PROJECT

DATE BY7/10/2013 TERRI-ANN WHEELER

An Analysis of Standard American English (SAE) and Mobspeak, specifically New York Italian-American English.STANDARD AND NON-STANDARD ENGLISHES

Aims--To investigate the linguistic differences between Standard American English (SAE) and the Non-standard dialect of New York Italian-American English mobsters, defined here as Mobspeak.

Due to the nature of this society, very little linguistic analysis has been recorded, therefore my approach and examples will be used purely through film adaptions of the Mafia.

LOWER EAST SIDE MANHATTAN (1936):(http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/the-lower-east-sides-changing-fortunes/?_r=0)

Please note that although my analysis derives from the medium of film, the dialect and language of the underworld is very real, and the films were based on true stories or real crime lords.

Standard A language becomes Standard through the process of standardisation, “which means it has been subjected to a process through which it has been selected (by those of higher social status or educational level), codified (by which the grammar has been described and given public recognition) and stabilised (ensuring that the variety takes on a relatively uniform and stable form), in a way that other varieties have not” (Trudgill & Hannah 2008: p.1-2).

“Being a prestige variety, a standard language is spoken by a minority of people within a society, typically those occupying positions of power” (Jenkins 2009: p.33).

“Prescriptive language rules together constitute the Standard” (Jenkins 2009: p.33).

Standard American English is a variety of English --a dialect-- it does not have an associated accent.

“CORRECT”

“GOOD USAGE” (?)

“PRESTIGE”A language is deemed Non-standard when it varies or not adheres to the Standard, which means not conforming in pronunciation, grammar, sentence construction or word choice of the usage generally characteristic of educated Native speakers of a language.

The language variety is associated with uneducated speakers or socially disfavoured groups.

“The further down the social scale one goes, the more Non-standard forms one finds” (Trudgill 1999: p.124).

“Non-standard native varieties, lack of acceptance appears to have connections with attitudes towards race in the US and class in the UK” (Jenkins 2009: p. 37).

Friendly, expressive and less threatening (?)

Non- standard

“BAD USAGE”(?)

“ILLITERATE”

“VULGAR”

REVISION

Standard American English (SAE)

“SAE is an institutional construct typically used by educated people in relatively formal circumstances, words from the street, including terms of abuse...popular words of the moment, or specialised cultural terms will appear less often in SAE” (Kretzschmar, Jr 2010: p.109).

Kretzschmar, Jr (2010) firmly believes that America is indebted to Noah Webster. He states that “SAE is Webster’s legacy, not just primarily for the particular features of American spelling he advocated [(i.e. colour/color; tonight/tonite)] but rather for the association of language with nationalism, uniformity, moral values and authority, especially within the school setting” (p.104).

Noah Webster:

--English language spelling reformer.

- - Fa m o u s f o r t e a c h i n g Americans how to read and write, by his spelling and grammar books used in schools.

‘THE HOME LANGUAGE’

THE LANGUAGE AS A SYMBOL OF NATIONAL UNITY AND NATIONAL PRIDE.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster

Examples of Disapproved Grammatical Constructions in SAE:Multiple negation: “I never did nothing to nobody”

Double (multiple) modals: “might could”, “shoulda coulda woulda”

Regional forms: “ya’ll”, “howdy”, “heya”

Slang “gotta”, “gonna”, wanna”

Informal: “kid”, “junk”, “guy”

Non-standard terms: “ain’t”, “I don’t got a family”

Third person -s agreement: “she think_ you don’t care”

Copular and auxiliary deletion: “He_ a made guy”

SAE Continued...“Does not have an associated accent” as pronunciation is usually considered separate (Trudgill 1999: p.123).

“SAE has no fixed relation to any American regional or social variety, other than the article of faith that, for national and moral purposes, the standard variety of the home language of Americans ought to be taught in school” (Kretzschmar, Jr 2010: p.110).

THERE IS NO OFFICIAL DEFINITION OF STANDARD-AMERICAN ENGLISH

The Italian-American Mafia of New York: BackgroundDuring the opening of the twentieth century, through waves of Italian-immigration to the United States the Mafia emerged. In NYC, the Mafia resided in the Lower East Side of Manhattan known today as an historical immigrant working class neighbourhood because of the flux of immigrants, such as Italians, Asians, Jews and Puerto Ricans. Lower East side is made up of areas known as Little Italy and Chinatown, which keep their culture’s heritage respectively.

