The Magic and Music of Black Language

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Ja dot in a production of My Heart. What's Up? Everybody? It is a pleasure to be a lie. Yes, indeed, this is j dot Il the podcast, and you're here with myself, Jill Scott, and Lie st Clair. Hey y'all, and the amazing agent Graden Dandler. Why's that? Why's that? Well up? I've always wanted to say that the U s w z U P oh w z U P always w a S s U P at Martin on The Martin Show. It was That's what I thought it was, you know, zorneils And she wrote with a whole bunch of slang, and what is this slang? It not really, It depends on where you are, you know. Yeah. She explained the culture in letters. She put the letters together in a way where you could understand how people were really speaking speaking, right, I actually believe it wasn't Paul Lawrence Dunbar. They used to write specifically the way that black people talked, Yes, him too, talked when they spoke that way talked talked. That's right. I made it up. But yeah, I mean he and I think that we had got to move ourselves well anyway, we have to start to appreciate the way that we communicate because it's so specific and really it all kind of goes the same way no matter where you see black people act like, you know that there's similar ways in the way that we respond to things in our language. Like one of my favorite things is that when you speak with we talked about this another time, black women from the Caribbean, black women from the continent, and black women from the hood, they all do this one thing, all the same thing. Suck it to you. I didn't know that until I got to, Oh, I yes, I have to lower my voice in that that. What does the two mean though? If it was there? What is the meaning of that? How many ways you want to go? It's the same as it would be for us. But you know that's what I'm saying. I was like, if we had to come up with this glossary, if you will, of black leg like if that, if we had to talk about what these things mean, they mean so many things. It's understand some things have multiple meanings, some things have one or two. I don't know what has one or two. Most things that we say bad bad is that's a good thing. I'm cool on you, I'm cool meaning I could do without you, or yeah cool, I'm I'm cool on that, or I'm good with it, I'm okay with doing whatever that is. But normally with I'm cool on him, I'm cool on her. That means I'm not warm on them. I'm not I'm not warm on them. That's a lot to say. I'm cool, you know what I mean, that's enough. That was a really popular thread on Twitter where they were like when a black person says, you got the right one, having fact not found the found the one, you got the right one? To day, right, right? Right? What you you in fact have not found the right one. Actually you've actually found the wrong one. Also you did find the right one because if you were looking for some ship, you found it. Right. You know what she's doing another one it has two meetings, I mean, and it's controversial. But bitch yeah, yeah, a very rarely used bitch unless I'm actually talking about a bit, and then there's normally it's a bitch ass. You know me too. I'm trying. It's hard I do I especially with people, and I really love bit you feel. I'm even gonna say this. One time my daughter answered her FaceTime. She answered her FaceTime and her friend didn't know that I was in the room, and she was like, she was like, she was like, bit. And I told my daughter, I said, don't tell her, don't tell her, but Pete, the way she said that bitch had t was about to get spilled. The infliction of that bit like what an art we have created with our words, in our tones and the way we say things right Like it's it's the way that that situation happens, right, it's the underbelly of the sound. There's the context right there, the whole sentence. You already know what's about to happen. Right. A clap is coming, A clap is coming, Okay. I would say if that I does not get elongated, if there's no there's no long it, then you're in trouble. If if the eye is short, yep, and the ch is hard, it's it's a problem. Yo. I really started to appreciate to kind of like our Unseid language, and it's which is really interesting, like post Grona, like the head nod is really interesting post rona and knowing if a person is looking at but when you realize that y'all are looking at each other, and you do to be each other. It means even more post Roman. I just right because you can't. You don't have the full facial expression. It's just very It's all in the eyes, in the head and the body language. I feel some kind of way, you know, when I'm out on these streets and you know, I've got a mask on. I love the mask. I go wherever I don't. I go wherever I want to do, whatever I want to do. I have conversations with people about whatever. It feels so nice. But when I do the head not and somebody just walks right on. But I'm like, I caught eyes. I know you saw me, all right? Right? How deep do I have to do? I have to hurt my neck? Am I gonna have to hurt? And where do you come from that? You