Are you a hyperwhite?

Gwest   Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:05 am GMT
Know of any hyperwhites close by you?

Article: Superstandard English and Racial
Markedness

Extract:

Quote:
Anthropological research has shown that identities that are “not white
enough” may be racially marked. Yet marking may also be the result of being “too white.” California high school students who embrace one such white identity, nerds, employ a superstandard language variety to reject the youth culture norm of coolness. These practices also ideologically position nerds as hyperwhite by distancing them from the African American underpinnings of European American youth culture.


http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/bucholtz/articles/MB_JLA2001.pdf
Guest   Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:43 pm GMT
Looking back, Bay City Rollers were pretty white.
It must be a tradition.
Guest   Thu Aug 23, 2007 4:27 pm GMT
I am hyper black.
Franco   Thu Aug 23, 2007 11:04 pm GMT
I'm hyperintelligent.
Gwest   Fri Aug 24, 2007 3:59 am GMT
<What's your point? Where are you going with this? >

When someone answers the question, we can begin talking about certain language forms mark the people who speak them. We students need to know such things.

BTW, Josh, would you call the person who wrote the article a troll? Why on earth would you want to delete an academic article that discusses a relatively unknown development in the English language?
Gwest   Fri Aug 24, 2007 4:00 am GMT
<Guest Thu Aug 23, 2007 4:27 pm GMT
I am hyper black. >

In which way?
Jasper   Fri Aug 24, 2007 3:51 pm GMT
Josh, I've skimmed the article in question, and the real subject is whether or not "nerds" speak their own kind of English.

The writers are calling it "hyperwhite" because the nerds' English has very little multi-cultural/multiracial influence. The nerds' English, it is suggested, could be termed a subdialect.

There's nothing racist about the article at all.

To answer the poster's question, I guess I could be termed a hyperwhite, in terms of the English I use.
Gabriel   Fri Aug 24, 2007 4:39 pm GMT
The only linguistic points the article seems to make are: 1) that these people stay clear of slang, and 2) that they use strong forms when weak forms are to be expected. Not terribly surprising findings IMO.
Guest   Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:44 am GMT
< Not terribly surprising findings IMO.>

For whom?
Gwest   Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:50 am GMT
<I didn't say that you were a troll. I said that this thread would likely attract trolls, and since I can't see any real discussion going on, I'll probably delete it. >

Why don't you ask us if we would like it deleted? And, please tell us why you haven't deleted these threads?

Do the Americans speak English better than the British?
The word "sicko".
Do Irish people like to be called Paddies???

All those, and more here, are perfect for attracting trolling and flaming.

So why is your moderating so inconsistent?
M56   Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:53 am GMT
I for one find the article intersting. It would be a shame and a mistake to delete this thread. Josh knows that he can delete and trolling post one by one, as he's done that recently. So, I don't understand why he wants to delete it - unless he feels it affects him personally. ???

My questions:

Moving to language use, do we agree that speakers of Standard English generally see themselves as unmarked linguistically - or at least that Standard English is seen by many as the unmarked form? Do we also agree that most or many Standard English speakers see nonstandard forms as degraded forms of the language?
Marsha   Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:59 am GMT
I do have to teach quite a lot of kids who want to imitate American, non-nerdy, youth culture. How should I present the speech norms of American youth culture? What should I say about such norms and should I help my students speak in that way?
M56   Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:56 am GMT
<What should I say about such norms and should I help my students speak in that way? >

Good question. And what should you say to nonnative speaking kids who want to be "hyperwhite" and have no traces of "the youth culture norm of coolness"?
Guest   Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:08 pm GMT
Is it hyperwhite to constantly talk about and insist on careful speech?
Divvy   Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:16 pm GMT
To me, this part of the article relates to discussions with Travis, who seems to feel that we should use the same formal language across all registers and with all listeners.

"Related to the phonological formality of nerdy speech is its lexical formality.
Nerds often chose formal-register polysyllabic variants of Greco-Latinate
origin over more colloquial Germanic monosyllables, a longstanding
stylistic distinction based on ideologies in the history of the English language.
But where in Standard English these lexical items are associated with
different registers, in superstandard English they were used across registers.
Such lexical items therefore had the indexical effect of making speakers
sound smart or learned."

http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/bucholtz/articles/MB_JLA2001.pdf