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Do You Speak American . What Speech Do We Like Best? . Prestige . Crossing | PBS

Language as Prestige

Crossing Over
Language Crossing
Borrowing Identity
Linguists study "crossing" to understand how and why indiv iduals mimic the
speech of another group. Borrowing another language v ariety is often an
ex pression of identity . Cecelia Cutler ex plains.
Read Sum m ary .
In his 1995 book Crossing: Language and Ethnicity Among Adolescents, Ben
Rampton describes language crossing as the practice of using a language variety that
belongs to another group. Crossing includes a wide range of sociolinguistic practices
such as the "outgroup use of prestigious minority codes" (for example, white
suburban teenagers using African-American English speech markers to affiliate with
hip hop culture) and pejorative secondary foreigner talk (the mocking use of a foreign
accent to convey distance from a particular ethnic group). It also includes practices
such as marking, copying a language variety out of context to index a type of person
who is different from the speaker and/or intended hearers (Mitchell-Kernan, Morgan).
Ramptons book describes how groups of multiracial adolescents in a British
working-class community mix their use of Creole, Panjabi and Asian English.
Rampton found that language crossing, in many instances, constitutes an anti-racist
practice and is emblematic of young people striving to redefine their identities. The
young people he studied used this mixed code to contest racial boundaries and
assert a new de-racinated ethnicity.
Although, as shown in this example, crossing is not

Language crossing
evokes a sense of
movement across social
and ethnic boundaries

usually an all-out claim to another ethnic identity, it

can evoke a distinct sense of movement across
social or ethnic boundaries. Most often it involves
momentary, ritualized instances of outgroup
language use. Rampton describes crossing as part
of a complex process of self-assembly in which

speakers signal their orientation towards the different voices they adopt. It is
concerned with secondary representations of people, groups and languages and
the dynamics of the speakers orientation to the voice, the language and the social
imagery theyre evoking (Rampton 1996).
Tribe Talkin
Sociolinguists, anthropologists and cultural theorists study the phenomenon of
language crossing (although they may not agree on what to call it) to understand how
and why individuals are motivated to employ the language variety of another group.
They are also interested in how language and other types of social behavior reveal
changes in how people construct their identities. Some scholars have suggested that
the globalization of culture gives young people a greater number of choices.
Essentially they can pick and choose from a range of commodified ethnic style
markers in the clothes they wear, the music to which they listen and their language,
forming what Baumann calls Neo Tribes. These neo tribes differ markedly from the
more limited traditional family and community-based identities and language styles
available to people in the past.
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Language crossing can

be positive or negative

As mentioned above, one example of language

crossing would be when white suburban teenagers
use features of African-American English to signal
their affiliation with hip hop culture. This type of

language crossing is generally positive because it expresses identification with hip

hop culture. Jane Hills discussion of Mock Spanish or the purposeful misuse of
Spanish (such as when Arnold Schwarzenegger says No problemo in the film
Terminator) is a negative example of language crossing. No problemo not only
reflects incorrect gender marking on the noun (it should be problema) but also is not
an expression that native Spanish speakers would use. Hill claims that Anglos in the
Southwest and California use Mock Spanish as a racist strategy to distance
themselves from Latinos.
Crossing can also function as whats called a mitigating discourse strategy a way
to ease tension. In the following example, a computer trainer in New York City is
training an investment bank employee to use new software. The software is not
functioning properly and the trainee begins to complain. The trainer, who is not
responsible for the problem and has established a good rapport with the trainee,
crosses into a blue-collar Brooklyn accent.
Trainee: (somewhat annoyed) So youre saying they didnt install the
program properly?
Trainer: (with an affected Brooklyn working-class accent) Yeah, you
gotta prob lem wit that?
The trainer uses the Brooklyn working-class accent to distance himself from those
who installed the software incorrectly. His reply indexes a widely understood
stereotype in New York City of the tough guy who does not appreciate being
corrected and has little intention of addressing the problem. If it gets a laugh, it helps
to mitigate the frustration of the situation.
Hark! Do I Hear a Hip Hop?
My research investigates the construction of identity among white, middle-class young
people who affiliate with hip hop. Most of the young people I have studied live in
predominantly white middle-class and upper-middle-class neighborhoods in and
around New York City. Yet they affiliate with a cultural form that has its origins in urban
black working-class communities in, for instance, the borough of the Bronx (Potter
1995, Samuels 1991). It is difficult to generalize about the class origins of hip hop
because quite a few rap artists are college-educated and middle class, but there is a
general sense that it originates largely in the street read b lack urb an ghetto
(Alim). Their distance from its origins poses some psychological challenges for white
middle-class hip hoppers who are socially and physically removed from hip hops
creative and ideological space.
Significantly, white hip hoppers draw on a
language style that is clearly derived from AfricanAmerican Vernacular English (AAVE) a variety
with which they have little direct contact, and that is
stigmatized in mainstream U.S. society. The variety
of speech that they are targeting is highly
influenced by hip hop culture and contains a wide
range of hip hop slang terms in addition to
pronunciation and grammar that are specific to the speech of young urban AfricanAmerican hip hoppers.
White hip hoppers exposure to this language takes place principally through
electronic media, such as MTV, rap music CDs and Black Entertainment Television
(BET), rather than through direct face-to-face contact with native speakers. In effect,
white hip hoppers speech can be seen as a performance of African-American English
speech. Furthermore, many aspects of white hip hoppers personal style, gestures,
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ways of walking and even attitudes are informed by their conceptions of blackness. My
preliminary research (Cutler) examines the speech of a white upper-middle class
teenager from New York City whom I call Mike, whose language, dress style and
attitude revealed a deep psychological investment in the gangsta rapper image. In
many ways, Mike exemplifies many of the young people I targeted in my research: He
comes from an economically privileged family, grew up in a predominantly white
neighborhood, and was drawn to a cultural form almost diametrically opposed to his
own in terms of class and opportunities.
Mikes speech was an approximation of African-American English only with respect to
phonology, lexicon and prosody a pattern noted by William Labov. I began
observing Mikes language practices in 1993 when he was 13. Around that time, he
began to identify quite strongly with hip hop culture: He wore baggy jeans, a reversed
baseball cap and name-brand sneakers, and developed a taste for rap music. Mike
became part of a growing cohort of white, well-to-do teenagers referred to as prep
school gangsters in the popular press (Sales). At around the same time, he began to
change the way he spoke, which initially appeared to be a form of crossing as
described by Rampton (1995).
At first, Mikes linguistic efforts to employ this language were rather fleeting and
tentative, but eventually his casual linguistic style began to reflect the influence of
African-American English phonology, prosody and hip hop slang. One incident in
particular marks an early attempt to imitate this speech style. During a phone
conversation with his best friend, Mike at age 13made a quick conversational
repair to a widely recognized vernacular African-American English form: I gotta ask, I
mean aks [ks] my mom.
My research also shows that most white hip hoppers

