0:04

from book smart studios lexicon

0:06

valley it's a podcast about language

0:08

i'm john mcwhorter and you know this

0:11

, is gonna be a little less fun

0:14

since i at least hope some

0:16

the shows are going to be because i need to address

0:19

address matters the things

0:21

that you hear about again and

0:23

again and you know it's time

0:26

for me to take me stand and

0:28

as you might guess given this is a language

0:30

podcast and the sorts of things

0:32

that one for i might take

0:34

a stand about this is going to be one of my rear

0:36

so's where i address what

0:38

we might call race issues

0:41

and specifically of issues

0:43

black inglis what i'm usually

0:45

doing on this show is trying to indicate

0:48

ways in which black english is cool

0:50

and not just in terms of it's atmosphere but

0:53

in terms of just how it's

0:55

built as a grammar just what

0:57

it's like in terms of it's historical

0:59

change over time but

1:02

here i want to talk about some things about

1:04

black english that are less fun than that

1:06

but the i things are going to be just

1:08

as educational as me talking

1:10

about how black english handles tense or what

1:12

it's verb to be as like or what it was

1:14

like and eighteen ninety versus nineteen

1:16

ninety so i'm gonna to us

1:19

this

1:20

three things and we're not going

1:22

to have particular semi

1:25

relevance usually musical theater musical

1:27

selections in the so because when i do says like

1:29

this like get the feeling that would come off

1:31

as off as trivial and set we're

1:33

not gonna do that but i just wanna

1:36

talk to you about three things think of me

1:38

as a poor man's franklin

1:40

d roosevelt i'm going to give you a fireside

1:42

chat let's start with the

1:44

first thing it make i

1:48

hear about this a lot probably about

1:50

every three or four months is

1:52

an idea out there and for some

1:54

reason it seems have been getting around even more

1:57

since spring of twenty of twenty our research

2:00

began is an idea out

2:02

there out there starts

2:04

as i'm going to say at one time and the

2:06

word is not and and and in a as

2:09

pick a nigger the ideas that

2:11

it's sure the that the

2:14

story is that

2:16

people use to white

2:18

people used to seize

2:22

and lens a black

2:24

person and that while

2:26

they did it they would sit and enjoy

2:28

food and the idea

2:31

therefore was that picnic meant

2:33

that let's go do that

2:36

there , evidence that add at least

2:38

one lensing if i may

2:40

it's people that sit around and eat and we can be quite

2:43

sera that was many many more than that

2:45

this concrete evidence of it in pennsylvania

2:47

butts okay that was a practice but the question

2:49

is is the word picnic

2:52

derived from that's and does it

2:54

therefore qualify as therefore slur

2:57

because people are beginning to discuss it legitimately

3:00

concerned white people are beginning to ask one

3:02

another and black people including this black

3:04

people whether picnic is actually picnic is

3:07

because even if we don't know it now it's started

3:09

as that thing and

3:12

you know what blissfully and

3:14

i mean i'm thankful for this i think

3:16

of this is good news blissfully that

3:18

is not we're picnic came from

3:20

that folk etymology is interesting

3:22

but that's not what it was

3:24

and so i want you to think about things

3:27

that you know think about much helter skelter higgledy

3:30

piggledy or is it higgledy piggledy and

3:33

i don't care whatever that member

3:35

we are talking about we duplications couple

3:37

so the go that sort of us when

3:39

i'm trying to dissuade my girls

3:41

from wanting to eat something that

3:44

isn't especially good for people i say

3:46

well you know how much sadie wacky

3:48

how much greasy we see do

3:50

you want to eat today right so

3:53

often when you're repeating

3:56

a word nikki way and this happens in a lot

3:58

of languages when you do the read the you

4:00

change the initial counselor so

4:03

that's very common not

4:05

just an english he can happen for

4:07

example in france so in

4:09

french begin

4:11

right

4:12

uk to pick the picket

4:14

begin well suppose

4:16

there's this practice of whole

4:19

bunch of people are bringing dishes

4:21

and is a little this and their the

4:23

little that and so when you go to

4:25

