“I ain’t lying”: The role of voice quality in

constructing (in)authentic identity

Qiuana Lopez!University of Texas, Austin!

NWAV 39, 2010!!

The Wigger!n  Origins & use are debated:!

n  Marian Salzman 1992 (Hoggard 2003)!n  Roediger 1995!

•  1989 - ‘a culturally based white-on white-slur” (p.660)!•  Neutrally & positively by Blacks (wigga vs. nigga)!•  Neutrally by Whites “whites who want to identify with black culture” (p. 660)!

! ! ! ! ! !!n  Present paper: !

n  Neutrally to describe White males who are characterized as middle- to upper-middle class, with limited exposure to working-class Blacks and their culture but adopt a hip hop persona!

!

Previous Research!n  Two wigger categories: (Lopez 2009; 2010)!

n  Fronting: presenting a false self!n  Representing: keeping it real!

n  Correlations: (Lopez 2009; 2010)!n  Converging: moving towards the language use of those in

the movie = representing!n  Diverging: moving away from the language use of those

in the movie = fronting!! ! (Accomodation Theory, Giles & Powesland 1975)!

!

Present Paper!n  Describes the intraspeaker stylistic use of

falsetto phonation:!n  What social meanings and ideologies are

associated with vocal styles?!n  How does voice quality interact with other features

of language to create meaning?!

Stylized Voice!n  Linguistic performances rely on styles and stylizations!

n  Stylizations: the linguistic projection of a persona not wholly inhabited by the self (Coupland 2001)!

n  Hip Hop accent and White Hollywood African American Language (WHAAL) are a part of a chain of stylistic indexical orders (Silverstein 2003)!

n  Stylizations reinforce ideologies of race, gender, and language (Bucholtz 2007; Bucholtz & Lopez (forthcoming) Lopez 2008; 2009; 2010)!

Who uses the Hip Hop accent?!

Table 1: Films and characters who use the Hip Hop accent

Movie Actor Character Character Description Bringing Down the House (2003)

Steve Martin Peter Sanderson Upper-middle class lawyer with two kids; comes from the baby-boomer generation.

Can’t Hardly Wait (1998)

Seth Green Kenny Middle class high school student.

Malibu’s Most Wanted (2003)

Jamie Kennedy Brad (B-rad) Gluckman

Upper-middle class young adult (20’s); son of a senator running for governor.

The Bros (2007) Joachim Wiese Pete Middle-class; college-age

The Bros (2007) John Tindall Lanny Middle-class; college age

Data!n  5 minute segments from each movie!

n  Included maximum and minimum fundamental frequency!

n  Recordings were digitized by converting videos from image files to sound files!

•  FLV to MOV using vixy.net!•  iMovie to export to WAV!

n  Sound file analyzed using Praat!

Is the Hip Hop accent a vocal style?!n  Sample of Hip Hop

accent:!

!

Sanderson’s Hip Hop Accent!

Really? Cause I got this outfit from yo mama.0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0 4.004

Sanderson’s Non-hip hop accent!

I gotta feelingyou’restill sitting on a hefty sum of stolen cash0

500

100

200

300

400

Time (s)0.005697 3.17

B-rad’s Hip Hop accent!

B-rad’s non-hip hop accent!

HHA a vocal style?!n  Only one label for it found in literature:!

n  “Black” accent (Kitwana 2006)!!

n  Characters hit a similar target!n  B-rad’s F0 peak 305 Hz !n  Sanderson’s F0 peak 359 Hz!n  Falsetto phonation: “a phonatory setting in which the vocal

folds are adducted tightly and stretched lengthwise, resulting in high fundamental frequencies” (Esling 1984)!

•  identified impressionistically (Podesva 2007; Neilson 2009)!