The Mafia or Mob, is a secret Italian-American society who engage in illegal activities (organised crime), such as narcotics, murder and trafficking (and more!). They do not have a formal name but are referred to by the members as Cosa Nostra (Italian for “our thing”). To even be considered a member of the Mafia you must be of Italian descent.

The Five Families of New York: the Gambino, Lucchese, Genovese, Bonanno and Colombo families.

THE RULES: INITIATION OATH1. A CODE OF SILENCE2. COMPLETE OBEDIENCE TO THE BOSS3. ASSISTANCE4. VENGEANCE5. AVOID CONTACT WITH AUTHORITIES (The Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese: 1990)

Structure

(http://people.howstuffworks.com/mafia2.htm)

Boss: the Don or “Godfather”: head of

the familyConsigliere: the Don’s right

hand man: advisor of family and representative

Underboss: Second in command: runs the day to day business, logical successor of the boss

Capo: Captain or skipper: in control of soldiers and responsible for any tasks assigned such as murder

Soldier: the main workers of the family,

usually committing the crimes: once a

member is made he is an untouchable

Associates: not a member of the Mafia but works for

the crime family nonetheless: must prove his worth, he is known as

a ‘connected guy’

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Mafia)

MobspeakTHE CODED LANGUAGE OF THE MAFIA

“Mobspeak is a language that grows out of secrecy. It is an anti-language that develops out of an anti-society which stands as a mode of resistance to the society within which it exists. It is a language that attempts to exclude outsiders and hides the activities of the group” (McLucas cited in Karen 2009: p.183).

“Their speech instead of being a social lubricant and means of sharing information, is to them another weapon against their enemies” (Kozloff 2000: p.207).

NEW YORK ITALIAN-

AMERICAN

EXAMPLES:

“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse”

(THE GODFATHER, FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA: 1972)

“We go to the mattresses”

“He’s sleepin’ with the fishes”

ANALYSE THE GOODFELLAS: HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=FVVVKDSXJ_I

Task

Examples of Mobspeak“A wise guy’s always right, even

when he’s wrong: he’s right”“Capish?”

“You got a couple of fazooles?“He’s a stand up guy”

“I tell you right now we better start

earnin’ or somebody’s gonna get clipped”

(HTTP://DESIGN.SUPERHOLIK.COM/BLOG/MAFIA/)

“badda-bing-badda-boom”

“Hey Babbo!” “I’m bustin’ my ass off”“I vouched for this guy”

(Donnie Brasco, Mike Newell, 1997)

MobspeakMobsters have a specialised vocabulary, it is “intriguing because it resolves around tools of the trade such as guns (‘gats’) and victims (‘suckers’) or key activities--‘lay low’, ‘cross me’, ‘rat on’, [sent for, go to a sitdown] (Kozloff 2000: p.205). The dialect shows brute verbal power as there is a heavy reliance on obscenities, derogatory terms, crudeness, and hyper masculinity used as a scare, exclusion and power tactic.

A VERY, VERY SHORT MOBSPEAK GLOSSARY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnmt6dLasxw

“ASSOCIATE”“CLIPPED”

“DON”“FRIEND OF MINE”“FRIEND OF OURS”

“MADE GUY”“PINCHED”“SKIPPER”

“VOUCH FOR”

-An almost-there; someone who works with wise guys; not a Family member.-Murdered, killed off-The head of a Mafia crime family

-A fully initiated member of the Mafia; also known as a goodfella or wise guy-Got caught by the police-Appointed by the Don to run his own Borgata (crew). -To personally garantee--with one’s life-- the reputation of someone dealing with the Family.

Task

“I don’t cook like them Gumbars” -Donnie Brasco

Non-standard Lexis“It is clear that there is such a thing as nonstandard vocabulary”, unlike the term register which refers to a language related to its subject matter (i.e the register of football), nonstandard vocabulary is “socially restricted” to a small social group and although native speakers of Standard American English do not use the specific term they are aware of what it means, or in the case of Mobspeak, what its implications are (Trudgill 1999: p.126). For example:

Standard American English (SAE) Non-standard Italian-American variety of Mobspeak

die, kill, murder, assassinate

whacked, hit, iced, clipped, offed, burned, bumped off, rubbed out, popped, break an egg, fitted with cement shoes, a cement jacket, put out a contract on, do a piece of work, sleeping with

the fishes...

