Where our accents come from; 90s Black sitcom history

Has anyone ever poked fun at the way you talk, how you pronounce a word or phrase? For Philadelphians, it might be “wooder” “caw-fee” “bee-yoo-dee-full” or “jeet?” But all of us have some kind of accent and there’s a fascinating history behind how they’ve developed over decades and often centuries, as groups of people spread apart and intermingled. We’ll talk about why certain accents stick and others disappear, and what they reveal about power, identity and belonging.

And, Martin. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Living Single. In Living Color. They’re just a few of the shows from the 1990’s boom in Black-centered television. In a new book, PBS Newshour co-anchor Geoff Bennett argues this was a golden era of TV, which for the first time offered full and varied depictions of Black life on the small screen. Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to ‘90s Sitcoms traces the roots of Black comedy back to the early minstrel shows in the late 19th century. 

Guests:

• Valerie Fridland, professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada
• Geoff Bennett, co-anchor of PBS NewsHour