African-American English in North Carolina
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2008
- Segment on African American English and its role in the lives and identities of African Americans in North Carolina
Excerpt from from the documentary "Voices of North Carolina"
DVD Available
languageandlife.org/documenta...
______________________________________
About VOICES OF NORTH CAROLINA
The Old North State is home to diverse language traditions from the Outer Banks to the Southern Highlands. Cherokee and Lumbee Indians, African Americans, and first language Spanish-speakers all have a home in this linguistically rich state. “Voices of NC” features series of short educational vignettes, each focusing on a different language community in North Carolina. Southerners from all walks of life lend their voices to a universal portrait of language and identity.
A Film by NEAL HUTCHESON
Executive Producer WALT WOLFRAM
A production of
THE LANGUAGE AND LIFE PROJECT
at NC State University
www.languageandlife.org
--------------------
Want to learn more about the Language and Life Project?
Website:
www.ncsu.edu/linguistics/ncll...
Twitter:
/ ncstate_llp
Facebook:
/ ncllp
Podcast:
www.mixcloud.com/Linglab/
DVDs:
commerce.cashnet.com/NCSUNCLLP
People as a WHITE German-American I'm ashamed at your linguistic ignorance. The Black-Americans ARE NOT using poor grammar, they have simply developed a dialect of English (other dialects of English: Jamaican, Australian, and American). This has developed from isolation (like all English dialects) created by discrimination against their integration into mainland White society. Not conjugating a verb in the standard American format is not a sign of ignorance necessarily, but it is perhaps...
We already know you're white when you say german
@@algonzalez6853 I live in Germany and I kid you not, we got black people around here too
@@georggroeg6014 sadly.
and they are not germans
@@algonzalez6853 Dude what the fuck
al gonzález they are germans, they got citizenship dont they, racist bitch
This video is why I love studying language and linguistics. Language is such a powerful tool and comes in so many different forms.
I remember when I was a freshman in college we had a lot of refugees come in from Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina and I had never heard anyone speak like them before in my life and they're just one state over from me! I was fascinated by their accents and the way they would word certain things. They were also really fun to hang out with. They were always so positive and happy in spite of what they had gone through.
I have a half sister from there and she has a Caribbean twang.
Behind words and accents are people and their ancestors. For me, the variety in expression adds to the whole American English complexity and beauty, though I may be biased!
Yeah I luh dat bout no’leans so beautiful
@Jubilee They are not refugees. They are citizens of the United States of America. Just like you are a citizen of America 🇺🇸
@@breeminor498 Obviously she knew they were Americans, being literally from a US state, just one state over, and while the _technical_ primary definition of refugee is someone who escapes untenable circumstances from another country, a lot of people have come to identify the word with people doing so from anywhere. We're on a video from a channel concerned with language after all and how malleable words themselves are amongst various locales, groups and contexts.
north carolina is my home, i love all of the different dialects
so nice
We need to start embracing the way we speak and stop demonizing our culture.
Ronaldo Davis thank you!! We disrespect and hate so much our culture and people. This is the very thing that is erasing our heritage.
Nobody's demonizing our culture. They're just calling a spade a spade!
If we are going to speak American English, we need to speak it properly. Otherwise, we need to make up a whole new language for ourselves. We don't need to steal someone else's language and butcher it. Ebonics is not even consistent.
You are not going to get very far talking like that.
Ronaldo Davis lol I don’t speak like I don’t have sense and it’s not demonizing so things you just must let go to advance in society and if you actually want to be taken seriously you should talk like these people
Facts bruh iont change for nobody. All that proper english and trying to enunciate all the words is hard being from the south if you don't like it fuck ya.
Love it, as a white southern man who is native to north Carolina we have also adopted a lot of the wording used in this video in our everyday speech as southerners in general.
Yes. We’ve influenced each other. We are Americans.
I love how the kids used “Ebonics/AAVE” to explain slang! Ppl don’t understand the difference. When these kids speak to their parents it’s not slang! That’s rude and you’d get your butt whipped. Slang is how we talk to our friends.
For real. "Ain't ain't a word." to quote my grandma. lol
How does someone "sound illiterate?. Illiterate means you can't read, not that you can't speak properly. A very eloquent person can still be illiterate. Anyway, we don't have a hard time pronouncing anything. It's a characteristic of our dialect.