don't know? The head not? Where do you come from that you don't know that? It's not always about they don't know. Sometimes they know and they just don't respond. I live in California, so yes, yes, I read somewhere, and I apologize that I don't remember where I read it, but I ran somewhere that our language and the rhythm of the way that we say what we say and how we say. What we say actually does like linguistically tied back to certain African ladies. So like when we say something like I don't know she that that. I know you thought she was ugly, but she hugged me. You know what we say something to two times, Yes, it does. That reiteration the way that we do that, that's actually evidence that that same thing can happen in other languages, in African languages. So it's like there's science to what we do that we brought with us that we think it ain't nothing, but it's really something that is really a thing. If you ask somebody, if you ask, if you ask them, is the market far? They'll say it's five five. That means as far as fuck. Or if you want something, you can want it. Do you want it now? Or now? Now? Now? Now is closest to immediate? Then? Now is now? Is if he now as soon? You know? Black people time is real, worldwide, worldwide, worldwide. I'm getting Black Americans like emotional because I'm so disconnected, but I'm so connected now. The girls all goes together, it all goes together. We're more connected than we're not, but we definitely are American. That is what it is we've been here for a long time. So a lot of the way that we see the world, the ways that we react to things, a lot of it is definitely American. You find out how American you are the more you travel, Like, oh, no, I thought I'm claiming, So let me ask you as this. Y'all know, I was taking a couple of classes. But in my classes there's young people in them, and yeah, and one of them, there's people as young as my oldest child actually in this class. And it's interesting to me, how do we feel like when we were younger? And we've gotten away from this, thank god, But remember when we were younger, there would be a lot of talk around like if you if you're in a classroom and you're you're smart, or you started talking, people say, oh, you talk white, right, And I want to say, I think that we've gotten away from that. I don't believe my kids have ever been no one's ever said that to them. However, in these classes with some of these students, when you hear them talking, it's always amazing to me that there's no hint of black vernacular. It's just it's very I'm like, wow, so do kids not they don't get rings for that anymore. And not that that was good, it was just it wasn't good. But I'm just curious about the absence of it, Like how, you know, how do we feel about that? You know, do we think it's necessary? Do we think that's something that a tie that binds I don't. I don't know anymore, Like I don't know because let's just take Instagram for instance. A lot of these kids, they grew up around other black children that were in really great schools, and they learned how to speak based on who was around them, and they sound American. They sound proper American, if that's a thing. Like if you go to the South, like there are times in the South, I can't understand what anybody saying. This is. This is a whole other langue was I don't know what you say. I gotta open my mouth to here, you know, Like that's a different love too, but it's different, right. I feel like the South is still so much in tune with the culture and our language and our food, all the things we created, you know. Here, I feel like the South is still so linked and tied to that. I mean, getche gotta talk. Good luck with that but I think it's just so dope that it's still around, if we can still here, I love that. I mean, I think that's amazing, especially if that's if that's your you know, actually your bloodline, and that you have the opportunity to pass it on to your children. I wonder sometimes, like my kids that all went to public school, and when they talk, they philly. They're philly throwing through all day and when I don't even know why, Uh, it's a hard back. I think my oldest kids are the younger ones. They get a little properly, they get a little properly, they get a little properly, a little properly. Here's a gag. I guess I was bucked eleven or twelve, and I remember when that accent hit. All of a sudden, it seemed like, oh yes, it seemed like overnight. The same girl I was hanging out with the day before, she had a cabbage patched out. I didn't, but she would let me baby sit the cabbage patched down because I wanted one so bad. I took care of that baby. I took share that baby. That baby was clean and clean, that baby was all right. When I brought her back she had a stroller and everything. I was like wow. Anyway, the next day I saw her. She was a whole like teenager. I think she had turned thirteen, and she was different and all I was saying. She was like, um, you can just put it in my house. And I was like, Plese, Dan, ain't talking like that. I didn't understand. I