Re: Grammar

ivy_mike wrote:

> Joni Rathbun <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>  
>> About the only pronounciation on your list that is uniquely "black"
>> is acks.
> 
> There is another one that is almost entirely black that I hear all the
> time.  Here in Atlanta, we have MANY black, so-called professional
> TV reporters and news anchors who do it.  They change "d" to "t" in
> words.  "Had" is "hat"..."hundred" is "hundret"..., etc.
> 
> I don't know if it's something to do with mouth structure, or just
> something they do to annoy whites, but it is VERY widespread.

Linguists call this "devoicing". The "t" sound is the "d" sound minus
voicing (vibration in your larnyx). I don't know that it's done to annoy
whites, but like all of the other differences spelled out in this thread,
they are used by blacks as a way to set themselves apart. In my experience,
when black people are getting acquainted with somebody white, they will
throw out all of these little differences just to see how the white person
will react to them. If your body language doesn't tense up at this, they
will gradually get more relaxed around you. If you do tense up, they will
get more remote or hostile to you. When I was a teenager, I worked in a
warehouse where blacks were in the majority. Each time a new white person
came to work there, they got put through a series of little challenges. If
they failed, they got the hostile treatment all around. If they passed,
everything was cool. Life was a lot easier if you knew how to laugh with
the group.