The Paradox of Wokeness
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- Опубликовано: 28 мар 2024
- It's not what you think!
Bonus song at the end.
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#woke #wokism #wokisme #linguistics #language #africanamericanenglish #dialect #politics #blm
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Another vote for the complexities of mood and tense in African American English
On jah.
Woke as a word seems to have semantically bleached of any specific meaning in most contexts it's used. When I encounter it, it's usually an extremely vague pejorative, like how one time I saw someone one refer to a passenger train as woke.
Exactly what I was going to say. So many different and seemingly unrelated things get described as "woke", it's just a generic pejorative used to described whatever the right-wing media is complaining about onthe day.
It's become a general-purpose word useful for criticising anyone who cares about anything, without having to justify (to that person, or to the speaker themselves) what's wrong with that.
😂 That's utterly ridiculous. A train 😂
thats just a routine strategy for the far right. They've done it with critical race theory, groomer, woke, and are now doing it with DEI. They are words that used to have commonly understood and useful definitions, but the far right have done their best to strip them of any consistent or even comprehensible definitions in the public sphere and just turned them into buzz words for vague all-pervading fear of change and difference that allow them to condemn people and organisations and objects and concepts as being somehow morally dangerous without having to identify any specific harm. They are now words engineered to be thought ending clichés. Bypassing the logical brain and causing a purely emotional reaction based on media conditioning. After all, if words dont have definitions, if they don't make logical sense, then they can't be countered with logical argument or reason. And the far right always do best playing of visceral emotions. So if they can take the debate out of the realms of reason all together and into a mess of words that only really represent undefinable fear and anger then those arguing with reason and facts end up punching smoke
The Republican controlled House of Representatives had an investigation into wokeness and one of the things they identified as woke was working remotely from home. Woke just means anything about the political left or anything that the left likes or is concerned with. If they are pressed on the issue, as in court cases where someone has to testify what it means, they basically default to CRT.
"Stay woke" originally meant the same thing as "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance", but said in a way that "rose above the level of plain narration"
Exactly this comment. Don’t let American mass media change important words. Stay woke!
@@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245LOL mass media, you mean the plebs, right?
@@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245but don't be fake woke.....
It's not just American media. The get woke, go broke comment came out of the result of feminist buying businesses and running them on feminist principles.
This included giving intentionally bad service to men at their restaurants, refusal to order products for men at their comic stores, and eventually attacking male customers of their razor products, and making a major Hollywood Blockbuster where the females were closed in loose-fitting costumes and every man in the movie was both weak and bad.
This version of woke has a high degree of misandry.
This is different than other uses of the term.
ahhh today more than ever people have unfortunately forgotten that quote. we in the west take our freedom for granted way too much.
I’d love a video on the euphemism treadmill, mostly because it’s SUCH a pain for us foreigners. We learn words and naively use them, only to discover we’ve just unintentionally been very insulting and worthy of being cancelled. The new correct words are then slowly introduced into learning materials, but have already become the new insults by the time foreigners innocently learn them by heart.
Don't bother trying to keep up
As an American who lived a decade in UK and now reaches English in north Africa, I can assure this problem is more common with Americans. Try to talk more with British or Commonwealth speakers, it's just less fraught. 😅
I despise how insistent my online American peers are on teaching foreigners slang and cusses from nivhe subcultures and getting them to use the words. I don't understand the enjoyment they get, but even moreso it places the foreigner in an awkward state of trying to use these unfamiliar words in appropriate contexts. The result of their use is only to (A) single the user out either as (i) a member of the subculture (which may not be approved of by the wider culture or by more elitist types-like if, for example, the word makes you sound "uneducated" or "radical") OR (ii) an obvious _pretender_ of the subculture (which ranges from cute to embarrassing to insulting), and (B) attach the foreigner's understanding of the English language to slang, i.e. the VERY CLASS OF WORDS most likely to shift in meaning and in what they connote about the user. It guarantees that the non-native speaker is being introduced to words most certain to humiliate them, confuse them, and become useless to them in the near-future.
@@RickJaeger did you comment on the wrong reply? How is that relevant to what OP said?
That said, do you have an example of what you’re talking about?
@@cashnelson2306 it's pretty obvious how it is relevant. It's not a response _to_ OP, if that's your stumbling block.
African American English is an interesting topic to explore.