@C Saw but If that's how I talk then thats how I talk you still know wtf I'm talkin bout
My early ancestors came from North Carolina back in the 1700s. Family came a long way. Proud of Black African American Heritage! 👍🏾
When I moved from ohio to north carolina, I didn't even understand when people talked to me...it's like a whole different language...
Asep nurhasan heck, have u herd Gullah.
So we really sound different..because I live in nc and dont even notice
@@itss.shanae7305 right to me the people around me speak regular American English. I am from the coastal area of North Carolina. I had a friend from Philadelphia and her mother told me that I sound like the people from TV show Little House on the Prairie
Damn, these all look like some happy kids, all hanging out together outside and having a good time. Great to see that still happens.
My Ancestors escaped slavery from North Carolina, the Virginias, Maryland, Kentucky and Tennessee and then became some of the earliest Black pioneer settlers of Southern Ontario (Canada). Our families lived in isolated communities and married other families from similar backgrounds. My family came to Canada between 1800-1833 and to this day we all have an accent that separates us from anyone else in Canada. Somehow over 200 years we have kept a blended accent from all these regions where it sounds distinctly southern but most notably North Carolinian/Virginian. I tend to turn it off when I am not with family or childhood friends but it slips out and people always notice and ask questions as to "where I am from". Once I introduced a long term boyfriend to my family and he was confused because they sounded so southern and he knew we had been in Canada a long time. His mothers side was from Kentucky so he was used to hearing a Kentucky accent, ours is different but needless to say he was confused.
This video was put together very well; thank you for sharing.
North Carolina accents vary!!!!!! Folks from the small towns along 95 do not sound like folks from Durham, that different Greensboro-Winston-Salem that differ from Charlotte!!!! Its all HOME Still!!!!!
Exactly I'm from 30 minutes from Greensboro and Greensboro sounds slightly southern or neutral but we sound like some country bamas lol!!!
HELLO!!!!- MY PEEPS are from Duhram.Mt.Dillium.Hinson family.All tall people.And very smart.Moved north to Pa.Always carried themselves with respect and received it in return-
Facts I couldn’t understand shit that man said he sounded country asf
Shout out to Lawndale/ Shelby
This was well done. I hope there is more. Linguistics is a passion of mine.
Was going through accent tag videos to brush myself up on central NC dialects and this one auto played and I was so struck by the sense of love and community here. This entire video is like a celebration, it's lovely, and that guy has some serious pipes
I'm doing research on AAE in my contrastive grammar class in Mexico City and I agree with you: it's NOT "bad English". It's ridiculous to think of languages and dialects as "bad" anything. Saludos!
Bless your heart, but it IS bad! I'm so embarrassed that many blacks speak this way. We can do so much better.
It's not bad at all. Anyone who thinks that isn't aware of the history that created AAVE. That's where "code-switching" comes in. You have to learn how to communicate regardless, so if white people can't understand me but I can understand them and communicate with them in a way they prefer - they are less intelligent than me because I KNOW how to do more.
Anonymous Person oh no suga it ain’t bad you just bein ignorant if you stay thinkin so
Ariadna its basic illiteracy
@@UrielAvalosjr What you just said is highly ignorant, especially for someone who cannot even tell the difference between "its" and "it's." Illiteracy is the inability to read and/or write. The definition of illiterate has nothing to do with the way one talks.
By your logic, because I speak a mix of Ebonics, southern English, and general English, I would be considered illiterate despite the fact that I scored near-perfect on the reading portion of the ACT (33/36) and scored 25/33 on the English portion, as well as having been placed in advanced English classes (and advanced classes in general) all my life.
By all meaningful measures, I am perfectly literate. However, people like you would label me uneducated just because I have a certain manner of speaking. It's 2020. I thought we'd have progressed as a society enough to know better than to judge books by their covers.
I’m from Raleigh and most people can’t tell where I’m from when I go to other states. We’re southern but don’t particularly have a dialect of the area. Big up, Mike Dot in the thumbnail
Chances are the way that people from Raleigh and maybe Durham and chapel Hill as well do not sound as though they have a specific accent is because the heavy influx of individuals that we have come into this area. Most of them are from out of state and out of country and well within human ability we accept and adapt, so what's this becomes ours and once I was becomes theirs and then it becomes the norm
At 6:24 he describes how music has progressed from its roots in the decades past. Very intelligent. It's good to hear.
