Sociolinguistics: Crash Course Linguistics #7
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Date: 2022-04-04
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Comments and reviews: 10
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People can switch between more than two codes too. My family is very provincial working class kiwi - so when I speak to them I use a stronger accented kiwi-English and certain vocab (eg, saying 'yous'. But I've also been to university and I work in government, so when I'm at work I tend to use more of a standard kiwi-English, with less extreme vowels and less swearing and folksy idioms.
Then I used to live in Colombia, where I hung out mostly with Americans, Canadians, and Brits - so with them I'd use a kind of international-ised kiwi-English, with very moderated kiwi vowels and american vocab (americans are generally not great at understanding other dialects. But then I was also teaching English, so I'd use an ESL-English with my students, which didn't even sound kiwi. It had super clear annunciation, vowels moderated to the point of almost being British-with-American-Rs, and very a limited vocab of common words and simple grammar.
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People can switch between more than two codes too. My family is very provincial working class kiwi - so when I speak to them I use a stronger accented kiwi-English and certain vocab (eg, saying 'yous'. But I've also been to university and I work in government, so when I'm at work I tend to use more of a standard kiwi-English, with less extreme vowels and less swearing and folksy idioms.
Then I used to live in Colombia, where I hung out mostly with Americans, Canadians, and Brits - so with them I'd use a kind of international-ised kiwi-English, with very moderated kiwi vowels and american vocab (americans are generally not great at understanding other dialects. But then I was also teaching English, so I'd use an ESL-English with my students, which didn't even sound kiwi. It had super clear annunciation, vowels moderated to the point of almost being British-with-American-Rs, and very a limited vocab of common words and simple grammar.
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shiny
I often don't know if a particular new-to-me word/phrase/etc originated from AAE or from internet slang. If it's internet slang I have no problem just picking it up if I want and using it but as a white girl I definitely do not want to be appropriating black culture.
I also married someone who is black and sometimes I pick up his speech patterns without really realizing it, especially if there is a phrase that just doesn't have a good equivalent. Like, -He was in his feelings-. That's just so useful and descriptive. And saying -a minute- when you really mean a time period that could range from days to years. It's not the grammatical differences as that is an obvious sounding difference to my ears, it's the short words and phrases that just slip into speech over time.
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I often don't know if a particular new-to-me word/phrase/etc originated from AAE or from internet slang. If it's internet slang I have no problem just picking it up if I want and using it but as a white girl I definitely do not want to be appropriating black culture.
I also married someone who is black and sometimes I pick up his speech patterns without really realizing it, especially if there is a phrase that just doesn't have a good equivalent. Like, -He was in his feelings-. That's just so useful and descriptive. And saying -a minute- when you really mean a time period that could range from days to years. It's not the grammatical differences as that is an obvious sounding difference to my ears, it's the short words and phrases that just slip into speech over time.
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Susan
Can I ask a perhaps dumb question? If AAE is indeed becoming popular amongst white Americans and people overseas, isn't this a good thing overall? Like, isn't it a credit to AAE that so many want to use it? Does it not put AAE in a position of power? I get kind of uncomfortable with this idea that people are only allowed to do things based on their ethnicity, it seems segregationist.
Anyway, I really loved this video, it was probably my favourite yet. Loved learning about the 'habitual be'. I do a lot of code-switching myself between English, Italian and Arabic. It can be very amusing, it expands your ability to make puns for a start, which I always love.
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Can I ask a perhaps dumb question? If AAE is indeed becoming popular amongst white Americans and people overseas, isn't this a good thing overall? Like, isn't it a credit to AAE that so many want to use it? Does it not put AAE in a position of power? I get kind of uncomfortable with this idea that people are only allowed to do things based on their ethnicity, it seems segregationist.
Anyway, I really loved this video, it was probably my favourite yet. Loved learning about the 'habitual be'. I do a lot of code-switching myself between English, Italian and Arabic. It can be very amusing, it expands your ability to make puns for a start, which I always love.
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Sarah
Another -bubbler- vs. -water fountain- story: my Arabic professor in college learned British English as a child. He told us a story of how, when he first moved to the US, he told someone he was -putting up in an apartment- (living in an apartment. But the person he was talking to asked why he hasn't moved out if he's -putting up with it- (tolerates it.
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Another -bubbler- vs. -water fountain- story: my Arabic professor in college learned British English as a child. He told us a story of how, when he first moved to the US, he told someone he was -putting up in an apartment- (living in an apartment. But the person he was talking to asked why he hasn't moved out if he's -putting up with it- (tolerates it.
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gwaptiva
Disappointed a bit in the American-centricity of this episode; socio-linguistics was established enough to be taught at my university 30 years ago, so surely there must be some interesting examples from non-USAian. Oh, and I still struggle with the -everything goes- approach preached at the end, but that's an entirely different debate
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Disappointed a bit in the American-centricity of this episode; socio-linguistics was established enough to be taught at my university 30 years ago, so surely there must be some interesting examples from non-USAian. Oh, and I still struggle with the -everything goes- approach preached at the end, but that's an entirely different debate
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Jessy
I grew up internationally, so I become super good at code switching, to the point that I don-t realise I-m doing it and I-ve seen people pull funny faces when I talk back to them in their accent or some thing close to it. I need to be understood and that-s easier if it-s in their own accent as opposed to my natural mixed one -
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I grew up internationally, so I become super good at code switching, to the point that I don-t realise I-m doing it and I-ve seen people pull funny faces when I talk back to them in their accent or some thing close to it. I need to be understood and that-s easier if it-s in their own accent as opposed to my natural mixed one -
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DerpNerd
I live in Switzerland and I really don't get the map shown at 1: 50. What is it supposed to show? Because in Switzerland we speak four different languages with hundrets of dialects, so what kinds of groups are shown in this map?
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I live in Switzerland and I really don't get the map shown at 1: 50. What is it supposed to show? Because in Switzerland we speak four different languages with hundrets of dialects, so what kinds of groups are shown in this map?
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Melody
I KNEW YOU WERE MIDWESTERN IN THE FIRST VIDEO WHEN YOU CALLED A WATER FOUNTAIN A BUBBLER! (I'm from the Madison area but I never called it a bubbler because neither of my parents do and I was homeschooled for several years)
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I KNEW YOU WERE MIDWESTERN IN THE FIRST VIDEO WHEN YOU CALLED A WATER FOUNTAIN A BUBBLER! (I'm from the Madison area but I never called it a bubbler because neither of my parents do and I was homeschooled for several years)
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Grisha
Hi! Could you provide sources and useful links to the material covers in this crash course? For example, I would be interested to learn more about pragmatics or sociolinguistics but don-t know where to start.
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Hi! Could you provide sources and useful links to the material covers in this crash course? For example, I would be interested to learn more about pragmatics or sociolinguistics but don-t know where to start.
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godsofwarmaycry
The issue is not white people using AAE words, but black people being penalised for doing the same. We should all be able to speak in the way we find most natural, while being mindful of context.
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The issue is not white people using AAE words, but black people being penalised for doing the same. We should all be able to speak in the way we find most natural, while being mindful of context.
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