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Do you also wonder why Cajuns insist on talking the way they do, and people from Boston insist on talking the way they do?
Where I grew up there were hardly any white people. I don't think I had a real conversation with a white person until I was about 21. Other black kids told me I talked white. Same with my mother and grandfather. Some families just correct their kids when they don't enunciate. I did it to my kids and it has opened a lot of doors for them. My siblings and I actually made fun of kids who use what goes for acceptable English today.
I doubt that. I’m very conscious of my words and beyond say high school I’ve never tried to incorporate any slang or “cool” new words into my vocabulary. In fact I recently started making a list of words/phrases I hear that are rather annoying (not nessesarily words that have anything to do with “talking black”) due to overuse. For example:
- Living my/your best life
- bro
- keep it 100
- swag
- on God
- lit
- fire
- thirsty
- basic
- fam
- sus
- savage
They are especially annoying when 25+ yr old middle class white people use them thinking they are being hip or cute or “down” with black culture…or something. If they say them with an especially thick accent that sounds like they are someone like “Birdman” (a rapper) — that’s when things get in to the realm of unbelievable.
My late mother was an English teacher and it often amazed me how upset she would get at "new" words creeping into the lexicon, as if we should all still be speaking Old English.
Language evolves and changes over time. I was a teenager in the late 60s and early 70s and I certainly don't say "let's rap" or "groovy" anymore. Phrases come and go, and are often used by young people to identify with a group.
I would try not to let it make you "cringe" so much. It may sounds foreign and pretentious to your ears but if people are successfully communicating among each other with it, it's serving its purpose for *them."
My good friend would spend the school year in MN with his mom. Then he’d spend the summer with his dad in Kentucky and would always come back with a very noticeable southern drawl. It would slowly go away during school year.
I think there’s a difference between picking up a bit of an accent and picking up a heavy accent combined with an almost totally different vocabulary/way of spelling words. When the new accent and vocabulary is combined with a new style of dressing it just seems like a person trying to find identity and acceptance. At some point in adulthood changing myself on such a personal level to find acceptance just became something I couldn’t allow myself to do.
I think there’s a difference between picking up a bit of an accent and picking up a heavy accent combined with an almost totally different vocabulary/way of spelling words. When the new accent and vocabulary is combined with a new style of dressing it just seems like a person trying to find identity and acceptance. At some point in adulthood changing myself on such a personal level to find acceptance just became something I couldn’t allow myself to do.
It wasn’t a full on accent, but it was easy for me to pick up. After high school he went to college in KY and lives in Asheville, so doesn’t jump between anymore.
Absolutely there’s not. However there is a pretty predominate way of talking in many if not most areas with a high concentration of working class/poor blacks. Anyone that lives in a major metro that’s 30-40%+ black will know what I’m talking about.
Yes. I think this applies more to the south and low income mid-west cities.
In L.A. San Diego, NYC, San Fran, Phx, Denver etc. you cannot always tell what race you're speaking with and I'm on the phone a lot. I only know once I see their id's or if the conversation gets pretty long. I can tell a white Chicago or NY accent pretty easy. Comedians pick up on that stuff too.
In Cali, even in certain low income areas there is not a predominate way to talk because you can have a college degree and be underpaid and have to live among the working class who have 3-5 roommates.
Hip-hop/rap is as big as ever (not sure why) and is influencing younger people of all races to speak a certain way. Rap music was better back in the late 90s/early 2000s but that's a whole other topic.
Dignitaries often use local phrases and colloquial terms in recognition of who they are addressing. Since I was in the uk at the time carter visited here is how people responded to an American President.
I doubt that. I’m very conscious of my words and beyond say high school I’ve never tried to incorporate any slang or “cool” new words into my vocabulary. In fact I recently started making a list of words/phrases I hear that are rather annoying (not nessesarily words that have anything to do with “talking black”) due to overuse. For example:
- Living my/your best life
- bro
- keep it 100
- swag
- on God
- lit
- fire
- thirsty
- basic
- fam
- sus
- savage
They are especially annoying when 25+ yr old middle class white people use them thinking they are being hip or cute or “down” with black culture…or something. If they say them with an especially thick accent that sounds like they are someone like “Birdman” (a rapper) — that’s when things get in to the realm of unbelievable.
I'm pretty sure Oprah coined the phrase living your best life. She's black but this term is in no way cool/urban/hip/poor slang.
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