I’ll definitely have more on it. There’s lots of misinformation out there, even if it’s unintentional and well-meaning
yes hi where can i learn more I want AAE to be my next big youtube education rabbit hole
african american _vernacular_ english
@@mayanightstarxidnaf has a pretty good introductory video to it
Yeah it's an effort to be respectful But ultimately pathological Isis like colored person and person of color it's the same crap
LANGUAGE JONES YOU KILLED THAT GUITAR GOOD SHIT THAT WAS AWESOME
Thank you! I’ve been thinking about adding another channel for music
There's no need! It's some groundbreaking cooking right here that you use music to convey linguistic concepts. Imo, it should become regular that you storytell by music. Afterall, music is often times using language to draw up stuff.@@languagejones6784
As a guitarist for my high school's jazz band, this is a welcome surprise 😅 I'll have to take notes on your improv approach, 'cause I have a solo in our next concert that I'm NOT prepared for. Anyways, awesome playing 🫡
@@languagejones6784.
Please do! Having a linguistics channel _and_ a music channel would make you so cool!
🎸Lickage Jones 🥴
"Words mean what people make them mean"
So well put lol
Unfortunately, this can be weaponised to render once useful and descriptive words useless and vague.
When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.
@@scaredyfish Nothing's being "weaponised", that just happens sometimes. I also wouldn't say "useless"; if they were useless people wouldn't be using them. Words adopt different uses that you may not recognise at first.
@@henryambrose8607 It does just happen sometimes, but sometimes bad actors deliberately misrepresent current usage in order to change it.
Sure, the word is still useful, but only for propaganda purposes, rather than its original intent.
@@scaredyfish I really don't think we're running out of words.
I would totally love to see a video exploring the complexities of African American English. I just love it because it feels both foreign and familiar at the same time!
I'm old enough to remember when "stay woke" means "stay vigilant". Literally no different than "stay safe out there".
More videos on the grammar of AAE would be great.
Back in the 80s I saw a lot of the same arguments about ASL, and is it really a language of in its own right with all of the sophistication that implies (I believe yes), as opposed to just signed English; this seems very analogous to AAE being called just slang or wordplay.
*AAVE
I would be very interested in an overview of ASL and how it is similar or differs from spoken English. It is, after all, a mother tongue for a lot of people, and it seems to sit in a sideways position to "standard" English. Are there parallels to AAVE?
@@fritzlang3472what kind of parallels do you suggest? I think there could be many as both groups were/are ostracized by greater society due to the way they express their thoughts through language.
The first parallel I thought of based off of your curiosity was both of the languages are developed by a minority group who developed their own dialect out of greater society not making it easy/impossible to integrate with the majority so a coloquial language for the inner group to speak was born. This mainly being out of cultural context was developed.
Although where the two separate is that ASL is standardized a bit as AAVE is not, as it’s a dialect than a separate language per signing (requires standardization for letters/actions to be interpreted)
Could this be a parallel you would find applicable?
@@fritzlang3472 ASL is, mostly, not at all related to spoken English... Specially since ASL came from the LSF(french sign language) while being completely different from British sign language
So ASL is a different language than English whereas AAVE is a sociolect of English; a sociolect being a dialect by social barriers rather than geographical ones
You can play music at the end of every video. That's cool
But I played everything I know
Just kidding. I like the idea. I was toying with making another channel
Agreed!
yep, just do it ;-)
A few videos ago I recall you mentioned something about language learning with ADHD and/or autism. I’d love to hear what research or other such resources exist covering the topic.
I second this
I third it.
Pur-leeeeeaaaase!!
Yes please a video about the specifics of how AAE articulates nuance not explicit in classroom American English! I’m just a humble pop linguist, but I’ve been enamored of this topic since I was assigned McWhorter’s Word on the Street in 2001.
YES! I would LOVE a video on AAVE being more complex than classroom English!
language jones and geoff lindsey on the same day???
Oooh I gotta go see what he did! I love his stuff
I wish I didn't have the first response I did when I saw the video but I'm glad I pushed past the initial heart sinking exhaustion from seeing those four letters on the internet because I trust you to pull something worthwhile out of the mire.
Totally agree as a black man. Been saying this for the longest.
Enjoyed your video and the Jones Jams
JONES JAMS! 😂
At this point I really should grab a bottle before watching any of your videos, also +1 on that AAE grammar video!
Shots shots shots
I would absolutely be interested in a video explainer on why African-American English grammar, especially around tense, aspect and mood on verbs, is more complex and sophisticated (yes, I said it) than standard class room English.
I would also love that, as well as an extension comparing the TAM of AAVE with that of (other?) English-based creoles, like Australian Kriol, Jamaican Patois, Tok Pisin, and so on. I find they seem to have surface-level similarities to AAVE, but haven't been able to explore further.
