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Monday, December 28, 2009
Good season for the Bengals? Talk like Black people!
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Five years ago, I first posted an article entitled “Bengals Winning? Talk Like Black Folk!” Now, with the Bengals winning the AFC North title, we’re bound to have tons of white people running around screaming bits of Black English at one another—so we might as well explore more information I’ve discovered on this issue since first posting about it in 2005!
From my original posting, here is an excerpt showcasing a trademark piece of Black grammar:
Who dey. The sentence itself is an example of Black English’s trademark piece of grammar, the “durative be.” In textbook English, the verb “to be” has complicated conjugations: I am, you are, he is—three different words for one verb. In Black English, this conjugation process is simplified by consistent use of “be”—I be, you be, he be, we be, they be. (I actually view this conjugation as an improvement and simplification of textbook English, and I think it should be widely adopted by grammarians immediately.)
In any event, the appearance of the verb “be” in typical Black English shows duration. Consider the following samples:1) You crazy.
2) You be crazy.
We may restate them roughly as follows: 1)You are acting strangely right now. 2)You are acting strangely right now, and furthermore you have been acting that way for quite some time.So the appearance of “be” shows that the subject has been engaged in the predicate for a lengthy period of time, while the absence of “be” shows that the subject is newly acquainted with the predicate.
Who are those individuals thinking they can defeat our Bengals?
Who dey? “Dey” is an alteration of “they” meant to mimic the sound of stereotypical black dialect. So the question really is “Who they?” The slogan obtains popularity in years when the Bengals have winning records. So the “durative be” does not appear in this question, since the idea of anyone beating the Bengals (in the context of a winning season) is an abnormal event not associated with duration.
This morning, I was directed to this Wikipedia entry on the phrase “Who Dey,” and I noticed the following:
The Who Dey chant is first known to be used by fans of the 1980 Cincinnati Bengals team. It is similar to the phrase “Who Dat?” used by the New Orleans Saints since 1983. The chant of “Who dat? Who dat say they gonna beat dem - - ” originated in minstrel shows and vaudeville acts in the late 1800s and early 1900s, then was taken up by jazz and big band folks in the 1920s and 1930s, then was adapted by Southern University and the public schools in New Orleans in the 1960s and 1970s. The chant was officially adopted by Saints fans and organization during the tenure of coach Bum Phillips in 1983, three years following the appearance and the nationwide popularity of the Who Dey chant in Cincinnati.
This paragraph claims a link between phrases like “Who Dey?” and “Who Dat?” and minstrel shows—old-fashioned, racist entertainment featuring white people in blackface.
Naturally, one must always double-check Wikipedia for accuracy, and the entry on “Who Dat?” provides the necessary external links for just such verification. Here is an extended excerpt, with some links included (not all links from Wikipedia entry):
The chant of “Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints” originated in minstrel shows and vaudeville acts of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and was then taken up by jazz and big band performers in the 1920s and 30s.
The first reference to “Who Dat?” can be found in the 19th Century. A featured song in E.E. Rice’s “Summer Nights” is the song “Who Dat Say Chicken In dis Crowd.”
“Who dat?” was used as a tag line in the days of Negro minstrel shows. “Who dat?” “Who dat say who dat?” Many different blackfaced gags played off that opening.
One example is an old 1930s Harmon-Ising cartoon musical on Turner Classic Movies which included caricatures of Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Ethel Waters, and the Mills Brothers. Called “Swing Wedding,” the cartoon seldom sees the light of day because it’s viewed as racist in its portrayal of blacks. They were frogs in a swamp, doing minstrel show jokes and cutting loose with jazz tunes. The frogs repeatedly used the phrase “who dat?”
In the swing era, “who dat” chants back and forth between the band and the band leader or between the audience and the band were extemporaneous…made up on the spot. That is, there was no one specific set of words except for the two magic ones.
“Who Dat?” Lyrics from 1937:
Who dat up there who’s dat down there
Who dat up there who dat well down there
Who’s dat up there, sayin’ who’s dat down there
When I see you up there well who’s dat down there
Who dat inside who’s dat outside
Who’s dat inside who dat well outside
Who’s dat inside, singin’ who’s dat outside
When I see up there well who’s dat out there
Button up your lip there big boy
Stop answerin’ back
Give you a tip there big boy
Announce yourself jack
Who dat up there who’s dat down there
Who dat up there who dat, well down there
Who’s dat up there, singin’ who’s dat down there
When I see you up there you bum
Well who’s dat down there
Who datStaged minstrel skits had frightened black people saying “who dat” when they encountered a ghost, or someone imitating a ghost. Then, the “who dat”...“who dat say who dat”...skit would play itself out. This skit was done frequently in short reels from the 1930s - 1950s and in some early TV shows too. Even the Marx Brothers had a “who dat” routine. Often, a ghost was called a “who dat.” An animated character, now banished to the archives as being racist, MGM’s Bosko had such an encounter in a toon called “Lil Ol Bosko in Bagdad” in 1938.