the stand you're going to pick a little this and you going to

4:27

pick a little of that out

4:30

i cannot resist it right

4:32

i said no show tunes but this

4:34

is one all of you are waiting who likes so

4:36

to music man take a little talk a little

4:38

and it actually illustrates the atmosphere

4:40

of this words this is music man

4:42

this is a musical either case and of

4:44

if i may women's gossiping just

4:47

a little

5:00

if i hadn't i would have heard about it from somebody

5:02

so imagine you're picking

5:04

a little this and you're picking a little that's

5:07

it , know what let's have a pick pick

5:10

you bring you know a pig with

5:12

than an apple in it's mouth and you bring some aspects

5:15

and you break some sushi and you praying

5:17

some fried clams i don't know let's

5:19

have a pick pick but you know you don't want

5:21

to sit sit sit in a french person doesn't want to say

5:23

a secret the gifts he kind of want it seems

5:25

that initial consonants self help

5:27

her skelter foul mouth will

5:30

be good meat good because

5:32

he gets distorted because neat that was

5:35

a germanic derived word for

5:37

some little bit of crap and so

5:39

if you're deciding whether it's gonna be something like a beacon

5:41

meager up he didn't he gets nico might have made

5:43

you choose the nicotine and so instead

5:45

of having a bb guns you have a bigger

5:47

bigger who who's at

5:49

be neat

5:50

right

5:51

okay that's where it came

5:53

from it started in friends

5:55

and it was passed on to english at first pops

5:58

up at the very end the

6:00

sixteen hundred the french word

6:02

that meant a little pick pick pick pick and

6:05

and nico had nothing to do with

6:07

you know what they weren't thinking about

6:09

black people and more proof

6:12

that it wasn't about black people is

6:14

that that word is present in

6:17

not only inglis by

6:19

the seventeen hundreds but also german

6:21

danish and sweetest germanic

6:24

languages seem to pick this word up around

6:26

the same time and you know let's say citizen

6:29

you're in sweden and seventeen sixty his

6:31

sense that the african colonial

6:33

adventures of sweden were rather abbreviated

6:37

well how much you're thinking about

6:39

black people when you're talking about

6:41

grabbing some bits of food and putting them all together

6:43

on us a table and ticking

6:45

away at us is people in stockholm

6:48

were talking about picnics and seventeen

6:50

fifty and people in france and people

6:53

with inglis then inglis think we

6:55

know that this is not

6:57

a were heard that came from

6:59

things that terrible people who

7:01

were white were saying in the american south

7:04

at south certain time it just seems

7:06

kind of like if it's something somebody made up

7:08

self yes we have to be cautious

7:11

and we have to ask the questions these

7:14

picnic derived from peter you know what

7:17

and therefore is it a slur now

7:19

, question can have to answer's yes

7:22

or no the answer does not

7:24

automatically has automatically be yes because we're in

7:26

a race or reckoning and or this case this

7:28

have to say the answer is no

7:30

it's not uncertain no i

7:33

hate to have to put it that way folks really but

7:35

some things that get around really

7:37

distract us from thinking about real things

7:39

such as the fact that there are imbalances

7:42

in this country by raised need to

7:44

be addressed but picnic being a slur

7:47

is not something that we need to address

7:50

or it next negro negro

7:53

as far as i'm concerned and now i'm editorializing

7:56

what i was doing just now with sack guys

7:58

and just as editorial but still i

8:00

can't help being mates negro is

8:03

not a slur and you

8:05

may have noticed that these days there

8:07

is emerging an idea that not only the

8:09

and words but negro is

8:12

the wrong thing to say and we need to

8:14

examine that's why as negro

8:17

a slurps because of course back and the

8:19

day when it was common

8:21

coin for black person among all

8:23

polite people it wasn't a

8:26

slur at all the

8:28

for example martin luther king's writings

8:30

are full of the word negro

8:33

he wasn't using it as a smear last

8:35

time i checked there's an organization called the

8:37

united negro college fund we

8:40

don't call it the united african american

8:42

college one of the united negro college fund

8:45

