birdlike 0 #1 August 31, 2008 I have been hearing more and more people talking in this way: - "Why he did dat?" - "What you said?" - "My car run good!" - "Why it's like dat?" They are asking questions, in most cases, but not phrasing them as questions. They add the interrogative inflection, yes, but the syntax is what one would use when making a statement. At work, in an office environment, a woman left her wedding/engagement rings in the washroom and later, the hunt was on for them. I heard the woman who found them telling another woman that she had done so: "Hey, yo, I found that lady ring." NO possessives. NO plurals. What is happening to this language?! To this culture?! Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jenfly00 0 #2 August 31, 2008 Quote I have been hearing more and more people talking in this way: - "Why he did dat?" - "What you said?" - "My car run good!" - "Why it's like dat?" They are asking questions, in most cases, but not phrasing them as questions. They add the interrogative inflection, yes, but the syntax is what one would use when making a statement. At work, in an office environment, a woman left her wedding/engagement rings in the washroom and later, the hunt was on for them. I heard the woman who found them telling another woman that she had done so: "Hey, yo, I found that lady ring." NO possessives. NO plurals. What is happening to this language?! To this culture?! Babelfish translation: STUPID NIGGERS!!----------------------- "O brave new world that has such people in it". Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #3 August 31, 2008 Now, now, to be fair he might also be talking about Malibu's Most Wanted.quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BikerBabe 0 #4 August 31, 2008 because speaking and writing properly is considered "elitist". Good ol' boys don't use proper punctuation! It's a symptom of a larger epidemic in this country. I'm talking about the anti-intelligence epidemic. It's not only that people are ignorant. It's that they are PROUD to be ignorant and get offended if someone else indicates that they should not be ignorant. Hell, just read any post in this forum where grammar or spelling is corrected. The person doing the correcting gets HAMMERED. They get told that "it doesn't matter, you got my point" and other comments of a similar nature. It starts at the top, with leaders who project the image that "it's OK to be mediocre! Look how far I've come!" People mix that up with the mentality of "pulling oneself up by their bootstraps". Education and intelligence are just not valued in this culture, and you are seeing the symptoms of that. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
birdlike 0 #5 August 31, 2008 Quote Quote NO possessives. NO plurals. What is happening to this language?! To this culture?! Babelfish translation: STUPID NIGGERS!! Wow. Do you really hate black people that much? I guess you didn't know that I was thinking of some hispanic people in my office who do this, as well as some whites I have heard do this, in addition to the, um, ..."niggers." I guess when your head is stuck in a certain mode... and you'd rather leap to conclusions rather than wait for facts... Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #6 August 31, 2008 What I find hilarious about this entire topic is that in some people's mind it is perfectly ok to be completely ignorant of some topics but certainly not others. You absolutely better know every member of the Cowboys, but if you can't use the alphabet past Q and can't count past 22 that's just fine.quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
birdlike 0 #7 August 31, 2008 BikerBabe, thanks for an excellent post and explanation. I think you really nailed it. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
birdlike 0 #8 August 31, 2008 Whenever I'm in Walmart, and using my phone's calculator to divide out and figure whether the 35 lb. box of kitty litter is a better value than the 27 lb. box of kitty litter... I look around me... And I realize that I must be one of about, ohh... 2 people in the store who even know how to do what I am doing! Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andy9o8 2 #9 August 31, 2008 Gee, is "ignorant white trailer trash" dialect quoted? Conveniently (and tellingly), no. The racism and bigotry saturating this thread is so obvious. And those that are acting as its enablers, by coyly pretending that the true subject is something other than what it really is, should be ashamed of themselves, too. The "commentary" doesn't deserve the dignity of argument. Shame on you. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
birdlike 0 #10 August 31, 2008 QuoteGee, is "ignorant white trailer trash" dialect quoted? Conveniently (and tellingly), no. "I ain't seen" and "nigh onto" and such have been around for a couple hundred years, I guess. I'm asking about, yes, a creeping influence from an "urban" (for lack of a better way of talking) that I don't think even most urban people talked like up until recently. What explains the inability of people who otherwise went to normal schools and who otherwise learned the other stuff that was taught, to pick up on how to construct a spoken sentence?! Do you think people who talk this way would write a sentence as, "Why he did that?" when what is meant is, "Why did he do that?" (I've also heard, "Why he DO that?") QuoteThe racism and bigotry saturating this thread is so obvious. And those that are acting as its enablers, by coyly pretending that the true subject is something other than what it really is, should be ashamed of themselves, too. The subject is what it is. You are free to ignore it, discuss it, or spend the thread (and your obviously precious time) deriding it, but it still is what it is. And I have heard blacks, whites, and hispanics talk like I described. Watch the movie "Rocky Balboa": there's a white girl in the bar who does the exact same thing. QuoteThe "commentary" doesn't deserve the dignity of argument. Shame on you. Well... there's the door.Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shropshire 0 #11 August 31, 2008 It's not a culture thing... it's a lack of culture. The kids don't have an decent role models at the moment, but base their sad pathetic lives on that of C-List celebrities. (.)Y(.) Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