I'm from Jerz/NYC, my entire fam is from North and South Carolina and i wanted to learn more about my ppls culture down there. They migrated up here btw like 1910-1940s. I randomly searched North Carolina black lingo and this was the 1st to show up. Much love and thanks for puttin this out! 🙏🏾
Awesome video, very inspiring, makes me want to study linguistics.
Loved this! I'm Chapel Hill, North Carolina raised, been there practically my whole life. Been living in Spain for 2 years and working on my Spanish. Hearing this - immediately like, yep, I know that accent. I can even put faces to the accent, yep, he talks like that, she talks like that. What they say about in-group/out-group... Really quite interesting. Let's not even mention the written aspect (this, haha!). Fascinating!!! :)
I grew up in Sanford North Carolina. My father was a Mexican immigrant so we were only allowed to speak Spanish in our home. I learned English from watching television and from school so this is exactly how I learned how to speak English. When I moved to Texas they immediately put me in speech classes and "fixed" the way I talk
Lived in NC my whole life and this is 100% dead on lol
When I moved from Indiana to the Downeast area of North Carolina I couldn't understand what anyone was saying. I had grown up mostly living in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana and understood Appalachian phrase of speech well. But North Carolina was like going to Jamaica and listening to Patois. I struggled.
thank you for educating!
In secondary school (in Canada), my best friend’s parents were from North Carolina. Hearing that lady use the term ‘honey chile’ reminded me of them and almost made me cry. There’s such a sweetness to that language. I haven’t heard it in years and I miss it.
I live in the U.K. now and nobody speaks like that here, not even close. There are many lovely English dialects in the U.K., but it’s not the same as what you can hear in North Carolina.
I've been learning Hindi and spending a lot of time with NY Indian friends. Many of them speak various languages even around different family memebers. This is the first ebonics video that had seen the language differences as beautiful. I see nothing wrong with switching types of communication. Thanks
Cool. It's great to be learning different languages.
Love this video.
Although this is old I loved this!
Me too wanna be friends?
This is not old this is from 2008 only 13 years ago
I'm from GA and I easily understood every word said..
I grew up in middle America in a European American community. This is so awesome listening to different dialects explained.
Beautiful people.
best nation in this world ( Africans)...God bless motha Africa
HipHop / Basketball / Jazz / Blues / Soul / Chorus / Boxin /....like if you're an african & proud ....peace from Algeria
You are stupid
P C no he ain’t. He tellin the truth
Oh dear that How Much We Can Bear. I have not sung that song for years at church
9th a legend 🖤💯he always show up for us
I'm an English teacher and I absolutely love AAVE. I encourage all parents to allow their children to express themselves in AAVE, and help them to also acquire "Standard American English" through their formal education at school. It's curious that in America people been duped into thinking that speaking a dialect in addition to the "national" language (actually, the US does NOT even have an official language) is something negative. Embrace it and love yourself!
had an old black buddy for years , rest in peace my brother . He would say honey child , for a while I thought he was saying hey Charles lol he was a darn good man !! Miss you brother . Eastern NC
here in the UK, around the cities, especially London, there is an urban dialect spoken mainly by black british as well as south Asian and white British, that is a beautiful mix between British cockney, standard British English, African American vernacular English, and most notably, Caribbean English, (including Jamaican patois) and Asian English (Pakistanis and Indians). this youthful dialect reflects the melting pot nature of the city, and I would suggest anyone interested in this video to check it out :) -urban London accent.
@@Remarema-we9qj How is there AAVE in London?
@@Codi892 Because African-Americans also live in London. They've relocated. London is actually one of the most multilingual, if not THE most multilingual city in the world.
Phonte of the Foreign Exchange Oh Wow!!! My favorite group!!!
We've never totally assimilated.
And never will and have no desire to
Yoooo princeville!!! I grew up in Tarboro!
Go,ahead. my black people, u are the original.
Literally the original
They didnt evolve? Makes sense
@@algonzalez6853 mad?
LITERALLY
Skrate, skreet, skrawberry - in Florida too! I love how we talk. I be code switching tho lol
Lol what's that mean
I heard that in New Orleans too, but not from most Black New Orleanians, so I don't know how it's determined.