Social Meaning: Sounding black!n  Previous research on difference in intonational & prosodic patterns

b/t Black and White speech!n  Baugh (1983): movement of primary stress to first syllable!n  Tarone (1973): wider pitch range in vernacular speech of Black

adolescents than the vernacular speech of White adolescents!n  Green (2002): different intonational contours on questions!!

n  Falsetto: described as a salient part of Black male intonation (Tarone 1973; Wolfram and Schilling-Estes 1998; Wolfram and Thomas 2002)!

Hip Hop Persona!n Hip Hop is an iteration of Black language,

music, style, and youth culture (Perry 2006)!n  Characters who draw upon these semiotic

resources to form an identity!n  Identify with violence, obscenity and sexism !

Hip Hop Persona!n  Visual dimension:!

n  Hip Hop clothing (baggy jeans, beanie, jerseys, wife beaters), jewelry, sunglasses!

n  Language:!n  White Hollywood African

American Language!n  Claim: rappers, playas,

gangstas- hard, cool, down!

Constructing the Hip Hop Persona!n  Positioning Theory (Harré and van Langhove

1999)!n  Postions of speaking and acting are relational!n  Essential element is to determine who is in the lead!n  Performative vs. Accountative positioning!

•  Performative: involves either delibertately positioning one’s self or others!

•  Accountative: includes forced positioning of self or others!

Constructing the Hip Hop Persona!n  Indexicality: supplies linguistic forms with interactional

meanings which results in ideological and indirect associations with identity categories (Ochs 1992)!n  draw a link b/t hip hop accent and inauthentic wigger identity!

Constructing the Hip Hop Persona!

1.  Can’t Hardly Wait Kenny: [falsetto] Damn, woman. Why you got to be

such a raging bitch? Denise: Oh, please. Listen to you. Look. There’s a

mirror right there. Why don’t you take a look, okay? You’re white!

Kenny: [falsetto] What’s that suppose to mean? (Denise lifts hands, and smiles) Kenny: [‘regular’ voice] I don’t always talk like that. Denise: Oh, I guess you’re okay then.

Constructing the Hip Hop Persona!2.  Can’t Hardly Wait

Kenny: I mean you said it yourself, you know, you’d only done it like one time before? Like what, does that make you some kind of expert?

Denise: (laugh) I never said I was an expert. Kenny: I mean, ‘cause my shit could have been slammin’ with

somebody else. Denise: What? Kenny: [falsetto] Look, baby. I mean, it ain’t your fault you

lack the flava. Denise: (pause) You asshole.

Constructing the Hip Hop Persona!

3.  Malibu’s Most Wanted Sean: Aight. I’m sick of playing games with you, Snowflake.Aight,

now I’ma give you five seconds for you to be real, or I’ma beat that ass to the curb.

B-rad: [falsetto] What you mean, be real? Sean: You know what I mean, be white. Five, PJ: Don’t do it, Bloodbath. Sean: Four, PJ: Don’t do it, Bloodbath! Sean: Three, PJ: He gon’ do it, white boy. Sean: Two, PJ: Kill him! Kill him! B-rad: [‘regular’ voice] Okay, aight (/ɔait/)! Okay, fellas, look, I’m really sorry,

okay? I don’t mean to offend you, you know, I don’t mean to front, or act like a thug. I’m sorry.

Constructing the Hip Hop Persona!4.  Malibu’s Most Wanted!"B-rad: [falsetto] I ain’t lying, I ain’t

lying. I’m sorry ya’ll but this is who I am. I’m just a rappa, straight up.

BM: Wigger please!

Constructing the Hip Hop Persona!

5.  Bringing Down the House!! Widow: ! ! Damn, boy, you lookin’ all kind of stupid.!! Sanderson: [falsetto] Really? Cause I got this outfit !!!!! !!!!! !!!

! ! ! from yo’ mama.!! Widow: ! ! Yo, Eminem, cut the wigger shit. I don’t think you

! ! !know how much trouble you in.!! Sanderson: ! [falsetto] Fine, fine, [‘regular’ voice] fine. I’m !!!!

! ! here to talk business, private business.!!

Characters’ dissaffiliation with whiteness!