is negroes a bad word the next

8:47

i'm serious already happened next we

8:49

have to say that nobody's gonna read to kill a mockingbird

8:52

anymore it's not because it's has the white

8:54

savior complex that's what some people complain

8:56

about that because the word negro is used throughout

8:59

as a term of respect know

9:02

to kill a mockingbird because it's full of a slur

9:05

to kill a mockingbird is huckleberry finn

9:07

with it's with word it's mean really

9:09

is that what we're going to think it's so the idea

9:12

is not that it was always was slur

9:14

because it wasn't about five minutes

9:16

ago instead the ideas that were

9:18

going to decide that it's that slur now because

9:21

it's our case the we're going

9:23

to decide that it's a civic toward

9:26

to refer to

9:28

negroes or to even read

9:30

the word out loud as some people have been criticized

9:33

for doing and educational context we're going to

9:35

expunge that words because it's what

9:37

black people used to be called it's not

9:39

what were called now that

9:41

you see if i later now in black

9:44

and white so to speak in us going to say that once

9:46

it starts to sound a little flimsy and honestly

9:48

i think this it's nice to

9:50

because this as a sex this is not just a matter

9:53

of people posturing or people

9:55

being concerned and thinking that sometimes

9:58

you need to factor in the details this

10:00

is beginning to do some weird things so for example

10:03

random house has published a lot of norman

10:05

mailer's work now there

10:08

is an anthology that we

10:10

are going to seats of

10:12

his work and it's not going to be put out by random

10:14

house they passed on publishing the

10:16

and policy despite the money that it would have made

10:19

them and a lot of the reason was

10:21

that one of the young staffers their decided

10:24

that's mailer having called one of his

10:26

essays the white negro

10:28

was problematic so to speak

10:31

now miller wrote that eons

10:33

ago at this point but we're supposed

10:35

to not read it and think well that

10:37

was the parlance have a different time which know

10:39

black person at the time would have objected to i'm

10:41

not talking about the contents of the article i'm talking about

10:43

it's titles but we're supposed to just see

10:46

the word on the page now and treat

10:48

it as a totem as a taboo

10:50

was almost a magic words

10:53

i know some people are thinking who cares because norman

10:55

mailer was white i disagree but still

10:58

i respect the prospectus up this

11:01

listen here the only have to listen to that

11:03

a minute it as if you don't like classical music but

11:05

listen to this and try not to

11:30

the

11:33

that is william

11:36

dawson's symphony it

11:38

was written and nineteen thirty four william

11:41

dawson was dawson black man and

11:43

the title of that symphony is negro

11:46

folk symphony that's

11:48

what he called it because it was nineteen thirty

11:50

four and he was black now

11:53

listen to that percussion going

11:55

again listen to this clip again because this because this

11:58

one of the most remarkable the pieces of classical

12:01

music that's a black person or

12:03

frankly any person has ever written

12:05

it's a wonderful half hours here's the ending

12:07

again

12:32

at least some of you want to hear the rest of that don't

12:34

you well you're not hearing it much lately

12:36

and you know why because orchestra

12:39

conductors are afraid of it because

12:41

it has the word negro in its title

12:43

and they're being told that that's

12:45

a bad word and they figure well why

12:48

bother with possibly getting in trouble with that

12:50

and so we're going to program somebody else's music

12:53

instead but what about william dawson

12:55

the negro folk symphony which may be i

12:57

certainly think it is may be the

12:59

best orchestral symphony

13:01

ever written by a black person

13:03

in the history of our species

13:06

but no you don't get to hear it because it has

13:08

that slur in the title here's

13:10

another example some , you

13:12

may have seen that documentary about james baldwin

13:15

recently i am not your negro

13:17

you know that was a euphemism what james

13:19

baldwin actually articulately said

13:21

in a certain context was i

13:23

am not your you know that's what

13:25

he set now fast forward

13:28

