You wanna see how politics are changin'?

The other day one of the ESL teachers at UVU shared a most excellent worksheet with me (thanks Maddie!). It covered 2 interesting linguistic phenomena: g-dropping (which technically isn't dropping the g at all, just the -ing sound and converting it to an -n) and reductions.

G-dropping occurs when, instead of saying the compelte -ing sound at the end of a word like fishing, hunting, eating, etc, you eliminate the -ing sound and instead pronounce the n: huntiN' fishiN', eatiN'.

A reduction occurs any time that you slur together or don't pronounce part of the sounds written in a word. This is very common in contractions: I should have --> I should've --> I shoulda. I am going to --> I'm going to --> I'm gonna. You may also hear reductions in a situation like this: Give her the mail --> Giver the mail; in front of --> in fronna (fronnuv); or a sentence like did you eat yet --> jew eat yet --> jeet yet.

You get the picture. To me, the most interesting part of g-dropping and reductions is when they are done with intent to manipulate or change social perception...which is exactly what so many politicans (and many others) have been doing for years.

So this worksheet focused on Sarah Palin's speech during the vice presidential debate. Perhaps you've already noticed, but Palin, like most politicians, (Hillary Clinton being one of the biggest culprits) is excellent at varying her speech depending on the topic and group being addressed (Obama also does this; he has been known to suddenly sound more "black" when he's addressing African Americans). For example, you'll notice that when Palin discusses her views on policy, she has her g-s in tact and uses very few reductions. But when she's talking to the "common man" or emphasizing that she's a hockey mom or just like the rest of us regular ole' Americans, suddenly all her g-s are gone and she sounds like a back country hick. (NPR's All things Considered has a great article about this very topic.) Whenever a person chooses to consciously alter their speech, there is a motive behind it. Most of the time it's simply to fit in better with the social group you're engaged with. And there's not anything wrong with that; everyone does it, to some extent at least.

So I have several questions I would love for you to answer in my Palin poll (please feel free to select as many as you like). Consider this a mini sociolinguistic study concerning the effect such speech variations have on public perception. I shall refrain from leaving you with my opinion until my poll closes (I wouldn't want to bias your opinions now, would I?) If you've never listened to Palin talk, click on the link above to the NPR article. There are several video clips that demonstrate what I'm talking about.