Y chole: Do you find that there might be kind of aspirational tones, depending on who they're talking to? I started telling y chole a story i had heard the day before from michael yo, a comedian. He's corean, an african american. And he was about to interview a very famous wrapper on the radio. Then as soon as he got on the air for a radio station, he had a completely different voice. Is that aspiration as well, depending on kind of who you want to connect with? We all have styles, right? So you're not going to talk to your doctor and your priest and your mam and your best friend the
Alie is delirious with the flu, so it’s an encore presentation of a favorite episode. If you slept on this when it first aired, get into Phonology now. Vocal fry. Code switching. Black Twitter. Valley girls. Culture vultures. WE'RE TALKING ABOUT TALKING. Alie battles traffic to sit down with linguistics professor Dr. Nicole Holliday about intonational phonology: how tones and pitch help us bond with others and construct identities. Inspired in part by former President Barack Obama's masterful linguistic variability, Dr. Holliday's work focuses on how language is used in the crossing and construction of racial/ethnic boundaries. She graciously fielded tons of questions for a fascinating dive into the nuances and strict grammatical rules of African American Language, cultural appropriation, our educational system, honoring your identity, what not to wear in Paris and the roiling debate over who is the best rapper. Also: Alie is maybe a lizard person.
Follow Dr. Nicole Holliday @MixedLinguist on Twitter and Instagram
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Sound editing by Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris
Music by Nick Thorburn