to the two thousand and teens and these documentary

13:30

filmmakers knew that you're not going to call the documentary

13:33

that and that's okay i get that so

13:35

they you've promised to i am not

13:37

your negro now never mind

13:40

that literature professor

13:42

and poet laurie shek at

13:44

the new school in new york essentially

13:47

was fired because

13:49

she referred to the original

13:51

title and trying to stimulate a discussion

13:54

as to why that documentarians change

13:56

that do change am not your negro

13:58

she was not fire the time but

14:01

frankly she's been recently discontinued

14:03

for know attested reasons and it's hard

14:05

to believe that the student protests that arose

14:07

when she used birth and word one

14:09

time had nothing to do with

14:11

her suddenly being disappeared

14:14

in that way despite her senior

14:16

and renowned status but

14:19

this is the same i'm not your

14:21

negro was a euphemism about five

14:23

minutes ago but based on this new

14:25

idea that negroes wrong even that's no good the

14:28

i guess it's gonna have to be called i am not your black

14:30

person or something like that which

14:32

sounds nothing like in intent or flavor

14:34

what baldwin men so

14:37

we need to rethink this i

14:39

understand the issue of the and

14:41

words as a slur i think that's

14:43

the way we're being taught to muddied the distinction

14:46

between using it referring

14:48

to it is ,

14:50

so to speak and i have actually done a

14:52

whole lexicon valley on that issue

14:54

was you want to know exactly how i feel

14:56

about us but this one where

14:59

we're going to decide that we're going to take offence also

15:01

at negro just because

15:03

it's old and i think possibly because maybe

15:06

it sounds kind of like spend words

15:08

i'm not sure what the point is

15:10

it would require stepping around too

15:12

much invaluable black history

15:15

it requires pretending something

15:18

rather than truly intending something

15:20

if i mates and you know is it possibly

15:23

a rather elite concern

15:25

think about latin next

15:27

latin that's it's find that a certain highly

15:30

educated group of people use latin next instead

15:32

of locking them were lucky enough but it doesn't seem

15:34

like it's getting much traction people you

15:36

know walking around being latin

15:38

next don't seem to want to use the word

15:41

ants my guess and my guess

15:43

is can be wrong i thought we were going to be more likely to

15:45

say corona instead of cove it instead was ross

15:47

my guess is that like next isn't gonna get much further

15:50

than that living in the neighborhood in live in where

15:52

it seems to be most people are latino nobody's

15:54

saying let next unless they have usually

15:56

two degrees in that same

15:58

way is decided the negro

16:01

is a slur something that has much purchase

16:03

beyond a certain if i may over

16:06

educated sets i haven't

16:08

done any research on the question and i'm not

16:10

sure anybody has just yes but

16:13

you know there is hardly a unanimity

16:15

in the black community about it so for

16:17

example in vermont there

16:20

is a little body of water that's

16:22

called negro brooke now

16:25

there has been a movement to rename

16:28

negro brought and

16:31

that's something that somebody might

16:33

propose it might be processed as

16:35

somewhat awkward order to tell you

16:37

the truth it wouldn't have made anybody bat

16:39

an eye in nineteen seventies but

16:41

maybe that was a long time ago so it's worth talking

16:43

about it is fence a controversy but

16:46

you know the state librarian of vermont booster

16:48

not is black i was always

16:50

under the impression they were about five lakh people in

16:52

vermont he must be one of them and he

16:54

doesn't think that it needs to be changed in

16:56

know he's not just some odd

16:58

ball because there's a record of a public discussion

17:00

about this in vermont and there was another black

17:03

person in vermont who to said no they weren't offended

17:05

by that i'd certs they would have been offended

17:07

by the real and word having

17:10

its name on a book but with negro

17:13

it's just an old fashioned

17:15

term for black person it's like a

17:17

black person term wearing a bow tie and

17:19

yet negro brooke mean better than calling

17:22

it white broke so that is the

