1.) The dropping of the "r" lost its imperial status after WW2. "'Before the war,' Labov said, 'the judges in the gangster pictures dropped their ‘r’s, but after the war only the hoodlums did it.'"
2.) Apart from the adenoidal "oi" (like saying "boid" instead of "bird"), Brooklynese has remained unchanged for the past fifty years.
3.) You can hear it in parts of New Orleans and Cincinnati because of the "bankers who moved to those cities in the nineteenth century to finance the cotton trade."
4.) "'Brooklynese is exactly the same whether it’s spoken in the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island or in Brooklyn. Or the Lower East Side.' The city’s dialect, [Labov] said, 'is much more indicative of one’s social status than of one’s neighborhood. Although no one wants to admit this,' he added, 'because we’re supposed to live in a classless society.'”
5.) "What causes dialects to change? Not television, Labov said. The people he calls 'extreme speakers'—those who have the greatest linguistic influence on others—tend to be visible local people: 'politicians, Realtors, bank clerks.'”
So I have to ask--what fact/opinion did you find most interesting? I thought it was insane how the dialect hasn't really changed in 50 years. It is hard to imagine, but fascinating nonetheless.
2.) Apart from the adenoidal "oi" (like saying "boid" instead of "bird"), Brooklynese has remained unchanged for the past fifty years.
3.) You can hear it in parts of New Orleans and Cincinnati because of the "bankers who moved to those cities in the nineteenth century to finance the cotton trade."
4.) "'Brooklynese is exactly the same whether it’s spoken in the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island or in Brooklyn. Or the Lower East Side.' The city’s dialect, [Labov] said, 'is much more indicative of one’s social status than of one’s neighborhood. Although no one wants to admit this,' he added, 'because we’re supposed to live in a classless society.'”
5.) "What causes dialects to change? Not television, Labov said. The people he calls 'extreme speakers'—those who have the greatest linguistic influence on others—tend to be visible local people: 'politicians, Realtors, bank clerks.'”
So I have to ask--what fact/opinion did you find most interesting? I thought it was insane how the dialect hasn't really changed in 50 years. It is hard to imagine, but fascinating nonetheless.
I also thought that was the most striking fact - how could it not change over fifty years? I thought language was constantly changing...it has to be changing, right?
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is changing, just at a slower and less-noticeable rate. Has Pittsburghese changed significantly over the last fifty years? Have other specific dialects? If not, then what makes Brooklynese different?
It was also interesting how the dialect is spoken in several areas in the exact same way, that whether or not you speak Brooklynese is more about social class than region. Does this mean that linguistically, class lines are stronger than regional lines? Is this the case for other cities too? Perhaps the regional lines don't matter as much because the different neighborhoods are so close anyway (in the city), so it is basically still close enough to be called the same region. Not sure!
Exactly; where else do we go to for answers, though? Labov was one of the leading experts in all of this! As for the second fact you found interesting--it was funny that, in the article, Labov made it clear that specific statement would make people mad. I thought that was interesting. Glad you found interest in the reading!
DeleteNice post, Nate! You can't go wrong writing about The Boss (meaning Labov in this case, not Bruce Springsteen; they have equal stature in their respective fields). In response to Alice's question, in NYC and other big cities, class DOES trump location. The difference between neighborhoods is partly due to the influence of different immigrant populations, but all partake in the basic NYC dialect.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Here's the link, for those who would like to read the article: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/11/14/talking-the-tawk