Language and Race in the US

1
Language and Race in the US
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What is race?

• Race is a social category (assumed by speakers
  to line up with biological differences) that is
  experienced as real and concrete, and which
  serves as a source of identification of
  individuals as a members of a group
• BUT remember that social categories of race DO
  NOT map onto real and discrete biological
  populations in the ways that racializing
  ideologies say they do.

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Language and race?

• Language and race line up in the same manner that
  language and class or language and region line up
  
• Remember
• People talk like the people they talk with the
  most AND people talk like other people they
  identify with strongly

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Biological bases for language differences across
racial groups?

• Nope.
• Language socialization appears to trump any small
  population-based biological variations that could
  affect language (such as size of larynx position
  of tongue root)

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Myths about race and language

• MYTH IQ tests and tests of verbal ability are
  accurate in any English-speaking community.
• FACT Many IQ tests depend on a knowledge of
  Standard Written English
• FACT Different kinds of verbal ability are
  differently valued and developed in different
  speech communities

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• MYTH Phenotypic features e.g. skin color, hair
  type, shape/size of articulators (tongue, lips)
  can be linked to linguistic features/languages
• FACT Language-specific behaviors, such as the
  phonological system and grammar, are learned
• FACT Non-native speakers learning English will
  have some form of linguistic interference from
  their native language when speaking English.
  Similarities in the English spoken by people with
  the same native language have to do with
  linguistic, not racial, similarities.

7
Cutler article

• Discusses how language - in particular use of
  African American English - contributes to white,
  middle class hip-hoppers discussions of keepin
  it real
• Please read this for Tuesday, when Ill discuss
  it a bit more.

8
Lippi-Green article

• Talks about
• MUSE (Mainstream US English)
• AAVE (African American Vernacular English)
• Focuses on language attitudes

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Language attitudes

• Ideas about language are also ideas about
  speakers of that language
• Lippi-Green discusses the focus on AX as a
  stigmatized (negatively evaluated) AAVE usage
  (standard language ideology)
• Why are only certain mispronunciations wrong?
  Because they are associated with particular
  groups this is language ideology in action.

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Linguistic inferiority principle

• The linguistic inferiority principle
• The speech of a socially subordinate group will
  always be interpreted as inadequate by comparison
  with the speech the socially dominant group.

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Verbal deprivation theory

• In the 1960s and 1970s, many argued that
  African American children did poorly on
  standardized tests because they lived in an
  environment that was not rich in verbal
  stimulation.
• This was the verbal deprivation theory. However,
  these children were being actually raised in rich
  verbal environments

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Ebonics

• Ebonics was proposed in the 1990s as an
  alternative name for BEV (Black English
  Vernacular) or AAVE that did not include the word
  English
• By classifying speakers as Ebonics speakers, they
  could be aligned with other ESL learners. The
  idea is that ESL speakers are less stigmatized
  than dialect speakers
• Also, there is no federal funding for programs to
  teach standard English to dialect speakers

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Ebonics Debate

• In late 1996, the Oakland City school board
  passed a resolution stating that the dominant
  first language among African American students in
  their district was Ebonics
• The resolution stated that in accordance with
  established policies, steps needed to be taken to
  offer these students instruction in their
  primary language
• This set off a huge, ugly debate across the US
  about African American language use, identity,
  and the correctness of different forms of speech

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Conflict over Ebonics

• Difficult to change perceptions from a dialect
  to a language
• As Lippi-Green notes, many AAVE speakers share
  mainstream ideas about the language that it is
  appropriate for home use only, that it is
  inferior to MUSE, particularly in grammar, and
  that it is not appropriate for use in more formal
  settings

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Film excerpts

• From Do you speak American?
• Excerpts on perceptions of dialects, language
  change in US English, and debates over African
  American English
• Also information on the history of AAVE

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Film vocab

• linguistic profiling making assumptions about
  a persons race based on hearing him/her speak
• Gullah dialect of the Sea Islands off the
  Atlantic coast

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Metalinguistic commentary

• metalinguistic language or commentary is language
  about language
• For example To run is a verb.
• You cant say broom the
  floor! Its sweep the floor
• The Lippi-Green article on The Trouble with
  Black English focuses a lot on metalinguistic
  commentary on Black English

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Negative prestige

• AAVE has become a negative prestige variety over
  the last 20 years.
• It is still not a prestige variety, since its
  usage is not associated with traditional prestige
  attainments as Lippi-Green notes, Oprah, Jesse
  Jackson and others use MUSE when speaking as
  members of the political/social elite.