17:24

way a person might feel

17:26

who is quite black

17:28

and his voice also deserves

17:30

to be heard in i'm not referring to myself i'm referring

17:32

to that state librarian and myself

17:35

in any case is he want a bonus segment

17:38

the teach you something that picnics that's actually

17:40

pleasing and diverting you have to subscribe

17:43

have to give us some money and so you can listen

17:45

to this for free but if you do there's a whole

17:47

parts that you never hear i do a

17:49

tag at the end as if it was like

17:51

new mod are good times

17:54

or something there's this tag same

17:56

subject but something else about it sometimes

17:58

with another semi relevance at some

18:00

five six seven minutes that you never

18:02

hear unless you go

18:04

to book smart studios dot org you

18:06

just click on lexicon valley and you

18:08

get more one

18:11

more thing that mack negro

18:15

and now something a little more more general

18:18

some black english words

18:21

the are african however

18:23

it's very very few and

18:26

now and then it gets around that they're black

18:29

english terms that are ones

18:31

that survive the middle passes as it's often

18:34

put in the idea is to soda

18:36

black english has roots that go way

18:38

back to so that there was a survival

18:41

of cultural traits of the people who created

18:43

lacking was all very understandable but

18:45

you know to tell you the truth the

18:47

etymology that people often come up

18:49

with or not the only

18:51

ones that are based on the standard

18:54

the people who specialize

18:56

in language and history would consider

18:58

valid and you know nobody wants to talk too much

19:00

about the sick it can be delegates i

19:02

am going to take advantage here the fact that i straddle

19:05

two things linguists and being

19:07

black and i just want us give a little guide

19:09

when you hear that something from black english

19:12

as africans there's some things that you

19:14

need to consider my doesn't mean that nothing

19:16

is but it's just that there's some things

19:18

that you need to consider and so for

19:21

example languages can

19:23

be a like in ways that you wouldn't necessarily

19:25

suspect if you weren't looking at a whole

19:28

bunch of languages imagine if you're

19:30

thinking about the way black english uses

19:32

brother right and

19:34

then you go to an african language

19:36

like in a wall of from and dankert we

19:38

are your of us or congo and

19:41

you find that they use brother

19:43

in an affectionate way to it's easy to think

19:45

and their people who felt this that means that

19:48

black men call each other brother in that

19:50

way because of what

19:52

some african men did to reasonable

19:54

but you know if if

19:56

you look at languages around the world it's

19:58

quite common for brother to

20:01

take on that affectionate kind of meaning so

20:03

that's something that could have arisen in

20:05

sake nigeria and then

20:07

in south carolina or cleveland

20:10

independently bit of it's just kind of stuff it's

20:12

so for example mandarins

20:14

and i think we can be pretty sure that mandarin

20:16

had very very very little to

20:18

do with the speech habits of

20:21

anybody black or anything else in the united

20:23

states and mandarin if you use the word

20:25

for brother well you know

20:27

it can really means pretty much the same

20:29

things as what it means in black

20:32

english especially if you don't say it's good

20:34

but you said girl something went girth

20:36

that basically can mean bro

20:39

or if you say little brother and

20:41

so shelter the south good that

20:43

means brother it's the same

20:45

thing translated into chinese

20:48

or the same as thing

20:50

were bad means good which

20:53

is getting a little old but there was a

20:55

time when that was pretty fresh talk about good

20:57

times and so bad means good

20:59

and you think of that as just the blackest of things

21:01

it's people you know doing high fives

21:04

and in detroit's or something like that but

21:06

you know people are the only people

21:08

in the world where bad can mean kind of

21:10

fierce and fierce means good

21:13

for example in mandarin

21:15

this is really one of those things the

21:17

you're happy your look k

21:21

now suppose you are really

21:23

happy you can be look

21:26

the the

21:29

