Linguistic Autobiographies: Language as Style Tuesday, February 24

Colonel Boehner’s women do go on about orange books.

White Kids: Bucholtz (2010) Study of the styles of students at Bay Area HS in mid-late 1990s ● Mainstream: preppy, jock ● Alternative: rastas, granolas, etc. ● Nerdy ● Hip-Hop fans

Youth Styles in the Bay Area: Nerds Nerds’ linguistic style set them apart from their trendy peers through the use of elements of superstandard English, a highly and sometimes exaggeratedly formal version of Standard English (see also Wolfram and Schilling-Estes 2006). The superstandard style was distinguished phonetically by careful articulation and especially resistance to processes characteristic of colloquial speech, like consonant cluster simplification and the reduction of unstressed vowels. These careful pronunciations were coupled with lexical formality as well as extremely standard grammar. Bucholtz, Mary ( ). White Kids: Language, Race, and Styles of Youth Identity (Page 151). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.

Youth Styles in the Bay Area: Nerds Erich: I just can’t stand people who have all the outward signs of being an extremely stupid person. My observation is that other people think we’re kinds of foolish and crazy for the way we do things. Claire: I tend to refer to the whole, um, Y chromosome as a guy.

Hip hop fans listen almost exclusively to rap music and dress in baggy hip hop styles, but they also used African American youth slang that was deemed still too “black” to be available for white use, and they borrowed phonological and grammatical structures from African American Vernacular English.The use of these semiotic forms, especially in combination, was seen by other European American students as an illegitimate claim to the cultural authority and coolness of black youth. from: Bucholtz, Mary ( ). White Kids: Language, Race, and Styles of Youth Identity (Page 60). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition. Youth Styles in the Bay Area: Hip Hop Fans

Billy:They’re my homies, I give them props Al:I mean Shawn’ll like, I’ll get into an ar- a phat argument with him and, I mean I know that we’re going to still be friends afterwards...

Linguistic Autobiographies Part 2: Highschool ● Did your group of friends change? Do your friends influence the way you speak? ● Did your interests change? ● Do you participate in an organized group/activity that might influence your speech? ● Did your language interests change? ● What type of music do you listen to? How does media influence the way you speak? (books, movies, social media) ● What classes are you taking? Did a language teacher influence the way you think about language? ● Are you more self-conscious/self-aware of your language now than when you were younger? ● Did you visit/move to places that might influence your speech? ● Have people criticized the way you speak?

Linguistic Autobiographies Part 3: College and Beyond ● How do you think your major will affect the way you speak? ● What groups do you think you’ll hang out with and how will they influence your speech? ● Will where you live/your surrounding environment influence your speech? ● If you have kids will they influence your speech? ● Will you try to learn a new language? In class or on your own? ● Will you study abroad? ● If your own political views change, will that change your speech? ● Will your job affect your speech? ● Do you think knowing multiple languages or a particular language will be beneficial in you career?