Language is so interesting. I grew up in Durham so it's pretty neutral but my parents are from TN and AR. So hearing them and my family speak was always different. But once I visited Eastern NC I realized some of the speaking like how she mentioned "screet" in the video sounds like my family in TN. I've started doing geneaology and realized that TN is pretty much a mixture of the various regions in NC and VA and certain places like Haywood County was founded by a mixture of people from the northern Piedmont, northern Coastal plain and the Southwestern part of the Piedmont and you can hear all of those dialects in the language there.
I love AAVE and I grew up around a lot of black folks, they sound gentle and really natural, should embrace the accent rather than changing to “white” voice to fit in the society
Language, dialects, culture, customs and cuisine around the world is so interesting. I'm from the Mediterranean American white lady from Metro Detroit. I'm not understanding how in the 21th Century that Black Americans aren't understood as having their own culture, regional dialects, customs and cuisine.
My parents would have corrected me if they heard me say skraight or skreet ,especially my teachers.
The closed captions on this are HORRENDOUS. Don't try using them.
Young Phonte & Young 9th Wonder !!! Love y’all
AAVE is the best! I think most black ppl are technically bilingual in our own way.
I'm from Wilmington and y'all all sound different and country to us. We're southern not country.
3:21 that sweater though X]
The Title should be "North Carolina - African-American English"
Or "African-American English in North Carolina" just in case the title gets cut off.
Oh great "African American English" Now do yours. Trailer park white that is. Loool
Ima badbytch Ima!!! you stop it lmao
@mdelsaz Hey. I'm from the UK, doing a linguistics MA right now and I have a question: Can you tell me if AAVE is rhotic or non-rhotic? Thank you!
You could probably check the coastal region of North Carolina there literally is a city or town or two that speaks between what is known as British and Irish when it comes to accents
heard alot of guys saying "you dont lost your mind",meaning "you lost your mind can someone explain for me how to use the grammar
Not you don't lost your mind, it's you done lost your mind...you say that to someone who says something crazy to you or ask you to do something off the wall
NTANDOYENKOSI NDIMANDE It' similar to "you've gone mad" or "are you daft?"
Thanks guys
Oshay Duke Jackson with Wode Maya together. Good to see you guys. Also much love to Dr. Mumbi Seraki and Phil from the Advice Show. Y’all doing great things. Much love from Virginia.
Rural southern accent is the sweetest
@Plato86 That doesn't change the dialectual nature of the language. African American English like all languages changes from region based on the influences of the region. American standard English is the same way. In fact, if you get someone from North Easter part of the USA and the South Western part not only do they have a hard time communicating but some of the speech patterns are difficult to discern if both were speaking standard venacular based solely on pronounciation.
My fam from Chicago and I live in Indianapolis and we basically sound like this it's just how I was raised💯💯💪🏽💪🏽
Mostly but I haven’t heard anyone around here sound like the guy in the green shirt
Lol nah they true country folks like my granny and aunties I'm a lil proper cuz I'm a younger generation child from the inner city
Linguistics & accents - very interesting. I'd like to understand why some African-Americans say "axe" instead of "ask" or "pacific" instead of "specific" ? I see that across many states.
Linguistics student here, there are a few different theories/explanations on its origin.
Some linguists follow the neo-Anglicist explanation, that ask-aks may actually be a product of conservative English-- while we modern English speakers say "ask", in older forms of English, it was pronounced something similar to "aks." It's possible that the black people brought into the Americas region had acquired this form from English-speakers of the time period, and because of social isolation from slavery and segregation, had conserved this form of saying "aks" throughout time.
Another explanation is that it was acquired from the English dialects spoken by other mixed communities in the Caribbean, i.e. creole languages. There may have been a creole that used these same forms "aks" and "pesific" and, again, because of social isolation from slavery, African American English maintained the use of this form.
Generally, though, the idea is that these forms didn't come from no-where, but were from a different dialect or form of English.
@@EeveeFlipnoteStudios Amazing answer ! I thought it was a physical difficulty in saying the hissing sound ending with a plosive like sssk - like Chinese trying to pronounce L. Or Germans trying to say Squirrel. Yet most (3 out of 4) of my African-American friends have no trouble with the sssk or sssp.