Likely the same reasons as other African languages. But we're not allowed to say the reason out loud. Also "more complex and sophisticated" lol if you consider toddlers complex and sophisticated maybe.
@@FreePigeon I can't claim to speak for languagejones, but I don't think he'd appreciate that kind of Anglocentric racism here.
@@FreePigeonIf you mustn’t say or write the reason, may you link to it?
The primary ingredients in the development of American English were largely other types of English. AAVE has direct influence from these same dialects but also African and Creole languages as well as a stronger French/Spanish influence. My guess is that drawing from a more diverse set of languages = greater understanding of the fluidity and sophistication of conversation.
Another vote for the AAE concept you mentioned as its own video. Also, this video was a pleasant surprise from start to finish. Thanks!
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it
If only all academic youtubers could just bust out musical treats like that. Nice!
It reminded me of Cody Johnston's video about how Trump was tryïng to kill the postal service (USPS), which he ended by playing "Such Great Heights" on... I think 'twas uke?
I am interested in the talk on the complexities of AAVE. Another vote for it.
Thank you! I felt so alone thinking a lot of these things. Nice to have an expert confirm it
There’s dozens of us!
I REALLY want you to tackle the history of the word "based," which originated with AAE and was adapted by a musician, adopted by the alt-right online (there's a WHOLE book about incels, hip-hop, and appropriating Black culture by the people who were sucked into the alt-right movement by way of Gamergate waiting to be written), and recently disseminated gradually across internet subcultures over time by proximity to recruiting efforts.
I think you’re right, both about that book and about the topic of “based.” I’ll add it to my list of videos to make!
A bit of a hyped up internet fairytale. Repeated over and over. What actually happened was, that early adopters of social media were mostly from the “social justice” subculture. How do we know? Just look up know your meme, and see the precursor trend called “social justice blogging”. The hyper-hostile style was probably a result of the novel design social media, and the “reblog” function. We can also draw from research that shows a high correlation to mental illness.
As history wanted it, this subculture became dominant over night with the sudden relevance of social media. Now this bizarro American identity “intersectionality” ideology was shoved into the mainstream and became hegemonial as large numbers of ordinary people poured online into the new social media landscape, and traditional media dissolved.
Gamers were another, ie. rival, online youth subculture. More international, more male. The conflict of “gamergate” is largely a subculture clash with the previously mentioned faction. People will pretend it is about one thing or another, but that’s just narrative. In reality, the conflict was but a turf war. The charge happened to be led by “games journalists” allegededly because of “sexism” etc. Sarkeesian was one last grasping of straws of relevance, maintained with clickbait trolling and by deliberately engaging with subsections of trolled gamers.
Just look the facts. Games journalism became obsolete. Digitial downloads, steam and above all Let’s Plays took it all away from games journalists. PewDiePie, a swedish gamer, suddenly was the biggest name on RUclips. That’s no accident. It also shows the polarisation. While the American intersectionality bullies took over social media, some corners remained “old imternet”, including RUclips.
There is lastly a concurrent trend. When all this happened, and everyone - even your old aunt - went online, also the American Right went online and they astroturfed a lot of stuff, or propped up many that where simply pissed off by the “intersectionality” faction. You can see traces of “unite the right” in the way the corner around Dave Rubin was flooded with money and trying to catch disoriented younger viewers.
@@Anerisian Touch grass. I mean take some time off the internet to think about what you said. Does it really make sense? Also, you should explain what you mean by "intersectionality" as that isn't a word that is known outside your circle.
@@Anerisiani will never get those thirty seconds back😢
Hoh boy, that was a landmine
"Baby can't be woke cos she been shook." Deliciously dark :) Superb video, came for the linguistics but stayed for the admirably woke sentiments and the sweet sweet music at the end. Bravo!
I was not expecting that statement here, but I cackled maniacally as soon as I heard it.
The reason woke took off as an epithet was because was a replacement for the overly verbose 'politically correct'
Yeah that’s what I don’t get because they don’t mean the same thing at all and are not interchangeable. Political “correctness” is not woke or anti-woke, it’s political correctness.
@josephmother2659 I agree it's not exactly the same but pretty close. And the think the difference is mostly due to how we think of a woke person today as opposed to a politically correct person 20, 30, 40 years ago.
Can't quite put my finger on it, but perhaps the woke are true believers, and the politically correct are more so the commissars.