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AAVE and registers

• While many elements of AAVE have been
  incorporated into the speech of white Americans,
  esp. young males, does this mean that they are
  speaking AAVE?
• AAVE, like any dialect, has multiple registers
  appropriate to speech in different social
  situations. To have communicative competence,
  you need to know how and when to use these
  registers.

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Linguistic Features of African American
Vernacular English (AAVE)

• Some phonological features
• /r/ deletion, except at the beginning of words
• The following words will be pronounced the same
• Guard/god
• Nor/gnaw
• Court/caught

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Syntactic features

• copula deletion - no form of to be in present
  tense sentences. AAVE does use the copula for
  emphasis.
• She real nice. Shes REAL nice.
• He sick.
• habitual be used for habitual actions
• People be looking for this big explanation.
• Sometimes my ears be itchin.

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Syntactic features

• copula deletion - no form of to be in present
  tense sentences. AAVE does use the copula for
  emphasis. This is grammatically similar to many
  formally recognized languages in the world (e.g.
  Russian)
• She real nice. Shes REAL nice.
• He sick.
• habitual be used for habitual actions
• People be looking for this big explanation.
• Sometimes my ears be itchin.

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• multiple negation
• They didnt do nothin.
• 3rd person present tense without s
• He go.
• She like to do that.
• Existential it (it there)
• It aint no heaven for you to go to.
• Negativized auxiliary preposition
• Cant nobody do nothing about it.
• Aint nothing wrong with that.

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Semantics Geneva Smitherman

• Smitherman offers a language and worldview
  approach to the lexicon (vocabulary) of AAVE
• The Black lexicon is comprised of idioms,
  phrases, terms, and other linguistic
  contributions from various sub-communities within
  the larger African-American community. The
  language and culture of these various sub-groups
  reflect the African-American experience.
  Smitherman, pg. 205

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Semantic Inversion

• Semantic inversion means giving the opposite
  meaning to words, and is a common feature in
  dialects of subordinate groups
• Bad good
• Def (death) good
• phat excellent
• shut up keep talking

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Resources to find out more

• http//www.cal.org/ebonics/
• In particular Charles Fillmores essay on
  public reaction to the Oakland city schools
  debate reveals how prejudices about language can
  have real consequences in terms of public policy.
• http//www.umass.edu/aae/
• In particular the About AAE button has a
  helpful statement about language prejudices.

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Cutler article (online reading)

• Study of white hip hoppers (WHHs).
• Combined interview data with analysis of
  frequency of AAVE (AAE) and HHSS (Hip Hop
  Speech Style) features in White Hip Hoppers
  speech
• Differentiates core WHHs, who are actively
  involved in hip hop culture, from peripheral
  WHHs, who mostly access hip hop culture by
  consuming music etc.

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HHSS style, register, dialect?

• Cutler defines HHSS as a style because it is not
  triggered by context alone, whereas a register
  is. HHSS involves both context AND personal
  elements.
• Also, HHSS overlaps with features of AAVE, so
  it is not a separate dialect.

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Language Ideologies of Keepin it real

• Cutler pg. 215
• Ideology 1 Idea that people should present
  themselves for what they are and not front with
  respect to class, race and language use
• Ideology 2 Idea that realness has to do with
  being connected to the street in both a
  physical and linguistic sense. (essentializing
  discourse that links blackness to one
  particular of features)

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Findings

• core WHHs used fewer HHSS markers, subscribing
  to the first ideology of authenticity (keepin it
  real means being who you are)
• peripheral WHHs used more HHSS markers,
  demonstrating the second ideology of authenticity
  (keepin it real means being close to the street
  and urban ghetto life)

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Authenticity

• AAE and HHSS index African American culture and
  hip hop culture.
• A linguistic index is a marker that points to a
  particular, socially recognized group (such as
  African Americans)
• BUT if WHHs overuse these features, they could
  be perceived as fronting and therefore not
  being authentic

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What is Cutler saying?

• She asks how people use language to affiliate
  themselves with particular groups
• WHHs are linguistically interesting because they
  have to balance demands of authenticity with
  indexing their affiliation with the group.
• In the hip hop world, Mainstream US English is
  non-standard and marks you as different and even
  less, and WHHs overcome this in different
  ways

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Rap Clip

• Socializing verbal play
• The Dozens and rappin