do you have one? when do you use it? have yall ever noticed that having one can sometimes get your **** out of trouble?
i mean i kinda have one cause i was raised in arizona for a while....there it's considered bad to pronounce "going to" "gonna"!
but yeah i use it whenver i do a class presentation, or whenever a police officer or someone with authority has questions for me...otherwise, i can be just as ghetto and country and the next negro... 8-) (nessa)
Well, I can turn my ghetto on and off. When I speak to teachers, interviewers, and generally people I don't know while I'm in public, I use correct english
But when I'm with family and friends, ohhh boy... I can sound really country and ghetto.
Funny i was talking to my dad about this the other day. He was telling me i better not talk like this when i talk to my teachers and all that. I was like i only talk like this becuz it's how i grew up, i don't write in ebonics at all. And plus when i meet bosses and people like that my proper english turns on automatically.
I don't consider proper English the "white boy accent"
I've been taught to speak correct English all of my life and I speak proper English about 95% of the time...You'll here an occasional "Ain't", "gotta", "shawty" and some other southern slang, but for the most part I speak proper English...
being from detroit, i dont think i have a "white boy accent." I mean, I use slang, but i dont talk stupid... when i'm in front of grown folk i use perfect grammar though.
I don't consider proper English the "white boy accent"
THANK YOU!
I'm sorry, Demmeri...but some things you say are so ignorant....
No offense to you or anyone else who have replied in this post, condoning the misconception that what Demmeri is referring to is a "white boy accent"....
I'm not calling either of you ignorant...but that statement of his is...
For everyone's information...."white boys"..."white girls"....various members of the White race....do not speak "correct English"....so is THAT the "white boy accent" you're referring to?
there is no such thing as a "white boy accent" in the manner that you use it.....a few in this thread have called it what it really is....simply "correct English," by definition of American standards..."correct grammar," by definition of American standards...."articulation," by definition of American standards....but NOT a "WHITE BOY ACCENT"...
that bothers me so much.....even "talking 'proper'"....my speech phonetics professor from last semester raised an excellent point - who exactly determines what "talking 'proper'" means? who is to say that speaking Ebonically isn't "talking 'proper'"?
because of the society we live in, there is a certain way of speaking that we are expected to use when in a professional environment...which is what has contributed to everyone thinking that this is what "talking 'proper'" means....however, who says that's what it is?
it's all about "code switching"....the way you talk when you are conversing with a professor 9 times out of 10 will not be the same way you talk when you are hanging out with friends....and the way you talk when hanging out with friends 9 times out of 10 will not be how you talk to your employer....and the way you talk to your employer 9 times out of 10 will not be the same way you talk to a 1-year old baby (well umm, that needs to be 10 times outta 10, lol)....and so forth & so on....
there is no such thing as speaking "properly"...when people say this, they usually mean they are speaking correct Standard American English....
...which I again stress should not be referred to as "the white boy accent"....
please, people....let's eradicate this mentality....
:grin: Meya done used the professional term "code switching"
that's what it really is... code switching and articulation....
(thinking: Voice & Diction class paid off)