man it means you are you

21:32

are a happy person you are happy

21:34

fiercely you are happy

21:37

in a way that that , that

21:39

was fifty bad but you take my points so

21:41

in chinese if you say that us the who

21:43

sls that it's

21:45

that you are really do

21:48

you are happy you know in

21:50

a good way it's just say

21:52

it's said that's mandarin said

21:54

can think of other examples of that's and so

21:57

it's not a black english isn't great but

21:59

the thing in it that you might

22:01

also find and an african language so

22:03

you can look in an african language and find that the word

22:05

bad can mean something like fears really

22:08

this is humanity it's not specific

22:11

so i'm going to give one example where i've noticed that

22:13

you really are throwing a cold bucket of water

22:15

on people to talk about it but frankly

22:18

there's a time when we have to talk about truth

22:20

there's so many wonderful things about black english we

22:22

don't need folk etymology so

22:24

dig can you dig it you

22:26

will hear in hear great many quarters that quarters

22:28

that from the language of senegal

22:30

wallet apparently there

22:33

is a word that sounds kind

22:35

of like that it means to understand although

22:38

just first outs snow anybody

22:40

senegalese ask them what dig

22:42

means and wallace and in a just

22:44

ask them then how do you say to

22:46

kind of understand are too kind of

22:48

get in wallace and you know

22:50

you know can hear the stig were

22:53

but still maybe they're things that we've

22:55

lost maybe there was some old word for

22:57

understand this dropped out happens

22:59

all the times but you know can

23:01

you dig it that

23:03

is first attested black english

23:06

and nineteen thirty four now

23:09

where was it before if it survives the middle passes

23:12

then why doesn't anybody say it

23:14

in the rich corpus

23:16

of interviews with x

23:18

lays done actually in the nineteen thirties

23:21

where you are reading and listening to

23:23

people who work black

23:25

and talking shortly after the civil

23:28

war and sometimes before where's

23:30

dig why does it only pop up in nineteen

23:33

thirty four but as you know nineteen thirty

23:35

four that was long after if

23:37

after if new slaves were being brought

23:39

to the united states and then or something

23:41

else maybe you could say

23:44

it was less likely that anybody would transcribe

23:46

black slang before

23:49

about nineteen thirty four and still

23:51

you worry zora neale hurston in

23:53

a did some transcribing and some mentioning

23:55

of black slang to them about dig

23:57

but nevertheless maybe

24:00

what we're saying did but just nobody wrote it down

24:02

because people were writing black inglis

24:04

richly enough but fear suffering noticed

24:07

that dig is a little archaic now we

24:09

think of it as one of the totemic expressions

24:11

of black english but it's a little

24:13

nineteen sixties nineteen seventies

24:16

it's a little soul train that's not

24:18

current just like dies

24:20

it's kind of the slang have another

24:23

time can you dig it that's somebody

24:25

in some movie from nineteen seventy

24:28

two that blaxploitation this

24:30

sanford and son that has sunk adela

24:32

that's a different time now and

24:35

then a kind of went out that's how it happens

24:37

with slang but this is thing is

24:39

dig just kind of came and when now

24:42

why did it to disappear sometime around

24:45

nineteen eighty two because

24:47

if it's survived the middle passage them were talking

24:49

about it having survive for centuries possibly

24:52

and also the nineteen eighty two it's

24:54

gone doesn't it make more sense

24:57

that it emerged

24:59

probably in the nineteen twenties and it's had

25:01

a few generations of a day

25:04

and then disappear just as countless words

25:06

have done in black inglis over

25:08

time but that emerged

25:11

here and long after slaves

25:13

were being brought because it for so integral

25:16

the never do it was murdered disappear

25:18

to slightly it was just a kind of

25:20

passing slayings one

25:23

assumes that also wallace great

25:26

language to be honest it was an extremely

25:29

represented among the slaves who

25:31

were brought here when you find

25:33

that the men day language of sierra

25:35

leone way down from senegal

25:38