6.  Bringing Down the House Female: Can you swerve snowman? Sanderson: [falsetto] Do I got honky spray-painted on my forehead? Of

course I can. I’m trying to peep a bow-wow. 7.  The Bros.

Lanny: (To Pete) [falsetto] Know what your problem is? Driver: [Laughs] Check this shit out. Lanny: [falsetto]You need to get high. Passenger: What a fucking turd. Pete: [falsetto] What’s up cracker? You want to step? Driver: Speak English. I don’t know Ebonics. Pete: [falsetto] Motherfucker, you better recognize before I

rearrange that skin ass head of yours, bitch. Driver: [Gets out of the car] I’m gonna knock the white back into

you.

Indexing Inauthenticity!n  Ideological association of falsetto and therefore the

HHA with blackness indirectly indexes inauthenticity!n  Hewitt (1985), “pronunciation especially is treated as a

marker of ethnic membership”, (p.152).!n  Problem with characters is that by using HHA, they claim an

illegitimate affiliation with blackness!

Conclusions: Hip Hop accent!n Hip Hop accent…!

n  core meaning is sounding black!n  negates positive uses of WHAAL!n  is not meant to be imitated by wiggers if they

want to be taken seriously! !

Conclusions: Voice quality!n Voice quality can play a role in the

construction of certain identities/personae!!n Voice quality can affect particular

linguistic behaviors, such as the use of WHAAL, which could otherwise be seen as authentic!

References!Baugh, J. (1983). Black Street Speech. University of Texas Press. Bucholtz, M. (2007). Styling Blackness: Gender and Racial Ideologies in White use of

African American English in Film. Paper presented at the first Conference on Culture, Language and Social Practices, October 2007. Boulder, CO.!

Bucholtz, Mary & Lopez, Qiuana (forthcoming). Performing Blackness, Forming Whiteness: Linguistic Minstrelsy in Hollywood Film. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(5).!

Coupland. N. (2001). Dialect stylization in Radio talk. Language in Society 30: 345-375. !Esling, J. (1984). Laryngographic study of phonation type and laryngeal configuration.

Journal of the International Phonetic Association 14: 56-73.!Giles, H. and P. Powesland. (1975). Speech Style and Social Evaluation. London:

Academic Press.!Green, L. (2002). African American English: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.!Harré, R. & Langenhove, L. (1999). Introducing positioning theory. In R. Harré & L.

Langenhove (Eds.), Positioning Theory (pp. 14-31). Malden, MA: Blackwell.!Hewitt, R. (1985). White talk black talk: Inter-racial friendship and communication

amongst adolescents. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.!

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References (cont…)!Hoggard, L. (2003). She’s the bee’s knees. Guardian, Observer Magazine (June 29)

<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,986928,00.html#article_continue>!

Kitwana, B. (2005). Why White Kids love Hip Hop: Wankstas, wiggers, wannabes, and the new reality of race in America. New York: Basic Civitas Books.!

Lopez, Q. (2010). Linguistic Crossing vs. Linguistic Passing: White actors’ uses of African American Language in film. Paper presented at African American Language Conference 2.!

Lopez, Q. (2009). Imitation or Influence: White actors and Black language in film. Texas Linguistic Forum 53: 111-121. !

Nielson, R. (2009). I ain’t never been charged with nothing!: The use of falsetto speech as a linguistic strategy of indignation. !

Ochs, E. (1992). Indexing gender. In Alessandro Duranti and Charles Goodwin (eds.) Rethinking Context. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. 335-359.!

Perry. I. (2006) Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop. Duke University Press.!

Podesva, R. (2007). Phonation type as a stylistic variable: The use of falsetto in constructing a persona. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11(4), 478-504.!

Roediger, D. (1995). Guineas, wiggers, and the dramas of racialized culture. American Literary History 32 7(4):654-668.!

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Acknowledgements!Thanks to: Lars Hinrichs and Doug !Bingham!