But more important is the relative clause just as long as I’m tall. It is missing the verb be. And it doesn’t have a relative pronoun when the gap is the subject of the clause. So it’s like, There’s a pistol is as long as I am tall. This type of relative clause is ungrammatical in Standard English. However, some dialects allow it.

In Scots, as in other non-standard varieties, the relative pronoun is optionallydeleted when it is the subject of its clause:

an it rubbed aa the rat ower wi its fingers – or its paws – wi this stuff was in the bottle ("The three dogs", op. cit., p.234)

And I don’t usually find relative clauses like this that bad. Still, even if we fix those things up, I have a hard time accepting the sentence:

I’m going to buy a pistol that is just as long as I’m tall.

This fact leads me to believe that the comparative is also a problem (for me anyway). And that I can’t figure. Try these two sentences with just the comparative:

The pistol is just as long as I’m tall.
The pistol is just as long as I am tall.

The second one sounds much better to me—though I have to admit I’ve been thinking about these for a while so my brain could be fried.

linguistics
syntax
dialect

Ebonics back!

Language Feed is reporting the return of the Ebonics debate with some really amazing links. It's starting because another school district in California, this time in San Bernadino, is considering implementing an ebonics program. Although it's not clear from the article what exactly they are proposing to teach.

I really am too tired to fight with all the knuckleheaded racists and know-nothings out there. If your interested go to Language Feed and follow their links. There's a lot of stupid shit being said, as usual.

The kids are alright

Finally, someone on a Board of Education had the gumption to say what we all know to be true: slang doesn't hurt.

Dr. Debra Robinson wanted to get people talking, and did she ever.
Robinson, a former Flint resident who is a school board member in Palm Beach County, Fla., has garnered a lot of attention with her suggestion that teenagers be allowed to continue to embrace street slang without being judged poorly by their elders or harangued to learn "standard English."

"There's nothing wrong with the way they're speaking," Robinson said. "Some of the best words I've gotten, I've gotten from teenagers. If you walk up to kids and say 'Speak the way I speak. This is the right way,' then, especially young people, they will rebel."

To paraphrase the movie Patton, a woman this eloquent deserves support.

There are people out there, of course, who just don't get language and insist that recognising that people don't all speak the same way might be the beginning of the end.

"That just smacks of finding an excuse for something that doesn't need to be defended. Learning (standard English) isn't a cop-out. ... it's just part of being an educated person, an avenue to self discovery."

One letter writer said Robinson's idea "is just another crude attempt to cover up the plague of Ebonics that has developed in poor communities across America."

A plague? Get a grip. Ebonics has been around for 100's of years.