Posted on 12/31/2009 11:04:42 AM PST by don-o
For some examples, tune in to Hannity's show in the afternoon and hear young (I assume) females who speak in some sort of Valley Girl / Munchkin combination of vocabulary and inflection.
In the interest of equal treatment, many young males also exhibit poor communication skills; but poor in a different way. Many sound like remarkable apes who have learned rudimentary human speech.
What is the cause of this loss of standard speech?
This has been troubling me for quite some time. The last day of the year is a good time to get it out of my head and out there for discussion.
Thank you for letting me share!
Well put. It goes the other way, too--it signals the acceptation of an alternative social membership.
Very true. I see a cycle happening with speech. Before modern communications, radio and tv, standardization of speech progressed very slowly, while standarization in written communication took off with mass-produced books, particularly the dictionary. From the 1930s on, with greater mobility, consolidated education, and more broadcast media, speech standardization happened.
Now, we're seeing a new fragmentation. A child can grow up rarely hearing what we know as American Standard English. They can watch TV shows and movies in which the characters speak (most obvious example) Black Dialect, and speak it poorly at that. "Music" is produced in dialect, with both form and content at a very degraded level.
In the 1960s, there were Appalachian children whose grandparents spoke an archaic English, almost Shakespearean. I think that even now, there are black children who vaguely remember that their grandparents spoke American Standard English, while everyone around them (including teachers) speaks a pork-hash ghetto-slang.
How about the cosmic irritation of hearing every declamatory sentence end in the (high-rising terminal) “okay?”
And of course the less O.K. the speaker’s point, the more vehemently he/she says “Okay???”
Hush puppy?
high rising terminal
Nope, lol. Not even close. Think outdoors.
(IMHO, there is nothing "racist" in this observation.)
I agree with your point - see my post 162. When people have the opportunity to learn standard language - anyone could check out the "Foyle's War" DVDs from the library and learn a lovely English pronunciation, and some history and fashion, too ;-) - that's a Statement. A Statement of rejecting a certain view of life, and a Statement of solidarity with a conflicting view.
As I understand it, the political use of Black English is like the political use of Hawaiian "Pidgin." When a person who has had the opportunity for standard education - as older generations might not have had - chooses not to make use of the generally accepted form of communication, there's a Big Issue involved, not just the normal give-and-take of language usage.
Hose pipe.
Of course, the rate of communication of actual information is slowed down somewhat by all the... well... John Kerry's middle names.
Hose pipe!
We don’t even say “hose pipe” in regular accents (being Midwesterners): we just say “hose,” or “garden hose,” to distinguish it from hoses in the car engine, laundry room, etc.
You got it. Hose pipe. You worsh yer corr with it, or put out forrs.
A garden hose, in other words.
Ooooohhh....:-o
Blue Collar Comedy Tour :)
It’s only funny if you understand how we speak!
ping
Doing the courtesy thing here
I hate to see it go, but here in my little town, the Southern accent is in no danger!
I hear people say “supposeBly” all the time, and it makes me nuts. I have heard professional broadcasters say this, and have heard it in television shows and films.
Bingo. Had a college roommate from Old Fort, and the first time he said that, I had no idea what he meant. I was born and raised in NC, have lived here most of my life, and had never heard it before.
I hear “I have no ideal what you are talking about.”
mc marblemouth is my son’s version of down east with a whole lot of Southern twang and ventriloquism wannabe. :)
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