I don't believe its close to political correctness. The word has been around for decades and its more about knowledge of yourself and systems because once you are aware of these things you can navigate society better and not get taken for a token. The word has completely been flipped around
DEFINITELY want a video on African American English please.
In other words, a lot of the criticism of "wokeness" is criticism of straw men.
I’d love a video on the complexity of AAE! I think it would generate a lot of engagement too
Went into this wary of twisted politics, happily surprised at the nuanced and informed breakdown
"Shook... not stirred." - Jim Connection, agent 700
Yes please a video on how AAE's tense/mood structure is more complex than classroom English!
And sophisticated!
Language is how people use it, true. One of the best ways to stop your teenagers using the latest words, is to use the same language back to them. It suddenly becomes less on trend. 😆
As an Australian, AAE trickles into language even here. Seeing white people here blatantly use AAE-derived slang, I can't help but cringe a little. It's hard to compare, but I feel like the meaning of some of the words/phrases has drifted even further from the original meanings en route across the Pacific.
I've recently been making an effort to stop using AAE-derived slang because I'm neither African nor American. In one sense, I feel like I'm using words that don't 'belong' to me culturally, and in another sense, I feel like I'm letting American culture and language completely dominate my own. I don't remember AAE-derived slang being so prevalent in Australia or so ubiquitous online maybe 15-20 years ago, but maybe I was just too young to notice. I guess it's good that the online Anglosphere isn't just dictated by nerdy white guys, but maybe it's all just aesthetics and it's still just as white as it always was.
An instance of this participle I hear a lot is my staff at a deli asking “do you want it toast?” where I would say “do you want your sandwich toasted?”
Interesting that 'shook' came up, because it is a feature of Hiberno-Irish. The number of matches between Hiberno-Irish and the English of the African diaspora in the US and Caribbean Islands is always interesting to me as an Irish person. How much is due to contact and how much is a kind of parallel evolution.
Many, many Overseers (so paid white employees of plantation owners) in the Anglo sphere were Irish, Scottish, or of Irish or Scottish descent. Purely a result of Social class and economics, mind-the Irish immigrants to the South and the Caribbean sinply didn't have the cash to run a plantation or own slaves-so most of the day to day english enslaved persons came into contact came off the lips of Irish or Scottish (and other, lower class British) people, and so reflect some of those features
@@Thebluebridgetroll The British began sending Irish people to the Caribbean as far back as the early 15th century under Charles I, though thousands were send there during Cromwell's time.
Then when you add in all the indentured servants who left Ireland. So I know about that. But that goes back a long time, and it seems unlikely that all of those matches were preserved over hundreds of years, though some certainly might.
I made a video on this a while back!!! It's been so frustrating literally being WOKE is what kept my biological father from being murdered by the KKK before he was.
Being woke is how he stayed alive 🤦🏽♀️ so frustrating!!!
And I'd love to see the video on how Black English has more tenses 😁😊🖤
Yesss!!! I'm so over white people telling me what woke means, like y'all have no freaking idea....
And I loved this entire video !
Reminds me of the show Lovecraft Country where one of the characters creates a safe travel guide for Black people in early 20th century US. Like literally being woke and aware was a lifeline.
@@ErikWithBrain That travel guide was based on a real thing, "The Negro Motorist Green Book".
I'm gonna need your friend's "Stay Woke" track. That was too smooth.
That was...dark (the shook example). That said, you've made me smile. It does my heart good to see someone with such a clear understanding, and fairly crystaline explanation of the inflicted plight of Black English. To wit, the reality of its dismissal as legitimate, let alone the pernicious propensity to turn phrases or even every day useage of the language/dialect into absurdist, mean-spirited mockery. Thanks for yet another excellent video. :)
I love learning the origins of words like this, especially those that mean something more positive in their original context. AAE is one of my favorite languages to learn about, since it affects so many people, especially those from immigrant families like my filipino cousins.
that was good but i have to admit i had to listen to it twice to actually figure out where you were going with the discussion
Dude, fantastic outro!! Excellent playing!
My Little Pony used the word "woke" in the 2018 episode Fake It 'Til You Make It. They were parodying someone who uses it to mean something vaguely positive without really knowing what it means. I doubt they would do the same today.
Thanks so much for this timely and very informative video. And definitely "Stay Woke" and continue to drop science like you do.😊
I would absolutely LOVE an AAE grammar video
I almost scrolled past because of the tite and thumbnail, then I recognized you and immediately clicked lol
Good God man! You're killing me. I had to take 4 shots in that one sentence alone.