just saw her. Yes, it just take relatives. It just take a couple of relatives. And she was with a whole group of of the other girls and they were all talking like that, and I was like, what happening? What did I miss? I just went to sleep and woke up. I remember when that accent hit. It was not always say it is an interesting decision to make, no matter where you are, right, it's time. Maybe that is a part of like growing up, because I mean, d C. There are hard accents everywhere everywhere, So it is a decision. I don't know if it's conscious of subconscious that you make. Because I came to I think I came to feeling with a little bit of a DC accent, Like I was like, how you know how you want her or whatever? Job down? Now it's like John all day, like yeah, but right, I think mine just canceled out over time, you know what I mean, especially if you're not around people. But if I go home, if I go home and I'm around my first of all, whenever I go back home to do a show, and we have this part at the end of far Away, where you know, it's like call of response, and so all the music goes off like far away from you and far away from here. And when you're at d C and the crowd starts singing far Away, they'd be like, far away from it, all, away from it, all, away from away from him. I was cracking the fall away from Him. I was like, oh my god. And it's it's always funny to be because it's like it's so clear, and it's like four hundred people singing that at one time. It is hilarious to me. It's a hilarious to me. Ain't nothing like it? Ain't I love nothing like home. And you get home and you hear how your people talk, and you remind you of where you've been and what you saw, what you didn't heard, pranking and so long area go home, I'd be like, oh, it's nothing. I still I'm a I'm a big fan of decent, Like that's sid decent. Yo, that's decent. Like I feel real good when I hear it decent. Yeah, that's Philly's funny because my kick having teenagers, it's like you always hear it go. Like when I first got the Philly, the first time I heard the word bull and I was like, but now the kids they say the bull. They've changed it. Older Philly guys say the bull and these young ones say bull with like an L. It's hilarious how over time. And in DC it's the same thing. When we were coming up, we used to say Joe after everything was Joe, what's up? Joe? Now it's mon Joe. The song is, but it's Mochella. But it's Mochella. The big go Gold festival they had was called Mochella Wow. So it's funny to see how things from generation to generation change for teams. Father used to say joker all the time. I used to love Joker, old school Philly guy Joker. And it's like you can always tell when a guy has like an old head in his life because he's gonna say some of his old heads sayings and mix it in with his sayings. And I just love that it's generational, it's it's geographical. You know, there's so many ways for us to identify ourselves. I think it's amazing. It's cool because a lot of times people figure out all the differences and languages when you get to college and then you realize. I mean, it wasn't til college that I realized, Oh, Chicago people sound like they're from the South sometimes depending on what part of Chicago they're from. I don't understand. How did that happen? You know? What? They say the same thing about Philly. I was like, what in other places? Like, Oh, you're sound like you're from the country, And I'm like, I sound like I'm from the country. What you mean, No, I don't. I say that with Californians and Californians and Chicago they have a similar like rhyming thing. I don't know, their rhyme pattern is the same when they talk. I don't know, you know what I mean, Like the way they were just kind of sing together. I see that. I would say that all black languages, whether it's like from the hood or from wherever state you're in, city or in Like, they're also musical New Orleans very music. All the world Louisiana. Oh, it's wonderful. It's Louisiana best. I agree, hands down, Oh, I agree, hands down. The beast to hear the black and the white folks, no matter, will you. I want to hear the Cajun folks talk. I want to hear everybody and they get. Did you ever see meet Joe Black? Yes? Yes, Remember when Brad Pitt killed the Creole accent? When he killed that Mama weak could have killed that. He killed that everything and be iri he did, he did, He did a great job. I can't it's that accent is wonderful, no matter who's saying it. It's just it's just good it is. And I know this is one you love Jill because she's a poet and she's one of my favorites. Is that Sonny Patterson? Okay, do it. I can't do it. I don't want to do it out of respect. I can't do it. I can't do it. Okay, there sounds too like for Maryland music. Maryland people do not say mercy. What if they say what I'm stay saying. I've heard several people called music mrsic. I think that's a black thing though. I think that's an old black person thing. No listen, because I've listened. I mean a general southern black thing like for exit. I have somebody in my family and