Showing posts with label Lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lessons. Show all posts

Friday, February 6, 2009

Open up ya, open up ya, open up ya throat


Question: "I've noticed, exclusively with black people, that they tend to pronounce the word "ask" as "axe". I've also noticed that it's common for them to substitute an "f" for a "th"; for example, they'll pronounce "ruthless" as "roofless" or "mouth" as "mouf".

I live and work in Chicago, and I've noticed this among both ghetto dwellers and professional types...I was really surprised to hear a female black executive use the word "axe" several times.

Note that I didn't say ALL black people do this, but a significant amount do."

The Best Answer: "It is African American Vernacular English and it IS a cultural thing.

AAVE shares several characteristics with Creole English language-forms spoken by people throughout much of the world. AAVE has pronunciation, grammatical structures, and vocabulary in common with various West African languages. Including sharing many features from regional dialects from the American South.

Many people from Boston or New York sound uneducated, some say, but they are not. It's just a dialect they have learned and share as a group as solidarity. I've noticed Latinos doing the same thing, now.

Also, American English was a direct snub against the British when America was founded. It was deliberate and was to separate from a nation they no longer wanted to be associated with, and created thier own dialect, spellings, and pronunciations.

Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Waldo from Monticello on August 16, 1813;
“The new circumstances under which we are placed, call for new words, new phrases, and for the transfer of old words to new objects. An American dialect will therefore be formed.”"

My favorite answers:
  1. "It's just the way they know how to talk. My mom is from Manhattan and sometimes she say "der" instead of there, or Idear...instead of idea! My mom is not Black nor does she dwell from the ghetto! I was in Chicago at Taco Bell and some White guy asked his son " hey Bahby wan a Tack-o? But he meant Hey Bobby want a taco? I'm from California. No accent here!"
  2. theyve always been too lazy to use correct grammer.
    they all also say "escape" as '"excape".
    if you notice , nearly all modern vernacular comes from them.
    ie; baby momma, my bad,wut up.etc.etc.
    the large lips may impeed correct speach of "ask" & some other words however.
    ( i dont want to hear any crap about me being racist either. these are facts and everyone knows it)
  3. thats because the black man is the man
    man you have no knowledge.Let me give you some.
    all breeds of dogs on earth come from the wolf
    even though they might not look nothing like the wolf. that process is called genetic selection
    and it was done by man not god. so man made the dogs you see here today though a process of
    breeding(genetic selection). AND IT IS A 100% FACT THAT YOU CAN DO THE SAME PROCESS WITH MAN
    OR ANY OTHER LIVING ORGANISM ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. AND I REPEAT THIS IS A 100% FACT. SO WHAT IM SAYING IS THAT YOU COULD ACTUALLY TAKE TWO BLACK AFRICAN PEOPLE AND PUT THEM IN A LAB
    AND CREAT ANY RACE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH OR YOU COULD CREATE A NEW RACE NEVER SEEN BEFORE IF YOU WANTED TO . AND THIS IS A COMPLETE FACT.

    AND ANOTHER THING. THE THING ABOUT YOU COMPARING US WITH YOUR SELF AND CALLING US ANIMALS LET ME
    TELL YOU ABOUT THAT . THE BLACK MAN IS THE DEFINITION OF THE THE WORD MALE. HUMAN BEINGS
    HAVE A FEMALE HORMONE CALLED Estrogen AND A MALE HORMONE CALLED TESTOSTERONE. THE BLACK RACE HAS THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF TESTOSTERONE WHEN COMPARED TO ANY OTHER RACE ON THE PLANET.
    I am black myself. the more you look like the apes we came from the more you look like man. white facial features are female features. black facial features are male facial features. the more
    you look like a gorilla the more you look like man and this is not a joke im 100% serious. the black race including male and female is on the male side of the chart. the white race and some
    other races are on the female side of the chart including male and female . do you not pay atension the white race in america is the king of homosexuals. even though the white female may possess the female features and the black female possesses the male features we can still make any kind shape and
    form of black people through gentic selection. so thoughs female features are stolen they belong to our black females.



From Yahoo Answers

Sunday, January 25, 2009

The Hanging of Jake Spoon


After Lonesome Dove: Part 3


Why you cryin'
on such a beautiful day?

***

Trees, slate white sky
sun just hardly hiding
through the pale green canopy

***

I'm no horse thief

You ain't too old to learn somethin' new.

***

Deets said:
Jake's horse was one of em'
I know the track his horse makes
when he rides

***

You know I ain't a killer, Gus
But I'd rather be hung up by my friends
than a couple of strangers

***

Why's that man cryin' momma?

Men have tears in them, same as you.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

I Knew Lisa Jarnot Couldn't Save You

"From the burning I've learned burning"
-- Lisa Jarnot


I knew one poem by Lisa Jarnot couldn't save you
and I decided to try and tell you even though
you have known yourself. This quagmire situation.
There's more to life than this. Time immemorial.

There on the sidewalk more strands of hair.
They call them extensions. Why extend cells?
Why extend dead matter? Warmth and language.
I have never seen Lisa Jarnot's hairstyles.

One woman yesterday used the word "boombox."
Her name is Elizabeth Alexander and she wrote
the poem for the 44th Presidential Inaugeration.
The boombox died in the 80s, ceased in the 90s.

If this is the year 2008 time is moving on by,
time is, time is moving on by-- slowly--too--
I'll write: "fin de siecle is or is not dead
but most likely it is, so you know what that means--"

and you'll all move like giant squid in packs.
Squid are solitary beings though, celestial madhouses
when their veils get dispersed, all of them, but
that never happens. Scientists are lying--its atomic.

I will go to work today and it will be just like
any other day except today I will pretend to care.
This is the just once day that every employer
deserves because they feel like a wound sometimes.

At work I won't read fantastical authors on the clock,
I won't spend my day eating peanut butter truffles
and questioning how fat I am even though my ribs show
lots, and I won't text you. Then again, I am a god damn liar.

The school yard behind my home where I live now
has a giant bell. It's actually a stimulated bell.
When recess is over electricity surges--it rings
and rings. Everyone runs in except the problem child.

Beneath the surface of the skin there is a thought
running up and down our bodies; the difference
between us and the problem child is that we have
caught on to what's going on--we know the verses well.

Just like the new words I never have known but
maybe you have--we must pandiculate these withered
words--take each letter and pull it apart like tack,
take it to the end without tearing it--it's not Lisa Jarnot.

Jarnot may be a oomerang child beneath new shattered gold--
she may be a time-exposed wind chill greeting giants--
she may be what unknown to today's most famous bodyguards--
she may give me a lift, my car's door was recently removed--