(Mannion 2003: p.205)

The “fuhgeddaboudit” Phenomenon

How to speak like a New Yorker and bypass the Mob (45 secs)Mickey Blue Eyes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Xu9UcOdj0

FUHGEDDABOUDITVARIABLE

VARIANTS (SAE)FORGET ABOUT IT

(MOBSPEAK)FORGET ABOUT IT

TO AGREE WITH SOMEONE TO DISAGREE WITH SOMEONE

STOP TALKINGWHEN SOMETHING IS THE GREATEST

GO TO HELL!

The highly used phrase of the Mafia, one phrase: a whole lot of meaning.

The variants of this variable are linked to social factors.

GOOGLE IMAGES (Donnie Brasco, Mike Newell, 1997)

Loan Words & SlangMobspeak is a mixture of loan words from different languages such as: the varieties of Italian (i.e. Sicilian and Napoleon), English, and Yiddish (among others). Along with the dialect of New York (i.e. r-less and d-less!), Italian phonetics (“Im-a gonna die-a”) and Americanisms, Mobspeak is also made up of slang terminology.

EXAMPLES:

“cafone”

“fugazi”

“schmuck”

Clown--an Italian word now an American-English slang word.

Fake-- an Italian slang word

Yiddish word for penis-- derogative term used to describe a moron.

The constant use of informal slang and such constructions deliberately mark them as lower class, moreover the language shows their “lack of education and verbal finesse”.

EXAMPLES:

“yeah”

“hey”“get me?”

“shaddup”

(Kozloff 2000: p.205, 207)

Mobspeak: Analysis Task

“Donnie, I got sent for. In ‘our t’ing’ you get sent for you go in

alive you come out dead and its your best friend that does it” (The Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese: 1990)

(Donnie Brasco, Mike Newell, 1997)

Task

AttitudesItalian-American English is celebrated in popular culture such as, film, literature, classics and music.

Music by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin (The Rat Pack) were often compacted with Italian-American English and they were thought to be associated with the Mafia, although never proven.

The language of the Mafia however is stigmatised because of its ties to organised crime, death and destruction, its secrecy, and it is considered a bastardised Italian-American English form, as it is a sub-sub variety of Italian-American English.

Hey chadrool you don't-a have to go to schoolJust make it with a big bambinoIt's like vinoKid you good-a looking but you don't-a know what's cooking 'til youHey mambo mambo ItalianoHey hey mambo mambo ItalianoHo ho ho you mixed up SicilianoE lo che se dice you get happy in the pizza when youMambo Italiano

http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/dean_martin/mambo_italiano.html

STANDARD AMERICAN ENGLISH

ITALIAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH

ITALIAN-AMERICAN MOBSPEAK

Fuhgeddaboudit!Thank you for listening. Any questions?

Bibliography.Federal Writers’ Project (1938) The Italians of New York. [ebook]. New York, Random House. Available from: Hathi Trust Digital Library. [Accessed: 1st October 2013].

Jenkins, J. (2009) World Englishes: A Resource Book for Students. 2nd edition. London, Routledge.

Karen, R. (2009) Eclipse of Destinies: Eloquence of Deception and Betrayal. [ebook]. Canada, Trafford Publishing. Available from: Google Scholar. [Accessed 30th September 2013].

Kozloff, S. (2000) Overhearing Film Dialogue. Berkley, University of California Press.

Kretzschmar, Jr, W. A. (2010) The Development of Standard American English. In: Kirkpatrick, A. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes. [ebook]. London, Routledge. Available from: MyiLibrary, [Accessed 1st October 2013].

Mannion, J. (2003) The Everything Mafia Book: True Life Accounts of Legendary Figures, Infamous Crime Families, and Chilling Events. [ebook]. USA, Adams Media. Available from: Google Scholar [Access 6th October 2013].

Trudgill, P. (1999) What it isn’t. In: Bex, T. & Watts, R. J. (eds.) Standard English: The Widening Debate. [ebook]. London, Routledge. Available from: MyiLibrary [Accessed 24th September 2013].

Trudgill, P. & Hannah, J. (2008) International English: A Guide to Varieties of Standard English. [ebook]. 5th edition. London, Hodder Education. Available from: MyiLibrary [Accessed 30th September 2013].

Films.Donnie Brasco. (1997) [Film]. Directed by: Mike Newell. USA, Mandalay Entertainment.

The Godfather. (1972) [Film]. Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola. USA, Paramount Pictures.

The Goodfellas. (1990) [Film]. Directed by: Martin Sorceses. USA, Warner Bros.

Mickey Blue Eyes. (1999) [Film]. Directed by: Kelly Makin. USA, Castle Rock Entertainment.