Dr Jones, I love this video. @7:42 Is music considered a language by linguists? why or why not? Furthermore, do different parts of the brain interpret conventional language versus music? What is the purpose of music? Obviously, these questions go well beyond linguistics, and into ontology (half-joking).
Looking forward to your book when it comes out!
If you do more episodes on AAVE I think it'd be nice if you invited someone on that actually speaks it. Most times I've heard it talked about on RUclips and in College it was from another white person. Kinda felt like learning a foreign language from another person from the US instead of a native speaker
That sentiment is why my previous videos on it have interviews with 3 of the 5 or so black linguists who speak it. But for what it’s worth, those are the speech communities I grew up in, and live in. And it always bothers me that a lot of the linguistic discussion about AAE is from people who don’t speak or seem to even actually respect it.
the video was already great but then theres a frggin song at the end?!?! its so good??
Sure, let's hear your take on African American English. I'm intrigued. I'm a 71 year old Black woman who's heard her share of scholarly dissections of it. Should be interesting for me and a whole lot of enlightening for viewers of the majority culture. Thanks.
How I define woke as that you are extremely self-aware on how the world works (and therefore how terrible it is), and or, how to change the world for the better.
Great video, as always
But could you make sound effects slightly less loud next time, please?
You got it!
An analogous situation for comparison, is English loanwords in Japanese, where the loanword takes on its own meaning related but distinct from the original. For example, "Naive" in Japanese loanwords means "Emotionally sensitive" and does not have any of the connotations of "Sheltered, inexperienced, idealistic, gullible" in English.
Euphemism Treadmill. Here's a great one: "Good enough for government work" used to be a compliment because under FDR the WPA built so many beautiful stone buildings with art all over the facades and so forth. It was a compliment until Reagan came along and got people to think everything America does is bad, whether its our schoolteachers or other civil servants or anything at all having to do with the govt. He himself was bad, not govt in general. He got into office by promising to give Iran special favors if they kept those hostages in order to make Carter look weak. And then he committed a lot more crimes after that, like with his secret war in Nicaragua where he sent fascist mercenaries to topple the duly-elected govt there.
No, the phrase "Good enough for government work" was originally Canadian, and dates to at least 1906, way before FDR and the WPA. It was adopted in the US during the second world war, mostly by defense factory workers, and basically meant the government specifications were strange and often contradictory and being translated through a load of bureaucracy. It was a statement on the process, more than the product quality, essentially the manufacturers' version of FUBAR. It became a fully negative term about the quality of the product during the 1960's and early Vietnam era, long before Reagan.
A few years ago some leftist author wrote a book trying to "reclaim" the phrase and rewriting history to pretend it was once a compliment, but that was never the case.
Also, Reagan got in because the economy was absolutely horrid, inflation was high, and Carter was deeply unpopular due to multiple policy failures to address either effectively. The hostage crisis and his mishandling of it was just one of several factors in his loss to Reagan.
Not even close. Similar phrases used as pejoratives have existed in Europe for ages. The modern phrase used as a pejorative was found in Canada talking about the insane and often contradictory practices put in place by bureaucratic processes usually by individuals who have no idea how the practice actually works.
FDR and his stone buildings were just busy work in the eyes of most people. The vast majority of individuals, especially those educated fields, we’re not particularly happy to be forced into stonemasonry in order to feed their families. However, identity, politics of the time, namely that surrounding the racial identity groups allowed FDR to rain for a long period of time.
Reagan was not the cause of the massive stagflation that happened in fact if it wasn’t for Reagan, we would’ve been destroyed in the 1980s. Due to insane policies put in place during the 1960s and the absolutely abysmal policies is put into place by the Carter administration. Reagan had to basically save our economy, and if you looked at his policies, you would often find that individuals and businesses that are now dominating the fields were born during his era.
I get that you want to blame everything on one side of the aisle, but that isn’t accurate. You actually need to look at the whole of history to understand where the issues of our culture come from this entire woke culture stems from Democrats really wanting to go back to the ages of segregation where it was easier to manipulate voters unfortunately it is working
Growing up in Texas in the 1960s, good enough for government work always meant "this has been done to minimal standards". It's functional but it's not high quality.
Honestly I'd say the word probouns has had something different happen to it than the word woke. Woke meant something political originally, whereas pronouns is simply a grammatical term yet it has become completely misunderstood to the point of people decrying pronouns being taught in English classes
What puzzles me about the euphemism treadmill is that I often enounter discourse where people strive for more nuance, and even point out that a given word can have multiple meanings. Depending upon context, sometimes used differently in different disciplines.
