This video from Airplane! reminded me of the McWhorter piece on dialects in America. In case you haven't seen the movie, two of the passengers on the plane only speak "jive," and these are clips of them during the movie. It's clearly meant to be funny, but I definitely think that it resonates with McWhorter's point about how different American dialects are comparable to different languages, and that they shouldn't be seen as inferior because they deviate from the standard.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/52051ec56f/airplane-oh-stewardess-i-speak-jive-from-dirttron
I haven't seen Airplane in a long time, so thanks for sharing this. I agree this is an excellent illustration of the value of different dialects in context. Also, it reinforces McWhorter's claim that standard language is not chosen because of anything inherently superior of that dialect over others. Honestly, talking just about aesthetic appeal, I'd much rather listen to "jive" thanks standard English.
ReplyDeleteI think it's also interesting to note that the "subtitles" show a translation into standard English - instead of listing what the actors are actually saying in Jive
ReplyDeleteThis also tells you a little something about how Black English was/is perceived(especially during this time period?). The actors are not actually speaking Black English - it's nonsense words with some actual phrases thrown in. This is played for laughs in Airplane, but is also indicative of the attitudes and perceptions of the "dominant" audience for which it is meant.
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