I saw this me one time and cried laughing because I have a person in my family that does this. Can I say crayon a oh yeah? And I grew up with kids who couldn't say orange, they say oh yeah. We had this discussion about the different depending on root water, water, water. It ain't no orange in the beginning. Water that's Philly. Yeah, water, but it's Water'm gonna get water, ice water, yeah, water, ice water, ice water, water. I struggled with water, water, water. I did Flint. It was a movie about Flint, Michigan, and the character that I played, she says water. And that was a hard task, is trying to force myself to remember as much as we were talking about water, how much I had to say water, the water. Naira Sharif shoutouts to Naira because she's still fighting a good fighting Flint. They still don't have a clean one. Yeah, I was just thinking. I was like, damn, Joe, that was I was supping to watch that. I still don't have clean one. We'll be back after the break some bullshit. I found some black people slang. It's just two words, but the way that we say this ship it matters. Okay, okay, give it up, give it up, big daddy. You straight? What does that mean? That means you're ok? Yes? Thinging ding ding ding ding. Okay, we're gonna need sounds like that. You strike like motherfucker, because it could get us. I just need to know how you asked that question. Is you straight? Are you straight? Are you okay? Are you straight? No? No, Maybe I'm saying it wrong. Maybe I need your assistance. You straight? Meaning did you get enough? Oh? Yeah, okay, here's another one. You straight? Yeh right, Yeah, you're you're good, You're welcome. Could okay? Can you straight? All right? I'm sorry. That's that's the one. That's the one that that is that is supposed to invitation. It is an invitation for a confrontation. Do you have a problem? Do you have a problem straight? Which is no need to say sorry, yeah you're straight? Oh right, yeah, you're straight? You're straight? Yeah? All right, guys, let's go downd What I was looking for? What now? I want to make sure that I say these people's names and I know I'm gonna do it wrong, so of my apology in advance. Okay, this is co wroten co wroten by a day at food, bucola and quaiku bake cold did right. Similarities between African American vernacular English and African languages number one the habitual use of tense markers. In the case, we are using the term habitual tense market to refer to the words or phrases that indicate that someone does routinely or consistently, in other words, habitually, like for example, habitual markers typically using a A V are be and stay. The more natural way to say this phrase is he be fighting. And if you want to add more emphasis, is he's stay fighting. That makes our listens in the world. This says in the Europal language, the habitual tense marker. It goes on to go in more detail, but it says it has very similarities to the Eurobal language, where you do those same things like and be in stay. So the act of doing something is you're doing it a lot, and the fact that you do it all the time is you stay. So there's the same kinds of patterns and language. How about we talked about the repetition to add emphasis like now now or ugly ugly. There's another one where it says in this case so there's a longer and more complex topic about contradictions, but it says something similar happens in A A V English, where it says all of becomes all of, and words like out to become about to and going too becomes garner. The same thing also happens in europe language, where you much together two words together and be two words become one word. So where does Finna come in? I think Finna's like that too. I'm about to, I'm about fixing to fixing. I think Finna comes from fixing too. That's why I'm just glad we got to do that econic stage. But here's my favorite. This is something that I do all the time that I get called on all the time. I put the words in front of everything that's mom, I gotta go to the ross as Mama, don't come in here, because I don't know if y'all got the Roman is the real thing. Yeah, yeah, I put the in front of a lot of things. I don't know if they're are some sort of similar. You've got to look over there. But we do add s is to most things too. There is, there's always an s. There's this shrimp is blural, y'all, Like, let's just just finalize it. Like shrumps, it's plural. You don't need never to put a nass on it. It's not shrimps. The shrimp and the singular and plural the same word. Oh okay. I like when people say the Macy's and the North stroumps the North. I say the Macys too, but you don't say ne me Marcus. You say, I say yeah, I say it all. It's terrible, but I feel comfortable. My boyfriend is from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Come on, Chattoga. So his accent is really, really thick, and he says, the noch drums, come on, you want to go to Trumps. I said, not Notch Trumps. It's nord Strum Nord No, No, we don't know about No one cares. Its victorious. It's just funny. A Victoria's secret secret. I thought it was Victoria's