@@EeveeFlipnoteStudios I've heard present-day West Africans say 'aks' instead of 'ask', (with no American influence) so I always thought it was just the way Africans pronounced the word, and that it stuck through the generations. Certain variations sound better to your ear than the standard American English pronunciations -- like Thômas vs. Thomas -- so you use the one that feels right when you say it -- even if you know it's not the American standard.
i am hispanic about 10 month living in north carolina, iv never been in the states before and let me tell you guys, i dont understand african american guy from north carolina very much.. jejeje, i need a african american english course
i love African American mix
I am glad the Bull City aka Durham was represented in the film. As a native of Durham, North Carolina, I lost my southern or country accent after living in New York City and being educated at New York University.
respect
@MaximusRelaximus lol "we do say "Qwentey" and "Quelve"
That Rap freestyle was dope 💥💥💥
The white dude blended it with beats 👍💥
@Plato86 Actually use of one word to represent many forms IS versatility; it means that you don't need to invent a new word for each context. Look up the definition of the word versatile. First defintion: many uses.
@Plato86 A suggestion: look at the context in which they're speaking. People sometimes change how they speak dependent on situation. Also, because of the prejudice against the African-American dialect of English those professors probably had to change to "standard" English. The same thing goes for those speaking AAVE. To be accepted they need to speak the way they do. It depends on what the purpose of what you're saying is.
straight geechee!!
geeches I thought are only in SC...NC too?
Old School 4life Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia. They're the root of African American culture so they've kinda been everywhere, but the places mentioned above are where they have the strongest/purest presence.
If you are African American (descendants of slaves) you have gullah geeche in your ancestry.
Old School 4life female don’t know about Va ... from what I can discern it’s the lower third of NC coast down to the upper Florida coast.
@@dannywearsthecrown567 Yea it's preserved the from NC coast down to the FL coast. But technically if you came from any of the areas where they still live you can be considered Gullah (in NC &SC) and Geechee (GA &FL)
Cee Risse I’m North Carolina but not on the coast. I could tell by the people I met from the coast here that they had to have some ties just off the talk. I will definitely do more research.
@Plato86 yep.
How was ur decade bro?
Y’all make me proud from the ENC Nash county ayyee
My father's Virginian and he says "skreet", "skrimp" instead of "street" and "street", but I think his grandparents might have come from North Carolina.
I’m from nc and I think that’s just mispronunciation because my family don’t put k’s or c’s in street or straight. Or t’s in screw. I hear it a lot but I wouldn’t say it’s cultural but hey… idk I’m just going off what I’ve been exposed to
@Plato86 naw, that crazy ;)
Lol just cause y’all speak all proper and shit don’t mean we got to. We speak country grammar where I’m from in FL . Love
They here screet in SC where im from to
I'm now writing my dissertation, which involves AAE. I'm bilingual (Spanish-English) and I understand AAE perfectly, I love it. I find it straight to the point, economical, functional. I' d never label it as "bad English", it has a history and a background you can't ignore.
@Suolperos. i would go even further to say that ebonics is superficially english and has a grammatical structure which is west african based mix with english germanic based grammar. its phonology is influenced by english as well. its probably best describe as a camoflauged creole as it is the most english based creole under the most direct assault of english along with scot as in the form of white supremacy education and constant contact. ebonics is also influencin english only thru slang tho'.
Mr. Spencer there is just country lol, nothing more to it. As an American I was able to follow him but I definitely had a hard time understanding his drawl. Interesting too because some parts almost sounded like he had en English accent, like when he says “way back there”. I’ve heard there’s a small town in the Carolinas that still has an English accent IIRC.
Everyone else just sounds normal to me 🤷♂️
learn & practice AAVE is so fun
@gute138
Well its a different language lol. We do speak more 'standard' when foreigners speak to us lolol
Hair did??? Wow lol. What is the correct way to say that. I am interested. Or what are you saying?
I’m from Mississippi but I once went to Mapel Hill, NC and they a whole different sound of country.. Almost hill billy country
CeddieCed yup, my wife is from Burgaw and I quickly learned lol
Yea the Appalachians
@Plato86. as an native ebonics speaker that also speak english and has learned spanish. i can tell u spanish, portugese and italian are not really that different and if u speak one u can usually understand the other. the grammar of portugese and spanish are pretty much the same. however spanish speakers can usually understand italian better due to sounds. the grammar of ebonics and english are not as related. the vocab is nearly identical. white supremacy is the reason its look down on.