But for some certain words, once they feel it has been "tainted" they drop other useful meanings like a hot potato. This confuses the hell out of me! It seems to relate to how much of an emotional "charge" the word has, but that doesn't help much because I don't have strong affective reactions to individual words.
I would LOVE a video on AAVE's complexity
My family (not black or multiracial) is from the rural american south. When I take my kids to the old family “homeplace” (which still to this day involves driving over several miles of unpaved roads and a bridgeless creek ford) for some “crick-stompin” and a fish fry, etc, we hear people using a lot of (not all) the same grammar and usage of AAVE, because that’s been the language of poor american country folk in the deep south for… hundreds of years now. It’s a bit disturbing to see language police (usually not american) showing up on videos where people with that country language are sharing a story and accusing them of “appropriating AAVE.” When the truth is that they’re lingustic twigs of the same branch. 🌳
Shook is also used in Hiberno English (Irish English). And I think it's basically used the same way it is in AAVE. It's possible we might have gotten it from aave or vice versa, though it wouldn't surprise me if it just occurred by coincide in both dialects. Irish English also has lots of 'nonstandard' forms, many having crossed over from the Irish language
Something I'd like to add... I can't help thinking the use of "woke" once it entered the mainstream the mainstream itself changed a couple times. Initially it just seemed to enter as a popularised version of the African-American term. Then (kind of like "based") it seemed to take on a semi-positive use, often among more reactionary types. The usage then quickly seemed to slip into more ironic usage. For example, an antisemitic person may have disparagingly or mockingly been described as "woke on the Jewish Question".
And now it just seems to have lost all subtlety and functionally replaced "SJW", as "SJW" has fallen out of favour. (I'd argue that this has maybe been something akin to a "dysphemism treadmill", where saying "SJW" just became hackneyed and old-fashioned).
But it's fascinating to me that within the last 10 years, "woke" seems to have had maybe 3 different usages that have all fallen from favour.
(As a further point on the "dysphemism treadmill", I feel like people on the right have sort of shifted from primarily being called "Nazis", to "fascists", to "white supremacists", to "reactionaries", as each word is gradually disempowered. Although it's not necessarily disempowered due to it's content becoming more acceptable. It's more that the use of each just seems increasingly hackneyed and hyperbolic).
Thanks!
Thank you!
Love the "euphemism treadmill" which I've been calling the "slurification cycle."
Often we are told that we should speak and write a specific kind of English. But I like the variation our language has. That African American English makes words other people adopt.
I also like the idea of writing how we speak. There is a particular RUclipsr I watch who’s from Essex and she will type out her words like she speak them like:
“Ey mate, dya av a minute. Fanks.”
I feel like typing as you speak allows you to get the reader to read it in your accent which can make the writing seem more close.
This is the first time I heard about African American English
Really interesting
Small potential correction. I don’t know if this actually contradicts what you said but the phrase “turnt up” has been in AAVE since at least 2010, as evidenced by the Roscoe Dash song “All The Way Turnt Up”.
What was your first instrument? What should kids learn first reading music or a second language?
Is that a copy of Ben Marcus's "The Flame Alphabet" in the background?
“Woke” as in aggressive or forced social consciousness taken to excess often to a level of toxicity
I'm second, Sam. Are you happy?
Bonus _song??_ More like bonus video at the beginning! Where do we find this guy?
Do you say AE or AAE? It is not clear. There is a noticeable drop of a V though. Does that correspond to the literature? Or does this instead represent the view that by dropping the V, it becomes less stigmatized?
I’m slurring AAE together. I’ll still use the V if I’m speaking specifically about the vernacular register, but otherwise AAE. Honestly, I prefer “Black English” cuz frankly I don’t know anybody who self identifies as “African-American” but I definitely know a whole lotta black folks. But academia, which is overwhelmingly white (and where the self identifying “African American”s are) is on either AAE or AAL. AAVE can imply that one thinks the language variety is purely vernacular, which scholars like Arthur Spears demonstrate conclusively isn’t accurate.
@@languagejones6784 I appreciate that. Thank you. As a non-linguist, I have an even less informed sense than linguists do who debate the categorizations of vernaculars, subdialects, dialects, and languages. I’m not even sure for instance if on a language continuum, it would make sense to establish deltas as vernacular < subdialect < dialect < language. I asked ChatGPT to tell me the difference between dialect and vernacular, and I could not see a distinction. But if there are arguments for why Black American English should be considered more of a dialect or a language than a vernacular, then I think they should be considered. Or rather in the case of the work of the scholar you cited, acknowledged. I’ll look up what people have written and try to understand what I can. I have a question though. My understanding is that some linguists see the distinctions as political, as in the example where people say there are more differences between versions of spoken Arabic between countries than there are between Portuguese and Spanish. Do you believe there is a political argument to be made for why we should consider AAE a language or a dialect? And AAL stands for African American Language? In that case, it would not be considered a dialect of English?
