Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Palin does 'urban dialect'?

Time is running out on the Palin Clock here, so let's play it for what it's worth. Dana Milbank writes this on his WaPo blog:
The Diva proceeded to list some people whose money the Democrats would take away along with Joe the Plumber's: "Doug the Barber and Christine the Florist, and Cindy the Citizen. We've got Joe the Plumber's Son, Jack the Hunter, Vickie the Realtor. One of my favorites last night, it was 'I am Joe Mama.' " The crowd delighted in the way the former Miss Wasilla said "Joe Mama" in urban dialect. For the record, a search of the White House speech archive indicates that neither President Bush nor Vice President Cheney has used the phrase "Joe Mama" over the past eight years. It was more evidence that Palin will, for better or worse, make good on her promise to bring change to Washington.
"Urban dialect" has to be an awkward reference to African-American speech – out of character for Milbank, I think. But wasn't that turn of phrase stale 20 years ago? It was used on South Park, oh, forever ago. Or longer. Just google it and see how widespread and how post-urban (?) it is.

Image from Cafe Press.

1 comment:

John Cowan said...

I take it to mean Hispano-American dialect, specifically the varieties in which /j/ is pronounced as a close approximant, easily heard by anglophones as an affricate.