secrets, secrets. I thought it was a secrets. I believe it's Victoria's now. I want to tell you all this. Jamie Lee Curtis went on Twitter piste off. Did y'all hear about this? No? Piste off? Because maryam Webster now recognizes the word. But irregardless, no, no, that is a win for blacks everywhere. Irregard. You don't know how much you'll say. I guess I do, says what about flustered? Is that a word? Yeah? Is that? I thought it was. Let's go, let's go for frustrated frustrated. No, I hear frustrated a lot. I'm very frustrated frustrated. I hear that a lot. I want to know what is the cutoff? When do we allow black folks to say whatever they want to they want to say it as long as they're understanding. The answer to that is yes, that's the what about? You know? What about the grammar warriors? Because you know, some people just really are not They're not for the ships. I like to write with the proper commas and semi colon's and such. I like to write with them unless I'm writing poetry. But I only need that because I need to understand the flow of your intense. If that was the point and at the point stopped, then now you're onto the next thing I need. I just need you to put a capital letter. I need you to have a period. So for you, it's about mechanics. It's not necessarily about the words or the way that they're spelled or what they're as long as I can understand you, as long as I can understand you, and uh, I don't know, like I mean, I feel like it sometimes it is like we have our own language and we also most of us have our bill player voice, so we know how to do it, when to do it. Have you ever tried to not colode switch on purpose? Have I ever tried to Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, catch yourself like okay, yeah, like agent, you know, screw the bill talk lady, like, let's kill her? Can we kill her though? Can we kill the bill lady? Yeah? I don't want to know her that well, I don't know. I feel like it's because at this point too, with the whole cultural depth and stuff, I'm like, I don't want to give you that comfortability because you're not ready to hear white folks talk back to you the way that you talk to each other. I just got called girl a couple of days ago and made you uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable every time, But I just got called girl in my I want to pick up my watch and the owner is an Indian man, and he came out with the what's going on with you? Good? And I was like, look around. It just felt it just we're in the South here, so you know, it just felt wrong. So my reaction is, uh, I normally look around, and then I laughed wholeheartedly. Oh, you're so sweet. I haven't been called a girl in so long. You can call me miss gott what I need? You know what I mean? I I that's the way that I deal with it because I just think they're hilarious. Like, you know, I'm not a child. Do you know? I'm not a girl? But that's sweetest and not for nothing. To jail, it's not for nothing. If he really did have an accent, must be considered that he don't know the history of the country he lived. It felt like, I'll say this, I don't know that man, but it did feel like he's in the South and he had taken on the behaviors of what he's seen, and there weren't out of I doubt very much. There's a lot of black people in that particular jewely store it's not like it's like, you know, super expensive or anything like that. But in the area where we are, there's not a lot of black people, and if they were going somewhere, they would probably go somewhere else. It was like a state jewelry. That kind of mean, did you feel like he would have called your girl regardless of what you look like? Yes, yes, I do. I think that there is a special way that black language should be viewed because really, when you think about it, it's that's very different experience. Ends. Then let's say go in someplace and speaking French. As long as you were proficient at it, it wouldn't make a French person uncomfortable to hear you're speaking. But for us, there's a there's a real like consideration around who is allowed to who should speak this language because we build this thing. We built this thing right away of us to communicate, right, because we were talking about some black American ship, even though we didn't even know it was inspired by our home. But yet and still this language was a constant building of understanding and all of this and for you to just get it and use it no, right, So, like I said, has its own set of rooms. I mean it really does. I mean, and that's why we love it because that's ours. Yeah, I mean, because I can imagine that if you're not from let's say, Patois, there might be some things and feelings around that, like, hey, you know, I don't just want you just doing that. If that's not make Sun tried it. He did it perfectly. But hey, people ain't like to hear coming from right right h. So I don't really want to communicate with y'all like this. Basically, we're gonna take a quick break and then we'll be right back. Oh my god, y'all go. We did not talking about black people in