birdlike 0 #12 August 31, 2008 Quote It's not a culture thing... it's a lack of culture. The kids don't have an decent role models at the moment, but base their sad pathetic lives on that of C-List celebrities. That wouldn't really explain why the pretty, gainfully employed, [otherwise]sophisticated black woman who said, "I found dat lady ring" in my office would talk like that. She works in a newspaper advertising office. She has to speak with people in person and on the phone... I can't imagine that they get a positive impression of her when she talks like that in business environs. Unless she's the kind of person who "turns it on" when in certain company, and off in other company.Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shropshire 0 #13 August 31, 2008 Sounds like affectation then, to me. But why? (.)Y(.) Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
birdlike 0 #14 August 31, 2008 Know eye deer.Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nanook 1 #15 August 31, 2008 QuoteWhat is happening to this language?! To this culture?! I watched for the fifth time, Hattie McDaniel at her finest in acting. She sounded like that, and this was seventy years ago. Louis Jordan 1944. "Is you is or is you Isn't My babee!" George Clinton. Frankie Smith? Ubbi Dubbi made popular. Hell, even Snoop Dog tried to copy thier brilliance. These "substandard" way of speaking is pretty old and has existed in every decade throughout the 20th century in music and some movies. You just weren't paying attention. There's legitimate culture here. Maybe not your culture._____________________________ "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lefty 0 #16 August 31, 2008 Don't give up all hope. The people that use such language have standards, too. I overheard this exchange back when I was in high school: Girl 1 "Yo, who dat is?" Girl 2 "It's not 'who dat is', it's 'who dat be'."Provoking a reaction isn't the same thing as saying something meaningful. -Calvin Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BikerBabe 0 #17 August 31, 2008 honestly, when i wrote my answer, race never once crossed my mind. it never enters my argument. I didn't even CONSIDER that this could be considered a racist thread. This culture of "championed ignorance" isn't race-based. Maybe i'm naive. Idiots exist in ALL races. Sorry to say.Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shotgun 1 #18 August 31, 2008 Quote Whenever I'm in Walmart, and using my phone's calculator to divide out and figure whether the 35 lb. box of kitty litter is a better value than the 27 lb. box of kitty litter... I look around me... And I realize that I must be one of about, ohh... 2 people in the store who even know how to do what I am doing! Maybe the rest of the people aren't doing what you're doing because they have noticed that the price per pound is already listed in small writing next to the overall price. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
birdlike 0 #19 August 31, 2008 Quote These "substandard" way of speaking is pretty old and has existed in every decade throughout the 20th century in music and some movies. You just weren't paying attention. There's legitimate culture here. Maybe not your culture. Wrongness is a cultural attribute, huh? What a thing to be proud of. I can't wait until countries start putting representations of their failure to get a man into space on their flags, now, too.Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
birdlike 0 #20 August 31, 2008 Quote Don't give up all hope. The people that use such language have standards, too. I overheard this exchange back when I was in high school: Girl 1 "Yo, who dat is?" Girl 2 "It's not 'who dat is', it's 'who dat be'." Ohhh, that one made my weekend! Thanks!Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lindsey 0 #21 August 31, 2008 Absofuckinglutely seems to be a good word though. At least to me it does, since it's part of my good 'ol culture...lol. May seem pretty damn stupid to somebody else though. linz -- A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
birdlike 0 #22 August 31, 2008 Quote Quote Whenever I'm in Walmart, and using my phone's calculator to divide out and figure whether the 35 lb. box of kitty litter is a better value than the 27 lb. box of kitty litter... I look around me... And I realize that I must be one of about, ohh... 2 people in the store who even know how to do what I am doing! Maybe the rest of the people aren't doing what you're doing because they have noticed that the price per pound is already listed in small writing next to the overall price. Actually, I think it's not given on that stuff. I could be wrong, but I think that's why I did the calculation. And I guess you missed the point: which was (here's a gimme) that I feel sadly confident that most people just don't know how to do that kind of figuring.Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
birdlike 0 #23 August 31, 2008 Quote Absofuckinglutely "Absofuckinglutely" seems to be a good word though. At least to me it does, since it's part of my good 'ol culture...lol. May seem pretty damn stupid to somebody else though. linz Quotation marks must be cultural, too. You know, for like when you're citing a specific "word"?Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lindsey 0 #24 August 31, 2008 Are you one of those people who does quotations with your fingers whenever you talk too??? You're so cool. linz -- A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
birdlike 0 #25 August 31, 2008 Quote Are you one of those people who does quotations with your fingers whenever you talk too??? You're so cool. linz Why would you respond before I gave you my answer, which is negative? You asked if I did; then you said I was cool for doing it; then I told you that no, I don't. Sucks though that I'm no longer cool, in your view, now. Is it at least possible that I'm still cool, but for some other reason? Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