is still used in fossilized

25:40

form in some songs among descendants

25:42

of slaves and south carolina you can see

25:44

where major numbers

25:47

of slaves who were crucial in

25:49

creating what became blacking plus came from

25:51

and it wasn't senegal there are other places

25:53

in the world where there were a lot of wallace that

25:55

is not true of for example

25:57

north and south carolina and georgia

26:00

so why one from that language

26:03

and you know if you look a little harder

26:05

dig little little more so to speak you find

26:08

where dig probably came from it's not

26:10

as exciting as exciting

26:12

coming from walla speaking slays

26:15

but it's probably more

26:17

proves himself for example in the eighteen

26:19

hundreds among mainstream

26:22

he i think say but white students

26:25

dig it was a slang term for

26:27

to study hard because you're excavating you

26:30

digging deep your excavating you're

26:32

really hitting the books are you can learn to be a minister

26:34

and go , and oppressed

26:36

people by soundings a corporation

26:39

like dole pineapple something like that but

26:41

you're gonna excavate my boy

26:44

because you have a test coming

26:46

up tomorrow now is dig

26:48

it goes to excavate goes

26:50

to study her well that's the sort of thing

26:52

that could be passed on to black people

26:55

were excavate means to

26:57

really learn something to really

26:59

understand it's d x

27:01

suspect it's mance can you

27:03

dig it it's the same kind of

27:05

meanings and you know what supports

27:07

that that's where dig it would

27:10

come from as in mandarin

27:12

i i sit units in mandarin

27:15

there is a word wop and

27:17

is also word kite do it tied

27:19

to it those two words both mean dig

27:22

both of them also means to

27:24

dig under and look deeply

27:27

into something they're coming just a

27:29

squeak away from what black english means

27:31

by dig and yet none of

27:33

them are black very few se

27:35

people are black and

27:37

mandarin is not a black language insult

27:39

this is something that just happens with the word

27:41

dig it's it's happened quite independently

27:44

in mandarin and

27:46

in whitey eighteen hundreds

27:49

inglis sand apparently and black

27:51

english was probably got it from it but maybe

27:53

didn't ask if it's a normal thing that happens

27:55

to dig so instead of it coming from

27:58

a word mall if that means under that

28:00

sounds vaguely like dig and it's very hard

28:02

to explain just how this would have worked might

28:05

be that can you dig it from

28:07

basically? are you excavating

28:10

in really understanding me

28:12

my brother my it's

28:15

y'all good that's how things work now i

28:18

would love it if dig were wall

28:20

of work, but what you have to have is

28:22

a really close correspondence

28:24

you really make a a case and so for example, in

28:27

black english and think usually, you don't notice

28:30

unless you're a black person there

28:32

, a word for the the back of a neck especially

28:35

when you're styling care

28:38

and it means kitchen the back of your next

28:40

the nape of your neck is called the kids and yeah i

28:42

know that's odd youth could grow up never

28:44

hearing this if you're if you're not blacks but

28:46

you're working on her kitchen and that's not

28:48

that you're giving her for my to countertop

28:51

you are working with the nape of

28:53

her neck know why they call that there

28:55

is nothing about the back of

28:57

somebody snapped it reminds you of a room

28:59

where you cook it separates

29:01

peculiar you know there

29:04

is a word and key congo and that is and language

29:06

that was well represented among the slaves

29:09

who were brought to the united states there's

29:11

a word there's for word back of the net

29:13

and you know what it is to single teaching

29:16

is that neat that of the truth

29:18

is calling the back of neck a kitchen

29:20

makes so little sense in english

29:23

that that's not going to be some kind of slang like from

29:26

dig that one is probably an

29:29

english-language misinterpretation

29:31

of an african work and here

29:34

i would put my money kitchen go,

29:36

i learned that from a, an

29:38

independent scholar whose been working on issues like

29:41

the east, their name is zola so,

29:43

no, i'm not sure if that etymology

29:45

