Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America's Lingua Franca

by John McWhorter

THE LANGUAGE OF PRINT, school, and the media is French, but when speaking outside of formal settings, people use another form of speech: Haitian Creole. In Sicily, the language of print, school, and the media is standard Italian, but when speaking outside of formal settings, many people use another form of speech: Sicilian. In Switzerland, the language of print, school, and the media is High German, but for German speakers in that country, outside of formal settings they use something other than High German: Swiss German, which is quite different in sound, vocabulary, and structure from the German one learns from a book. In the United States, the language of print, school, and the media is Standard English, but when speaking outside of formal settings, black American people use . . . a lot of slang and bad grammar.