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And even that's changing. I have heard people not from Philadelphia use it. The internet has made the world much smaller, which has resulted in people using a mashup of words from all over the place.
"Y'all" is a good example. I remember a few years ago someone pulling out a Labov map and telling me that the use of the word was confined to White southerners and Black people. Then I found an article that used Ricky Martin (born in PR) as an example of the word's spread well beyond those communities. I'm not sure if anyone would even challenge that anymore since we hear all types of people use that word, coast-to-coast, even in England and South Africa.
"Jawn," I'm sure, is not used with the same degree of regularity outside of the Delaware Valley, but culture creep is inevitable in this day and age. It always has been, but the internet accelerates it. I know I personally use "hella" a lot simply because I find it rolls off the tongue easier. And I couldn't tell you who I got it from or when I started saying it.
I'd say the Bay area, as people from there is where I first heard decades ago. Ironically, the person I heard it from was Middle Eastern.
The interesting thing is that one of the terms in that quick Philly-speak lesson, "MAC machine," is slowly dying out ever since the Philadelphia bank that owned and operated the Money Access Center ATM network — the only regional ATM network that was owned by a single bank — got acquired by a bank from New Jersey that got acquired by a bank from Charlotte that got swallowed by another bank from Charlotte that got folded into a bank from San Francisco.
I haven't noticed any decline in its use. The same way people still say they are going to "Xerox" something even though Xerox's actual market share has been obliterated by its competitors.
Like Quinta said, a MAC machine is a MAC machine and people are always going to call it that because their mothers, brothers, sisters, teachers and friends have all called it that and it gets passed down from one generation to the next.
If you want to talk about uniqueness of Black culture, NOLA tops the charts.
From music to food to funerals to..., well, just about everything, New Orleans stands out from every other city in the country, and it's the French influence and heritage that's at the core of the difference. New Orleans R&B is distinctive and different from all other varieties of the genre. Funerals begin with mourning and end with celebration. I could go on in this vein for a while.
I agree about NO. Alot of yall are pointing out accents but if this was an hbcu who would stand out the most without talking. The same reasons that make NO top the list is the same argument I'd make for DC or DMV in general.
Before social media you can tell whose from the area just based on shoes, socks, local brands, skull cap. We are known for Foamposites/ Flightposites, nikeboots and New balance with endless pics from 80s 90s yet folks try to downplay the culture. You hear someone in Cali playing go go its no question you know where they are from. Freaknik was even started by students from DMV.
Think about everybody coming to the area especially Howard Homecoming acknowledging the style (Kanye, Russell Simmons, Diddy). Now everybody wears New Balance all the sudden and claim they started one of our well known trends(Baltimore)
I agree about NO. Alot of yall are pointing out accents but if this was an hbcu who would stand out the most without talking. The same reasons that make NO top the list is the same argument I'd make for DC or DMV in general.
Unfortunately, the OP said "anywhere on the planet" and not North Carolina Central University.
I'm sure this might be mind-blowing to DMV posters, but a lot of people don't know about UCB, slouch socks and Nike Boots. This is even more so the case if you're talking about Black youth in London who are not going to know anything about DC. So if we're talking about people "anywhere on the planet," which is what OP said, then Los Angeles' 90s/00s style and music is going to be far more recognizable than DC's, which has almost no representation in popular media.
Idk anything outside of Hugo Boss which i didnt know was from DC btw. New balances isn't DC that Baltimore (and it's a Boston brand ironically, wearing NB in most black circles is like white people's Subaru shoes). People don't wear NB outside of Maryland actually. Go-Go is just trash but my older brother liked it when he lived in DC (he's in NYC now). Gimme Bmore Club, please.
I really really don't see how Memphis and Detroit have more influence than DC on a national level at all. I know nothing about Memphis and feel or hear nothing from Memphis outside of the rap. And they're moreso just having one of their moments right now. They're not like unchallenged in the top tier in that either IMO. But really there's no way in hell would I move to Memphis or Detroit like I did DC.
DC has lots of influence in the black professional/political world but if you're on Woodrow Ave in Boston that is irrelevant. But the easy counter is Woodrow Ave is wayyy more irrelevant (no offense, you know I have poeple on that Ave!) were from Boston so I think we need to acknowledge sometimes were operating in an extremely Northeastern bubble in some aspects. Its hard for a citys culture to overpower NYC for us.
When i live in Boston the only thing I knew about DC black culture was Nike Boots. When me and my mother first came down to visit my brother and for me to tour colleges and we liked the area but I didnt see anything particularly unique. And we were in the part of DC that demographically felt more like Boston than Chocolate city. This was early 2011.
See this what gets me now that we are at the height of social media not one Baltimore throwback pic can be shown making this statement. NOT ONE!! Goto Baltimorehistorychannel on IG and find me more than 3 NB pics from back then. Scrub the whole internet and you wo t fi d it.. Meanwhile DCDecades has endless pics of DC wearing NB, ASICS, and of course my generation has endless pics of foams, flight posites or any high end Nike. The only other area that can show proof of long history of a shoe game is NYC. Yall must be born after 2000.
See this what gets me now that we are at the height of social media not one Baltimore throwback pic can be shown making this statement. NOT ONE!! Goto Baltimorehistorychannel on IG and find me more than 3 NB pics from back then. Scrub the whole internet and you wo t fi d it.. Meanwhile DCDecades has endless pics of DC wearing NB, ASICS, and of course my generation has endless pics of foams, flight posites or any high end Nike. The only other area that can show proof of long history of a shoe game is NYC. Yall must be born after 2000.
Not born after 2000; I'm just not within earshot of DC. Nothing DC resonated with me or I was familiar with until I visited Howard in 11th grade (2010). There were no DC murmurs when I moved back to Boston after college or around CT, NY, and NJ.
A lot of what you're talking about in regards to DC is before the social media era; it wasn't until the social media era I saw DC get mentioned more in relation to AAU basketball and Wale bringing a light to the city's music... Maybe I just came up far away and during a lull in DC culture. But it's not on a level with LA or NYC at all. Not a diss.
Nipsey Hussle's video for "Double Up" has 261M views on YouTube.
Wale's video for "Nike Boots" has 2.6M views on YouTube.
Take that how you will.
I said hbcu not NC central. I said nothing about UCB but you know about them right. I didnt make any argument about ppl in London knowing about black culture.
Last edited by boreatwork; 04-09-2024 at 11:31 AM..
Slang, vernacular and accent are different. I only realize if someone is from NOLA if they say things like "neutral ground." Otherwise, it's not distinctive enough for me to say "Ha! I knew you were from New Orleans!"
There are only a few accents that really stand out in the Anglosphere.
"British" (no need to jump in and explain that there are several different accents on the Isles)
"Caribbean" (same thing. Most people will lump a Bajan, Jamaican, Bahamian accent all into one)
Australian
Scottish
Boston
New York
South African
These are the accents that 50%+ of English speakers across the globe will instantly recognize.
I've never came across anyone who didn't know what a NO accent sounds like. It's very distinctive. It actually sounds similar to a Gullah geechee accent. I've heard black people in the northeast not from NYC who sounded like a NYer.
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Boredatwork
Boredatwork