The evidence is clear: “Who Dey?”—like its cousin “Who Dat?”—is a racialized phrase hearkening back to minstrel shows.
Drunk white men like to paint it on their chests.
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28 Dec 2009 at 10:12 am | #
What, no comparison to lolcats?
29 Dec 2009 at 07:47 am | #
Not sure if I’m “feeling” this post.
Happy New Year.
29 Dec 2009 at 08:18 am | #
That’s because the phrase has been normalized due to excessive use.
29 Dec 2009 at 08:57 pm | #
LOLCats are racist!
30 Dec 2009 at 07:45 am | #
You felt the need to drag up this piece for what reason? It is so full of crap, it would’ve been best left in the archive file. This is so wrong on so many levels, I can’t begin to address all the errors, but I’ll start with a few facts that you are not aware of.
1. There is no official “black” language.
2. The dialect commonly used by poor African-Americans is also used in poor and lower educated Caucasian communities.
3. The dialect has it’s roots in Irish/English/Scottish/Creole languages.
4. Southern whites have some of the same linguistic patterns, regardless of income level.
5. Vernacular patterns of speech is not limited by race.
That 1937 song is a weak excuse to try and justify this totally ridiculous and just plain stupid post. Can you quote some real authority? Wikipedia is not a 100% reliable source of information. You may be surprised that there are more middle and upper class African-Americans who do not fit into your narrow-minded stereotype of “Black grammar”, whatever the hell that is. How many of your Appalachian grandparents speak like “Black people”?
This post is pure bullshit. Happy New Year.
30 Dec 2009 at 09:17 am | #
No kidding. That’s why I wrote:
Rest assured my primary knowledge of Black English does not come from Wikipedia, but it was a handy link featuring information I know to be correct.
As to your other points:
1. I did not say there was an “official” language. Also, English is not our country’s “official” language. Do you have a point?
2. So what?
3. So what?
4. Not all the same. I’m not talking about accent, or word choice—but about grammar, such as the “durative be.”
5. So what?
Certainly!
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-2.3/kolb.html
“The Linguistic Society of America, noting that black English is as systematic as other forms of speech, passed a resolution supporting its use as a tool for teaching standard English.”
http://www.mathcs.duq.edu/~packer/Courses/Psy598/Black English.pdf
The English spoken by African-Americans in the U.S. differs systematically from
“Standard English” (SE). Known as “Black English” (a term which replaces the earlier“Non-Stanard Negro English”), or as “Black English Vernacular” (to emphasize that there is considerable linguistic variation within all racial groups in the U.S.) it has a consistent syntax. Common prejudice has it that black English is necessarily inferior to white, but this view has no linguistic validity.
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v003/3.2.tremper.html
Black English is not to be confused with the reported speech of southern and working class blacks found, for example, in Carolyn Keene’s racist Nancy Drew mystery series (the housekeeper’s speech), or even in the decidedly anti-racist stories of Richard Wright in Uncle Tom’s Children.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/ebonics.lsa.html
The variety known as “Ebonics,” “African American Vernacular English” (AAVE), and “Vernacular Black English” and by other names is systematic and rule-governed like all natural speech varieties. In fact, all human linguistic systems—spoken, signed, and written—are fundamentally regular. The systematic and expressive nature of the grammar and pronunciation patterns of the African American vernacular has been established by numerous scientific studies over the past thirty years.
http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/AmericanDialects.htm
Black English developed in the Southern states when speakers of dozens of West African languages were abruptly forced to abandon their native tongues and learn English. Slaves from different tribes couldn’t communicate with one another—in fact, masters deliberately tried to separate slaves who could speak the same language. Since the Africans had to communicate with one another, as well as with the whites, a kind of compromise language evolved on the basis of English and a mixture of the original West African languages. Such a makeshift, compromize language, used as a second language by adults, is known as a pidgin. When a pidgin becomes the native language of the next generation, it becomes a creole—a full-fledged language. The African-English creole in the American colonies evolved into today’s Black English.