Most white hip hoppers

engage in crossing
because they have not
acquired AAE

are indeed engaging in language crossing because

they have not acquired African-American English in
any real sense of the word. Like the young people
Rampton studied, they draw on a set of widely
recognized and socially salient linguistic features of
another speech variety to stylize their speech. In the

following example, we can see some of the AAVE features tapped by white hip
hoppers. There is an example of invariant be, an aspectual marker in AfricanAmerican English that signals a habitual or repetitive action (Rickford). We also see
an example of copula absence (I dont know what they talkin about). Another point of
interest is the speakers use of aint a feature of AAVE and many other vernacular
varieties of English. Finally, we see a typical hip hop discourse marker you know
what Im sayin that draws interlocutors into the conversation. Well close with an
extended example of this type of speech.
PJ:People people be callin me a wannab e, b ut I don't know what
they talkin ab out, you know. I'm just doing my thing. I'm just handlin
my b usiness. What I do ain't nob ody's b usiness, you know what I'm
sayin, except for mine. I handle my own. That's what I'm ab out. You
know, what I'm ab out ain't no b ut, hey, I'm I'm handlin my own.
You know, I'm livin my life the way I want to live. Ain't nob ody got to tell
me nothin, you know what I'm sayin?

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Suggested Reading/Additional Resources

Alim, H. Samy. (in press). Hip Hop Nation Language. Language in the USA.
Eds. Ed Finegan & John Rickford. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt. Modernity and Amb ivalence. Cambridge: Polity Press,
1991.
Cutler, Cecilia. Crossing over: white teenagers, hip hop and African American
English. Doctoral Dissertation, New York University, 2002.
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Hill,-Jane-H. "Junk Spanish, Covert Racism, and the (Leaky) Boundary

between Public and Private Spheres." Pragmatics 5 (1995): 197-212.
Labov, William. "Is There a Creole Speech Community?" Theoretical
Orientations in Creole Studies. Eds. Albert Valdman and Arnold Highfield.
New York: Academic Press, 1980. 369388.
Mitchell-Kernan, Claudia. Signifying and marking: two Afro-American speech
acts. Directions in sociolinguistics. Eds. John Gumperz and Dell Hymes. New
York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972. 161-179.
Morgan, Marcyliena. More than a mood of an attitude: Discourse and Verbal
Genres in African American English. African American English. Eds. Mufwene
et al. New York: Routledge, 1998. 251-281.
Potter, Russel. Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip hop and the politics of postmodernism. State University of New York Press, 1995.
Rampton, Ben. Crossing: Language & Ethnicity Among Adolescents New York:
Longman, 1995.
Rampton, Ben. Language Crossing and Ethnicity in Sociolinguistics. Paper
presented at the New Ways of Analyzing Variation conference (NWAV XXV), Las
Vegas, 1996.
Sales, Nancy J. Teenage Gangland. New York Magazine Vol. 29, No. 48.
16 Dec. 1996: 32-39.
Samuels, David. The Rap on Rap: The Black Music That Isnt Either. Rap on
rap: straight up talk on hip hop culture. Ed. Adam Sexton. New York: Delta,
1991. 241-252.

Cecelia Cutler received her Ph.D. from New York University in 2002. She is currently a
visiting assistant professor of linguistics at Stony Brook University. Her dissertation
explores the speech practices of white middle class hip hoppers in New York City.
More generally her research focuses on the sociolinguistic aspects of individuals
adopting ways of speaking that differ from those they were raised with. She has
published pieces in Popular Music and Society, the Journal of Sociolinguistics, the
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, and Language and Education.
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