is anywhere official, but official had

29:48

occasion to see this and i hope

29:50

it's all the sona doesn't mind my area because

29:52

it is almost certainly the case so

29:55

it's not that there was no such thing

29:57

as an african word in black english, but you've

29:59

got to make [unk] a real case it shouldn't

30:01

be fragile because of it is

30:03

you can be pretty sure that's people who happened

30:05

to have chosen this crazy career of linguist

30:08

for making a living they don't believe

30:10

it and some of them frankly especially

30:12

if they're white aren't gonna wanna talk about a very much

30:14

because they don't want to get called a racist i understand

30:17

that were i'm black it's harder

30:19

to make that racist case with me

30:21

not impossible but i'm saying this because

30:23

i think there are things about black

30:25

english and africa that we can actually talk

30:28

about and prove and i

30:30

don't think that it's things like

30:32

brother and bad and

30:34

dig in any case here i am

30:37

strutting around metaphorically pronouncing

30:40

you know i think i'm so great well no

30:42

i am not remotely and

30:45

one way i know it is that it fuck

30:47

up and i should have consulted

30:50

my partner about the last things i

30:52

said on the so about russian because

30:54

i was talking about russian free sixes and

30:57

russian was just pulling it out of my own

30:59

head and that's just not

31:01

good enough ice as of sept and so i said

31:03

zoc or meets means to cede

31:05

something cede the pool is king that's

31:07

what i thought it meant i thought it meant that you've made a squirrel

31:10

eat so many nuts that it keeled over it

31:12

just means to overfeed it doesn't mean

31:14

that the overfeeding has the consequences the

31:16

thing dropping dead i was wrong about that and

31:18

then you have some verbs

31:21

in your head and you know it decays

31:23

are you had it wrong from the beginnings

31:25

i had grid need of at cern it meant to put

31:27

your makeup on that's no it's not the

31:29

meat of us sir that's the cells

31:32

it's going to me ever since like you're putting makeup on

31:34

somebody else is notes us i made that

31:36

up because i like son so my sticking its

31:38

on the answer things so see

31:41

getting it wrong however

31:43

when it comes to these two he thinks about

31:45

black english i hope that

31:47

i have offered what can be some

31:50

kind of useful council i don't have the last

31:52

word on anything at all but

31:54

i don't think picnic is a slur frankly

31:56

i know that it is and and

31:58

i don't think need though should

32:00

the and i think that we need to be careful

32:03

about are african language etymology

32:05

ease in black english which is

32:07

a wonder in so many ways

32:10

without us needing to make things

32:12

up now that this episode this over

32:14

we can have can little bit of musical phone for those of you

32:16

who like to have some on this so

32:19

and this think what i want to do is go back

32:21

to on the town that leonard bernstein

32:23

betty com than eight off green musical

32:25

that was not was corny as the title scenes

32:28

and i want to use it because one of the best songs in

32:30

it now that we're in the kitchen is called

32:32

kitchen can't cook to this recording

32:34

of it has taken at has good clip which clip think is the only

32:36

way this song really works and

32:39

you know the singer is nancy walker many

32:41

of you will remember as

32:43

wrote as morgan stearns mother and also as

32:45

rosie and all of those bounty paper

32:47

towel commercials her real career was

32:50

career as as musicals person and

32:52

here see isn't a nineteen sixty recording

32:55

of i can cook too

33:52

the

33:53

if you'd like to leave a comment or subscribe please

33:55

visit book smart studios dot org [unk]

33:57

producer is as always might follow book

34:00

smart studios a jimmy about com also

34:02

to leave me bonus question every

34:04

two weeks for those of you give us a little money

34:07

i had to questions and i give answers

34:09

to and writing there are different

34:11

from anything that i'm doing on the cell i enjoy

34:13

doing that matters he might enjoy seeing the answers

34:16

to these questions that usually don't get answered

34:18

in other linguistics sources are

34:21

theme music was created by harvest creative

34:23

surfaces an emptiness