Dean's World

This article in the Jamaica Gleaner attempts to translate the accents of those interviewed into the written word. I've never seen anything like this before, not in a news article.

Isaiah Washington has started counselling after a furor erupted over a gay slur that he directed against fellow cast member T.R. Knight on the hit television hospital drama back in October, and later repeated at last week's Golden Globe Awards when asked about it. Mr. Washington, who earlier this week met gay and lesbian groups in Los Angeles, said in a statement he had begun counselling "as a necessary step toward understanding why I did what I did and making sure it never happens again". "I appreciate the fact that I have been given this opportunity and I remain committed to transforming my negative actions into positive results, personally and professionally," the actor added.

Shonda Rhimes, the black creator and executive producer of "Grey's Anatomy", said that ABC and show producers had been working to address what she called Mr. Washington's "behavioral issues": "I speak for all the executive producers here at Grey's Anatomy when I say that Isaiah Washington's use of such a disturbing word was a shocking and dismaying event that insulted not only gays and lesbians everywhere but anyone who has ever struggled for respect in a world that is not always accepting of difference. We've been working within the Grey's family as well as with ABC and Touchstone to address the issue in a way that underscores the gravity of the situation while giving us all a foundation for healing. We applaud and encourage Isaiah's realization that he needs help and his subsequent choice to seek immediate treatment for his behavioral issues."

Ripclawe, a black conservative Republican blogger, sarcastically calls it Mr. Washington's re-education process: "I am all for the public humilation for bone headed moves done by Washington twice using the term faggot, but this has turned into a farce sending him in for 'psychological assessment'....Shonda Rhimes sold him down the river big time."

My response: Am I missing something here? Is there more to Mr. Washington's past, and this story? In rehab for what? Just exercise better control over what you say, fool. And why ain't white lesbian Rosie O'Donnell - who works for the same employer (ABC and Disney, its parent company) - in "rehab" after those recent racist comments that she said on air? Has she met with Asian groups? Yeah, right....

I save trite insults for trite minds. One such organ belongs to Ariana Huffington. She is emblematic of everything that kept me away from the left; and keeps me still critical of the celebritycentric hollywood leftists. To this day, I religiously avoid her blog. It is a waste of time. I present just one proof. Continue reading the rest at Eteraz.Org

Words change over time. This is a universal in all languages. Despite the best efforts of teachers and grammarians everywhere, words change meaning. We can fight to retard or to shape this change, but we cannot stop it. For example, one of the English words I have noticed has changed its meaning is "troop."

Historically, it used to be that a group of cavalry was a "platoon," and a group of several platoons was a "troop," and a few troops made up a squadron or battalion. So if you sent two or three troops into a fight, you were sending a quite large number of men into battle.

But some time ago a slogan emerged of "support the troops." Now I do support the troops, but I have noticed that this slogan has apparently changed the definition of "troop." Increasingly, "a troop" is one single fighting man or woman. That individual is no longer even "a trooper," he or she is now just "a troop."

I notice that even retired Colonel Austin Bay has slipped into this usage. For example, in this recent excellent posting (which has nothing to do with this discussion but is nevertheless worth reading), Austin said:

Another one of the very smart troops says that should Pelosi-led investigations start in earnest, Rumsfeld is already two-months gone. A nice tactical political move, if the troop’s hunch is correct.

Oh really Colonel? A troop had a hunch? What, did someone take a poll? Did their commanding officer have anything to say? Were there any dissenters among the ranks?

;-)

This is meant to be humorous, and I hope Colonel Bay laughs. I think it just illustrates how words change their meaning over time even in military culture.

Have you ever heard the terms "rhotic" and "non-rhotic?" They're fairly obscure linguistic terms that probably ought to be better known, because they describe the two largest and most common variations of the family of languages known as "English." The funny thing being, almost everyone speaks one or the other, but almost everyone has heard the other variation. Yet most people don't have a word for it. Funny huh?

In rhotic variations of English, the letter "r" is almost always prounounced in a hard and distinct fashion. This is the most common variant found in Canada and the United States, although there are regions in each where it isn't so.

In non-rhotic variations of English, the rule is that the letter "r" is not pronounced unless it is immediately followed by a vowel. Non-rhotic variations are the most common in the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. There are some exceptions; the Scots, for example, mostly speak rhotically.

Do you speak rhotically or non-rhotically? Here's a simple test. Say this sentence out loud:

I got into my car, drove to the store, and bought some bottled water and some watery ice.

If you are a rhotic speaker, you fully pronounced the letter "r" in every word it appeared in. If you're a non-rhotic speaker, you probably did not prounounce the "r" in "car," "store," or "water," but you did pronounce it on "drove" and "watery."

It gets a bit blurry only because in some variations, the rule changes if a word ends in "r" and the next word starts with a vowel. For example:

I got into my car and drove to the store.

It's pretty funny where the non-rhotic way of speaking pops up. Americans pretty instinctively associate non-rhotic speaking with the English and the Aussies, but you also hear it in parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and all along parts of the northeastern seaboard from New York up into Maine.

Around New York City, people from the Bronx and Long Island are usually non-rhotive, but from places like Manhattan they're rhotive. Also, most--not all but most--variants of African American Vernacular English are non-rhotic.

Here's one of my favorite cartoon characters, Foghorn Leghorn:

Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency.

That's a Georgia accent in the best southern gentlemanly tradition!

If you're a rhotic speaker it just means you always say your Rs, and if you're a non-rhotic speaker, you skip it a lot, especially if a consonant comes after it.

Of course what you do with the "r" tends to vary. I believe most Englishmen would say: "I drove to the staww." Someone from Boston would probably say "I drove to th' sto-ah." A black cat from the south side of Chicago would probably say "I drove to de stow."

And so on and so forth. Cool huh?