Haut Corn!
Summary
John McWhorter explores historical American dialects, using Mary McLeod Bethune’s speech to illustrate code-switching. He details how 19th-century Black New Yorkers sounded like their white neighbors due to social integration, contrasting this with Southern accents. The episode also examines vowel shifts in early American English, explaining why historical records describe street vendors shouting "hawt corn" rather than "hot corn."
Topics discussed
LinkedIn Hiring Pro sponsorship
Mary McLeod Bethune's speech and dialect adaptation
The social pressure to sound white for influence
Black Manhattan before the Civil War
Vinted sponsorship
Traffic safety public service announcement
Diverse accents in 19th-century New York
Local Black New Yorkers sounded like white neighbors
The 'hot corn' vowel shift in early America
Divergence of British and American accents
Preview: The history of 'you am' in Black English
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