The Observation Deck

Today I was in downtown Cleveland on my way to a meeting. At the Southeast corner of Lakeside and E. 9th (I believe) there is an advertisement that says:

You got Cleveland. What more you need?

Huh? Isn't it 'What more DO you need'?

UGH

It must be the Italians.

the Italianite Ore downtown makes me feel weak.

The first sentence hurts my head too. Is this supposed to be 'urban' dialect?

Look no further than our schools.

Grant Elementary to be specific, one of the walls on the Elmwood side now sports graffiti that says... "believ... ...the truth"

nope, not a typo. apparently the schools' brick wall doesn't come with spell check.

I sees all dis stuff 'bout English, and I'm like, "Whoa, dude!" so then I go, "people oughta express theyselves betterer".

Jeff

word up

Bret Callentine wrote:word up

Vernacular

http://www.cleveland.com/brett/index.ssf?/base/opinion-0/1206520371126350.xml&coll=2

I was thinking the same thing yesterday as I was reading Regina Brett's column (whom I do not enjoy and rarely agree with but I read her anyway). The guy quoted in the article blames his size and race for not getting jobs. After reading his quotes, I would beg to differ.

Valerie Molinski wrote:http://www.cleveland.com/brett/index.ssf?/base/opinion-0/1206520371126350.xml&coll=2

I was thinking the same thing yesterday as I was reading Regina Brett's column (whom I do not enjoy and rarely agree with but I read her anyway). The guy quoted in the article blames his size and race for not getting jobs. After reading his quotes, I would beg to differ.

the guy interviewed doesn't sound that bad. going just by the grammar of the text of his interview he could be an Okie or some Quebec poor person. Or a tony danza sitcom character.

You don't have to be a giant black guy to get turned down for jobs. I've been turned down for dozens of jobs. it isn't because I am black. It is because i'm scary looking and not well spoken.

You hep cats are cruisin' for a bruisin'. (A mom in the 50's cringes).

Don't flip your wig! We had a gas last night at Mike's groovy pad! Don't worry, it was copasetic! (60's dad huffs his pipe in anger)

Catch you on the flip side, fo sho'. (70's grandmother gasps)

Take a chill pill, like, before you ralph. Fer sure. (my dad passes out)

And so on... (look no further than "He got game" or the more publicly seen "Got milk?" adverts for the originally mentioned faux pas).

Will there ever be a generation of adults that doesn't get wigged out at how the younger generation(s) talk? You know in Shakespeare's day there HAD to be a bunch of people his parent's age getting up in a bind about HIS use of new-fangled words and perceived butchery of the language...he invented over a thousand words and dozens of phrases that we used today like old hat. It is just how language feeds upon itself. Gads, "salad days" and "End-all, be-all" and "brave new world" and "break the ice" and "dead as a doornail" (NOT Dickens!), and so on (and gobs more that I didn't even realize until I just looked them up...Jeepers!).

You just gotta believ...

Far out man.

Phil

It's interesting to look at the many ways our daily usage of language continues to change....new phases, new words, new meanings to old words and so on.

I did a senior paper while at IU for my history major on the bee-bop culture of the 50's. What was interesting, besides some really great music and musicians, was the purposeful adaptation of a venacular that was designed as a cultural dividing line, intended to exclude. Black musicians active in the era coined phrases, created words and practised a style of speech that was almost unintelligible to those who were not a part of the Bee-Bop music scene and culture. We've seen that before, and we'll see it again. The way we speak can (and does) identify us with various cultural groups.

Of course the problem that this engenders is an inability to communicate. Not understanding mandarin chinese is no different from not understanding english venacular. So, at the end of the day, it probably isn't so much a concern about the degradation of the King's English, but more about an impediment to effective communication. You may choose to communicate by a means that the participants in the conversation both understand and there is a common ground. If you speak in a venacular that others don't understand, even though the sounds may be familiar, there's no communication.....it's sort of a verbal "talk to the hand" attitude.

Jeff

Jeff

Diane Helbig wrote:Today I was in downtown Cleveland on my way to a meeting. At the Southeast corner of Lakeside and E. 9th (I believe) there is an advertisement that says:

You got Cleveland. What more you need?

Huh? Isn't it 'What more DO you need'?

UGH

Sounds like a good opportunity for a graffiti response:

"Glad you axed.... Jobs and Leadership"

.

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Aside from, "You got Cleveland", we've been saying, "What more you need?" all day.

Indeed, it says it all.

What more you need?