the way they named their kids. Who no, no, but we must. I'm gonna talk about names. The names are important. If we're gonna talk about language, names are important because I love your middle name. Yes, we spoke about it. First of all, our parents are revolutionary state. They have pushed back on these European names and came up with a name that they's sound comfortable with. Thank you very much. My name is Jill. I appreciate the episode of Black because I thought differently after that. So this is my thing, right, These names that we grew up in some ways kind of making fun of These are the most These are absolutely cultural identifiers that we should be really proud of and that we have embraced over the years. But there is still some stigma about having a name that identifies you so specifically as an African American from the gate, and I think I would love to have more access to that personally. When you have an opportunity and you go to Google, go to Google and look up ebonnets and look at the cartoons, I don't want to just do it, just do it. I just was saying, I'm glad we got through that era. Listen, it's one after another, It's one after another after another. I refuse to let racist bummed me out word because we was just celebrating our language. You're gonna ain't on my language parade. I'm not trying to reign on your language parade. But I promise it amazes me the propaganda that surround us that, for whatever reason, how do you aspire to be everything that black people are and at the same time despise it and ridicule it. I don't understand that they want are really not. I lose love all of yourself, honey, love all yourself because I can't guarantee the rest of the world will. And if you have a little twang in your voice and you say things from deep down in the place that that only people like you understand, uh, that's all right, and I will. I don't have any problems listening with my mouth opening in my eyes wide trying to catch it, because we come from American places, but we are really really the same people. And to that lady that calls me from Sally Madge, she's going to get Margaret's voice, and it's nice to speak to to you as well. Yes, yes, I'm not available right now, but we can talk a little later. Maybe keep it doing business hours. Can you really trick anybody? What was that movie? Uh? Man, thank you? Oh, I didn't see it, but I know it with my man from Sorry to Bother You, where he absolutely the character absolutely used this extra Caucasian sounding voice in order to get sales. Yeah. Yeah, I think that while we are here unfortunately or I mean we're bilingual, you know, by by cultural um, that we're probably going to have to use these words and these the sound for something. But if where we can find them, and where we could, y'all, And now I'm saying no, meaning I don't know, I O W n oh no. Where we can use our words. We absolutely have to because it feels good. It feels good to be us free. There's a music in our language, there is a music in us I gotta hold onto that. That's powerful. I'm fitting to get off of here. Yeah, I love you so much. Talk to you all later. How do you eat an elephant? One? By time? Hey y'all, it's me Eves the producer again, and it's time for me to bring you the resources for this episode. The post that Agent was reading from earlier is about the similarities between A A V and the African languages that the author was studying. Agent also mentioned a Twitter thread about black units of measurement. I'll link to both of those posts in the description, and as a gentle reminder, African American Vernacular English, African American English, or African American language, whatever you want to call it, is not broken language, and it's valuable whether or not non black folks choose to use it, and use it poorly at that anyway, speak on no respectability to see here. Thank you for listening to Jill Scott Presents j Dot il the Podcast. This podcast is hosted by Jill Scott, Layah st Clair and Age of Graden Danceller. It's executive producers are Jill Scott, Shawn g and Brian Calhoun. It's produced by La Saint Clair and me Eves Jeff Coke. The editing and sound design for this episode we're done by Christina Loranger. Ever notice look, okay, I'm gonna read the cartoon. Okay, okay, you see the picture? Okay? Ever noticed how Negroes are always on cell phones? Why would a race that can't speak anything but unintelligible gibberish be so obsessed with communication devices? These races because ain't never vote Democrat? Something I need more crack because I feels like I'll be crawling all over my skin and stuff. This is what's happening. This is what these people are doing. This kind of ship. I mean, I sucked them because honestly, what you're not gonna do is try to make me a shame of some ship that's fucking beautiful, just because you don't want to understand that and just because you ain't ship. What you're not about to do is have me think that it's something after you try to keep me from even knowing how to read. J dot Ill is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.