i remember the moment when i figured out my dissertation topic. When i was in college, i wanted to volunteer in the obama campaign. So i'm just casually in room perusing doctor nicol holiday's hundred 85 page phd Dissertation. She notes up top that baroca bama is a masterful code switcher between main stream English and african american language. And this is a term that originated almost 70 years ago from a study of Norwegian norwegian villages. It means to switch into different conversational tones depending on who you're speaking to or whom you're speaking it to. I hadn't heard of the term until recently, when my bilingual latina friend
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