Palin Tea Party speech

[BryonMorrigan]

BTW, speaking of accents...It's funny how you don't really realize how "heavy" your accent is until someone points it out to you. I never realized until a few years ago just how think my Southern accent is. When you're around people that all speak alike, you tend not to notice it. I was just reading this site, and noticed a bunch of things that I say, but hadn't noticed before. Funny.

LOL.

I scored a "96% Dixie. Is General Lee your grandfather?!" on this test: Are you a Yankee or a Rebel?

[Thunder]

Originally Posted by Weatherlite

Oh boy...I imagine I'm going to open a can of worms with what i have to say on this.

First, McCain really didn't pick her. Yeah, i think ultimately it was his official choice but you know a hundred little flunkies in the GOP were behind it and felt it was the best bet for WINNING the election, not the best bet for RUNNING a country.

As for the double standards and how someone speaks, who knows? Maybe it's my upbringing and listening to how the locals speak but I think that your example is erroneous on an ideological level. In reality, you're right. There would be an uproar and it would be wrong in principal. However, the difference between the two examples you give is one is regional dialect (Palin) and one is lifestyle dialect (Obama).

Go to Minnesota (or my hometown on the Canadian border in WAAAY upstate, northeast New York) There is a certain twang to the way people pronounce their words. They use phrases suck as, "Jezum crow, eh!" or "yaaahhhh, you betcha!" In Minnesota they sound similar but they use their own phrases which may or may not be similar. Now, do they speak that way in Florida? California? Kansas? How about even Montana or Washington since it does seem that sharing a border with Canada is a determining factor? No, they don't. Southern dialects have a certain drawl to them. MidWest have a different tone, and so on and so forth. Regional dialects and speaking tones vary from state to state, region to region.

But what about the way you proposed it were possible for Obama to speak? I have travelled all across the US. I have heard people speak that way in NYC, Washington DC, LA, Seattle, West Palm Beach, Columbus, Detroit, Memphis, et al. There is nothing I can think of which these places share in common which would cause people to speak that way. So what then causes it? I would be inclined to say nothing "causes" it because it's more of a choice. I don't imagine there are many parents telling their children that they should speak that way. As an example, I have friends from back in hicktown NY who speak that way but their parents speak like they're from the local area. Those same kids USED to speak like they were locals. In their case, they chose to pick up that style of speaking. Even in NYC that style is not the norm, it is a choice usually associated with a certain lifestyle. There may be cases in which someone speaks that way and then has a kid and continues to speak like that around the kid....the child would learn that style of speaking from birth, the rare time it would not be a choice.

So I think therein lies the difference. It would be ok for someone to do the whole "you betcha" because it's reminiscent of where they grew up and represents a certain area whereas "my boys be strappin with nines" is not representative of where someone grew up and is associated with gangs, violence and criminal intent usually. And let's be honest, how many Rhodes scholars do you know who speak like they're from the hood? How many have an unusual dialect or regional accent? That doesn't mean the next Einstein can't come from a gang in South Central but society has attached a stigma to speaking like that and as long as you can put a coherent sentence together it won't matter if you have a goofy regional accent, shave off the "ing" from a word or use phrases like "you betcha"...people will likely choose that person over someone speaking like an illiterate punk from the streets.

Exactly... a dialect is taught and learned. Colloquialisms, whether from the hood or the woods, are an affectation. My daughter rolls her eyes when her black girlfriend who she has known since 1st grade "goes Ghetto". Educated Grownups don't speak that way in serious conversation. Ms. Palin is remarkably immature and has a great deal of difficulty being serious and respectful ... especially when she is addressing an audience. It is a shame because while I still don't think she has the judgement or sense to run a 7-11, in unguarded moments she probably isn't half as big an ass as she comes across when she is trying to impress.