Another interesting bit of semantic drift is the words "capitalist/capitalism". In Europe or on the American left they mean one thing, to the American middle-class right they mean something totally different, and the American upper class tends to use the European/leftist definition while spinning it to look like the American middle-class definition.
What's the American middle-class definition?
@@Friend-For the Left, Capitalism is the rule of a particular Class
For the Right, Capitalism is a particular set of universal rule.
The Left thinks of Musk, the Right, of Locke.
@@jeffreyscott4997 what do you mean by "universal rule"? To clarify, I've only ever heard of the leftist definition despite growing up in a very pro-capitalist, conservative environment. I have occasionally heard statements that made me wonder if people were conflating capitalism with commerce and market-based economies, neither of which are actually incompatible with socialism, but I chocked that up to them not knowing what socialism actually was, as opposed to not knowing what capitalism is.
@@Friend- Commerce and market based economics ARE incompatible with the rule of the General Will. (Socialism).
I really doubt you've never heard a definition of Capitalism different from "rule by the Capitalist class", and never as "Individualist (anti collectivist) economics". Not if you grew up in a procapitalist environment.
@@Friend-By Universal Rules I mean a set of moral/political principles that apply to all members of society.
I find it odd that you only ever came upon the notion of Capitalism as the rule of society by those who possess capital, if you truly grew up in a procapitalist environment. No pro Capitalist thinker I have ever run across has thought of Capitalism that way.
Take Nozick for example "From each as he chooses, to each as he is chosen". Or Rand "A social system built on the principle of individual rights where all property is privately owned". Or Locke's principle that one has ownership of that with which one mixes one's labor.
While, as a Leftist, you may believe that the implementation of such principles may result in those with capital ruling like tyrants over the rest of society, an honest assessment should indicate that that is not how the Right thinks about such things.
Yes I would love a video on African American English!!
I remember back before woke became pejorative, it really did feel like a useful term to describe how it feels to see the world in terms of systems and structures of power, rather than as isolated acts of racism, sexism, etc. It has such explanatory power that it does feel a lot like waking up.
Now it’s just added to a long line of disingenuous, and largely content-free political insults from bleeding heart liberal, to political correctness, to social justice warriors, and now wokeism. Each time it’s presented as though it’s a new dangerous ideology, when in fact it’s just rebranding of the same thing in order to belittle and discredit it without actually engaging with leftist ideas.
Absolutely, I think AE needs more love. My own broad term for such shifts is semiotic drift, which is generally natural, comes in multiple forms, but has intensified with accelerating media technology. It's also become toxically political and wielded generally by the right to weaponize or neutralize words (and other signs) for their own agendas.
The pejoration of "woke" began in response to the use of the word by those on the far left to refer to transparently ridiculous political ideas, but these days it mostly means "that thing I don't like" by a lot of people on the right.
I don't think "far left" means what you think it means.
Yes, I would like a video on aave tense aspect.
I feel like the word only became mainstream because it rhymed with “broke”.
What does shook mean? Like I though it meant the same as shaken but when people use it I get the feeling that it has some sort of other meaning, and that I probably lack some context.
Basically synonymous with some combination of "surprised" and "shaken up".
@@jemiller226 tysm!
As far as I understand, the word "incel" had a similar metamorphosis, although I'm honestly not sure if it's true.
Incel is the opposite to what it purports to be. Ostensibly it's young men that can't get laid, when actually it's really just goading by middle-aged women that can't get laid.
Yep, "incel" was an innocent label coined by a woman who was herself an "incel" by its original meaning and ran a support group online.
I realize that this is a language channel and I'll try not to bring too much of my political thoughts into this.
You asked what the viewers think. I'll just say that as a black person, I feel a lot of annoyance. With that specific word, it is turned into pejorative, but I feel more politics surrounding it is at play than the singular word.
I do find the topic of English dialects interesting, as someone who speaks English. Actually, the topic of dialects as a whole interests me. I have heard of the word "dialect" but never gave much thought of what it means until I started studying language. I study Japanese, and the topic of dialects for that language gets brought up in the Japanese learning community with discussions about pitch accent or different words used by people from different regions of Japan.
I would be interested in that video on AAE.