I get regional difference. We've all heard "a pig in a poke" but not all know what it means. My Dad used to say "right close" when most of us would say "real close" or "really close". "Honeychild" sounds fine to my ear because I'm familiar with some southern speech patterns. But, I wouldn't use it in a college paper or a formal setting. I think a student can know AAVE, but also needs to learn what's called standard English so they can advance as most of the Educators spoke here. A few less "you know what I'm saying" and "like"(when they Don't mean 'similar to') would also make a speaker sound better. And that criticism applies to all ethnic backgrounds in the U.S.
Yes, all of that. I’m a North Carolina girl born and raised 😅 However, I’m educated and I speak standard English most of the time.
YOOOO! I'm so glad I saw this, fucking joe scudda and little brother. Wish they would've hit mainstream.
Come to SOUTHERN MD (Charles,Calvert ,St Marys) you will think youre in Alabama or Georgia..I NEVER UNDERSTAND WHY..ONLY 2 HOURS SOUTH OF DC..by the Chesapeake Bay
6:52 they killed that 🔥🔥🔥
yea here in Raleigh we say "say word" it's hard to explain what it means it's kind of like "for real" like "say word" "word" idk I'm white but I grew up in a black neighborhood so it pisses me off when people say "you talk like a black person" I'm like what does a black person sound like
Good freestylers at the end of this vid.
what is spoken does show the area you come from. be black or white. what is if importance is the distortion of the standard language, that is common to the african people, and it does not occurr in the usa, but throughout the americans
I REALLY REALLY DO RESPECT SPEAKING JUST LIKE MY ANCESTORS! FOR INSTANCE I CANNOT STAND USING THE WORD “KID/S”. BECAUSE GROWING UP IN NORTH CAROLINA WE USED THE WORD “CHILDREN/CHERRIN!” BUT KID/S WAS ALWAYS FOR BILLY GOATS! BUT NEVER EVER FOR HUMAN BEINGS!
9th wonder is dope
@Plato86 It's only "improper" if the goal is to speak formal English, but it isn't improper in its own setting. There are many dialects of English around the world and all of them have their social/cultural context in which they are "proper" or "correct". The reality is that no dialect or language is superior to any other.
I love ebonics because it evolves constantly with new words and tones. Standard english stays the same
Yeah I read that it was also generational cause it constantly evolves
Call it African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
As a Californian, I can't understand Southern AAVE at all (southerners always mock my accent).
That's really cool bro can i be your friend?
@Louise Walls To be honest, I can understand AAVE somewhat, but I can't speak it. My grandmother came from the south and originally spoke like this. She went into the corporate world and eventually became a professor, so she decided to change the way she spoke. Me and my mom never used AAVE and were raised to see it as improper. I actively refused to learn it growing up due to the social stigma towards it.
It's hard being a black person and not sounding like one. People treat you like you shouldn't exist or like you're subhuman or un-American just because you speak proper English as a black person, especially members of your own race. You wouldn't understand unless you were in such a position yourself.
I can talk ebonics, and I have a college degree, so it doesn't mean I'm not intelligent. Hell, can you pronounce pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis? Do you know what it means? And yes, I spelled it. I can understand Spanish as well, and Japanese, and I'm studying other stuff. My intelligence is not dismissed by my accent. It's a shame I have to even hide my accent to not feel judged. I'm good at writing too.
Who still uses "fo shizzle"!!!
My cousin 😂
My entire family
Nigga was playing lmao
Now people like it all over America
@Plato86 some black profs do speak in black english, on purpose, to make a point. but formal education in this country has always happened in the context of the white standard of english, so it's just habit to conform to that. but most educated black people can speak both ways. you don't lose your black english when you learn more formal english; you just use it in other situations.
Yup yup I’ve had to be so formal tho I can’t wait to get back to the south we gotta preserve our language
@@avantgardeho_6464 You make it sound like Black American English is exclusive to the south. Although this video focused on a southern state, the overall point is that Black American English is spoken throughout Black America, notwithstanding socioeconomic status.
I'm from the south and speak fluent Black American English and fluent Standard American English -- Standard being, grammatically standard, not White American standard (who often say certain things grammatically incorrect themselves).
native american people believe you shouldn't shoot the bear because he was the first medicine man. bear knew where to dig for roots and herbs, and when he was finally shot his ashes went up and formed mosquitoes. i know people up here who hunt bears but i can't abide it - but i totally respect each person's viewpoint. there's so many realities on the earth right now it's amazing we can get along at all. here's to unity.
@Rufusdos It's non-rhotic