Florida One - Text
This African-American male in his early twenties was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. He was both a star athlete and a theater major. He was in a college theater program in Boston when recorded there by Eric Armstrong in 1999. The subject has lived in Alabama and Boston in addition to his native Florida. In this interview he talks about African-American dialects, giving examples of many interesting colloquialisms. Running time 00:03:11.
TRANSCRIPTION
For instance, this guy named Charles. Oh, man, this guy was so… country, man. It’s like (uh) for instance-- I (uh)I’d use this phrase, if he had to rob a store, he wouldn’t tell everybody, “Okay, everybody, get down on the goddamn floor.” He say, [shouts in dialect] “Ev’yb’y on the goddamn flo’! Ev’yb’y down on the goddamn flo’!”
Whereas he’s really tryin’ to say, “Everybody get down on the goddamn floor.” You know, instead o’ sayin’ “floor,” he say “flo’.” And, you know, instead o’ sayin’ “’Ey, boy—Hey boy, what’s goin’ on?”
“Hey, bo’! Hey, bo’, c’m’ere, bo’.” You know, stuff like that.
Y’know (um) there’s this there, the quarterback, on the football team from (uh…uh) Mississippi. An’ when he speaks, he’s like (uh)-- Lemme see if I can imitate-- We used to call him Tyson. His name was Robert Vonne [sp.?]. He used to go [in dialect] : “Boy, oh boy, I tell you. Bo’, dem boy from Florida, bo’, dem boys, dey know how to represent may. Dey know how to represent may.” They don’t say man, they say “may.” May.
[Interview] For man?
Yeah. May “What’s goin’ on, may?” Stuff like that. (Um) We have another guy from (uh…uh) New Orleans, okay, and (uh) his name-- Matter of fact, his name is Shawn Joseph; he’s my best friend. And instead of him sayin’ (um) “what’s up?”, or (uh) “how you doin’?”, or where I’m goin’, they have this slang, they say, “Whoa na.”
[In dialect] “Whoa na! Wha’s goin’ on, Je’? Whoa na?” Instead o’ sayin’ “What’s up, Jeff? What’s goin’ on?” Like “Whoa na! Ya heard me, huh?” Stuff like that. (Um – laughs)
It’s-- We had an-- oh, a variety of guys from the South. We had a guy (um)-- His name was (uh) Chris Williams, and he was a receiver. (Um) Usually, I use mostly football players, ’cause that’s-- you know, that was my family back then, before I got into theatre. And (uh) man, this guy, when he talked, man. We’d have to go, “Huh? What’d you say?”
Y-- I mean, you know, like sometimes you guy’s’d do me, like you don’t understand. ______ “What’d you say? Say it again, Jeff.” I mean this guy was terrible, ma-- Well, it wasn’t terrible, it was just, you know, where he’s from. But, he’d be like (um) [in dialect]: “Any time I go down the South there in the riber [sic, river], I gotta go down there, and I gotta get mah bo’ down in there for de flo’. An’ den we go down there. We—we – we get it all togethe’, see what I say?” And we’d like, “Uhh, no. What did you say?”
[Interviewer] Well, he was really fast.
He was really fast, and… he-- he’d never follow through with the rest of his words.