_Awoken from out of a dark closet._
*A.I. has awoken.*
AAVE has grammar? Words were stolen and repurposed?
I'm a Geordie me.
We also had our 'woke' moment when 'canny' was stolen from us and repurposed to mean something totally different.
We also have our own grammar. 'Us' means 'me'. The plural form of 'us' is 'wu'.
So you can say 'Are yees gannin wi wu?' (Are you (plural) going with us?)
If the weather is clement, you can say 'Bonny day the day.'
We have our own past participles - 'telt' rather than 'told', for example. You can say 'He's never went to London'
We like to put 'but' at the end of a sentence - 'It will be cold, but'.
And the double modal verbs might could confuse you. And the double negatives - 'I never said nowt'.
Non-standard English grammars are nothing new. I've spoken them all my life.
Of course, Geordie is not as glamourous as AAVE. When I was young, teachers made sure Geordie was crushed and stayed out of the classroom. We weren't allowed to pronounce 'water' to rhyme with 'matter', for example.
From an outside perspective: I grew up "daan Saaf" but spent twenty-odd years in the North East (Durham rather than Newcastle though), "get wrong" was definitely my favourite discovery from NE speech.
I obviously had some knowledge of Geordie beforehand (and I'd have been very vague on the distinctions between different NE accents back then!), but I'd never come across "get wrong" until I actually lived in the NE. As in to be chastised: "Don't do that or you'll get wrong off your mam!" I'd never use it, it would seem strange coming out of my mouth, but I love hearing it as a phrase!
@@zak3744 I heard 'get wrong off' just yesterday when a RUclipsr recalled how her mother would scold her for climbing on walls when she was young.
I’m very confused about it being ignored and “literally” everywhere. I don’t kow how you can say it’s ignored at all when almost everyone in broadcast media uses it. I can’t remember the last time I heard the word “release” in favor of the word “drop” or hearing some “acknowledge” a person who wasn’t there vs giving them a “shout out”.
The expressions are now everyday English and are mainstream. Even non African American people my dad’s age use them. So I don’t see how it’s being ignored.
There was a time when speaking that vernacular would reflect on you poorly in a job interview. And I would still strongly encourage everyone to code switch to proper English in that scenario, but even that’s not as true as it was. People with neck and face tattoos (and who wear wool caps indoors or when it isn’t cold) are getting jobs so it certainly isn’t always a problem to say “let me get”
I might be wrong, but I think Jones is saying that the *source* of the slang is ignored, not the slang itself, i.e. AAE (as a fully fledged language/vernacular) receives such a tiny sliver of coverage/representation in (mainstream) media, despite the fact that it's spoken basically *everywhere, all the time* by such a sizeable portion of the population (~12%). Then, due to this paucity of coverage, when certain words trickle into and are increasingly 'slangified' by the majority, those adopting them have little to no clue of their origin and thus rarely acknowledge it. (And so, to Jones's point, AAE is kept perpetually 'invisible' despite its ubiquity and ongoing influence.)
Again, though, I may be misconstruing this.
PS - this is a long-winded way of saying appropriation/erasure
🤯 I didn’t realize you are a musician who understands the intricacies of jazz soloing! Maybe do a video on Music as a Language and how to communicate ideas with it ❤
Definitely going to do that! And where the “language” metaphor breaks down, as well
"Euphemism Treadmill" is a solid German electronic band name.
They open for the Second Germanic Sound Shift (my Kraftwerk cover band)
@@languagejones6784 haha btw, these possible future videos about the "euphemism treadmill" has me excited for some good ol' fashioned post-modern deconstruction. And the possible AAE video? The second person plural "y'all" and double negatives for specifying how often someone does something can and should be accepted standard English grammar. They are absolutely brilliant constructions.
FIRE🖤
Have you considered a "musicjones" as a second channel?
In all fairness, words always come from somewhere. Many words in English came from other languages. Acknowledging AAVE as its own language wouldn’t change a thing.
The lyrics say "Stay woke," the music says "Go watch my Zaddy video." 😁 Oh, and I also want that AAE mood and tense video!
Oh i didnt excpect the video to be about this. Thank god
Nice music at the end- language and music are what make us human. And thumbs, I guess.
Oh, yes. Anything on Black English would be interesting as would Spanglish of which there must be a number of variations.
Yes please explain more about African American English
This analysis is incorrect.
What it means to be "woke" has not changed.
The right takes good terms and twists them into insults.
Tasty lines! What is that, a 335, 339? Appreciate the education on woke, rock on!
345! And thank you!