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i think that it depends. i think that a lot of things discussed in this thread have more to do with class than it does with race.
do you think that a white underclass nyer sounds like a white middle/upperclass nyer?
or that a white underclass southerner sounds like a white middle/upperclass southerner?
I agree 100%. Education, environment and community are strong parameters to determine how well you speak and your accent. The average person from Philly sounds quite different from those residents who live on the mainline and have the Locust Valley lockjaw accent.
The Spanish accent is very different from a persom from Argentina as compared to a Dominican speaking English with a Spanish accent. My guess is that it is the different dialects and they are very pronounced when they speak English.
It depends if you are sensitized to it. Someone from Midwood may not be able to tell the difference as someone from lets say Flatbush.
....the term 'african american' to describe black ppl that have never stepped foot on the continent of africa and that don't have anybody they know.....
I don't know if you travel, but no other country except for the US says AA. If you are a citizen of that country they don't add where your relatives came from or where (or if) you immigrated from. If you are Brazilian you are Brazilian. No one points to blacks in Brazil and calls them African Brazilians.
Quote:
git r done!!
honey chile
ya'll
yer
fer
as in, "bless yer heart"
fixing to
As being a born and bred inner city Brooklynite (Erasmus area) and currently living in the South where I have no neighbors who are from NY, the only terms off this list we use is y'all & Bless your Heart (and stating this phrase depending on the context can be as bad as telling you to go f**k yourself or be totally reversed and be a compliment). But when I travel back to NY y'all is commonly used amongst my black friends (and their children) in conversation. And it doesn't matter if they live in Canarsie or Harlem. If they are within their comfort group they speak with a slight southern twang and say y'all (and most have them have never been to a true southern city (unless you consider VA Beach as true southern)). As to slang/ebonics, its use seem to follow the I95 corridor. Drive west of I95 and its rarely heard. And FWIW I am an American and nothing else.
Some Black people only speak standard middle American English, but you can usually tell they are Black, even if you never saw them. An example of this would be Ophrah Winfrey.
Former Governor Patterson speaks standard English, and sounds like a true NYer but you can still tell by his tone that he is Black.
Neither of these people speak with a twang, and Ophrah is from the south. Black people usually have powerful vocal ability no matter where they come from. Why would they want to sound like anyone else? Why is that necessarily better for them to sound like anyone else?
Blacks speak Ebonics for one reason, because they want to. It's part of their cultural identity. And that's fine. But don't blame it on something that happened 100 years ago, that's just silly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eek
i have a gf from sc. she's black if it matters, which i'm sure it does. her son not only has a thick twang but he speaks broken english. they think its cute. i correct him and i don't care when they get offended.
You just proved what was exactly my point. People speak a certain way because they want to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eek
but let me tell you, that is NOT how all of us speak.
no, it is how certain people speak because they WANT to speak that way.
Some Black people only speak standard middle American English, but you can usually tell they are Black, even if you never saw them. An example of this would be Ophrah Winfrey.
Former Governor Patterson speaks standard English, and sounds like a true NYer but you can still tell by his tone that he is Black.
Neither of these people speak with a twang, and Ophrah is from the south. Black people usually have powerful vocal ability no matter where they come from. Why would they want to sound like anyone else? Why is that necessarily better for them to sound like anyone else?
well, tone is different from grammar and accent, but I agree with you. Most blacks have a different tonal quality to their voice than other races. And no one is saying these things are bad, just different.
Some Black people only speak standard middle American English, but you can usually tell they are Black, even if you never saw them. An example of this would be Ophrah Winfrey.
Former Governor Patterson speaks standard English, and sounds like a true NYer but you can still tell by his tone that he is Black.
Neither of these people speak with a twang, and Ophrah is from the south. Black people usually have powerful vocal ability no matter where they come from. Why would they want to sound like anyone else? Why is that necessarily better for them to sound like anyone else?
I totally disagree. I only know they are black because I have seen them and recognize their voice. If they were unknown blacks with their accents I would mistake them for white. Famous blacks who you would not mistake for white would be Sam L. Jackson, Ossie Davis, Spike Lee. A Hip Hop artist I would mistake for white is Drake.
So what is the big deal about accents, and slang? We all have accents, and most people use slang in casual conversations. Everyone knows this.
Why is the different ways that Black people speak across the country use slang such a big deal? Most people when they are in a formal situation know how to drop it, and speak standard American English. They just will not lose their regional accents when doing so. Most Black people have strong vocal ability, so they their voices are usually recognized as belonging to Black person, even without being seen.
Neither of these people speak with a twang, and Ophrah is from the south. Black people usually have powerful vocal ability no matter where they come from. Why would they want to sound like anyone else? Why is that necessarily better for them to sound like anyone else?
IMHO the best singing voices in the world are by black people. White people with the exception of a few sound like nasally minor birds. The best voices on Glee are the heavyset black girl and the pretty Latino chick. Even in music that doesn't require a baritone voice, women like Marian Anderson blows away other white singers.
I totally disagree. I only know they are black because I have seen them and recognize their voice. If they were unknown blacks with their accents I would mistake them for white. Famous blacks who you would not mistake for white would be Sam L. Jackson, Ossie Davis, Spike Lee. A Hip Hop artist I would mistake for white is Drake.
This is only because you don't want to accept that some Black people speak standard American english, and that they speak it most of the time.
I can recognize that their voices belong to Black people, because they sound like the people I grew up with, that are Black. They don't have the same tone as White people I grew up with.
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