starlightswitch:

randomslasher:

kingkunta-md:

miniprof:

rsbenedict:

prettyboyshyflizzy:

you a bitch

It’s called copula deletion, or zero copula. Many languages and dialects, including Ancient Greek and Russian, delete the copula (the verb to be) when the context is obvious.

So an utterance like “you a bitch” in AAVE is not an example of a misused you, but an example of a sentence that deletes the copular verb (are), which is a perfectly valid thing to do in that dialect, just as deleting an /r/ after a vowel is a perfectly valid thing to do in an upper-class British dialect.

What’s more, it’s been shown that copula deletion occurs in AAVE exactly in those contexts where copula contraction occurs in so-called “Standard American English.” That is, the basic sentence “You are great” can become “You’re great” in SAE and “You great” in AAVE, but “I know who you are” cannot become “I know who you’re” in SAE, and according to reports, neither can you get “I know who you” in AAVE.

In other words, AAVE is a set of grammatical rules just as complex and systematic as SAE, and the widespread belief that it is not is nothing more than yet another manifestation of deeply internalized racism.

This is the most intellectual drag I’ve ever read.

YASSSSSSSSS LINGUISTIC DRAG

In “Pittsburghese” copula deletion happens after the transitive verb “to need”. Where standard English would say something “needs to be x”, in Pittsburgh we say it “needs x”. Even my mom, who trained herself out of most Pittsburghese, fell into this when prepping for parties, informing us “the floors need swept”, “the dishes need washed”, “the table needs wiped”, and “[room after room] needs cleaned”.

Why did my mom train herself out of Pittsburghese? Because people made fun of it. The priest at my church calls us to “waship” because he trained himself so hard out of pronouncing the word “wash” as “worsh”. Also Pittsburghese. My sister works in student life at her college and was instructed not to use “you guys” as the plural of “you”; the Pittsburghese “yunz” gets mocked, so she uses “y’all” which is “classy”. 

And it is classism in the case of Pittsburghese. And anti-immigrant bias. Much of the population of Pittsburgh in the past was Eastern European immigrants living paycheck-to-paycheck working in the steel mills.

The “needs done” construction is also standard in Scottish English, which is probably how y’all got it too. I grew up with a version of Appalachian English from WV/VA (pretty heavily influenced by Scottish speakers) which also uses it.

(Needs washed | Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America)

I didn’t even realize that phrasing sounded unusual in other US dialects until I ran into people ridiculing it. That’s still what I will use 99% of the time, because I’m just stubborn that way. It gets the point across.

What sounds at least as jarring to me, though, is the “needs doing” standard usage here in England. That does make sense in its own way, but it still automatically sounds very very wrong every time.

What I’m not doing is assuming that any different dialect usage must really be Wrong and Uneducated, and getting rude about it. Don’t understand that mindset, and not sure I want to.