An Ohio Blogger Writes In 'Redneck' Dialect About Shitsville, O: Crass, Prejudiced Words Against Rural Residents

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Insults are not a sign of wisdom. Jokes are a very serious thing. And prejudice is a child of ignorance. Those thoughts -- commonsense advice I have read or heard said across the years -- came to mind when I saw a post written in faux dialect. Someone depicted his fellow citizens with rural Southern accents as living in house trailers, not rating diplomas, inhabiting a place called South Shitsville and conversing like cretins in sentences such as:

"So whuffo’ did ah come hyar, yo’ ax?
Ah came hyar t’give yo’ this hyar message: It’s notcher fault.
Yo’ didn’t make th’ fine jobs hoof it away.
Yo’ didn’t does ennythin’ wrong, acco’din’ t’ th’ code o’ th’ heells!
Yo’ did ev’rythin’ yo’ were told, cuss it all t’ tarnation.
Wawked hard, Gotcher GED. Got married up wif. Had kids. Took out a loan fo’ a noo trailer. "

Yep, they use words like "ax," an expression that seems filched from a mouldering Amos 'n' Andy script, and is equally offensive now as it was then. Regardless of ethnic target, the dialect conveys prejudice --somebody who is in on the joke gets that "ax" is really "ask," and thus far superior to the dopes who say "ax." Of course, the smalltowners who seem to drool their words rather than drawl them do "wawk" hard -- though they are poor as dirt and dumber than granite. "Yo'," can read it all here. Viewing the entire cackling depiction of smalltown Ohioans as low-IQ, lazy, uneducated, incoherent and linguistically challenged people who inhabit villages named for turds makes one wonder: How can the creator of such material have a brain so lacking sensibility and judgment, and be stuffed with so much meanness? How can one throw such stones in what had been intended as a thoughtful and highminded protest against a measure pending in the Ohio legislature that makes English the state's official language? Many consider the official English bill an example of blatant state-sponsored prejudice that targets Hispanics and other immigrants. But is it proper to make that point by targeting and mocking smalltown and rural Ohioans?

When you read the "Redneck" screed in standard English it is less inflammatory and more effective, less mocking in tone. But it is still a speech delivered to the residents of a place called South Shitsville, a community of trailers in a village named for excrement, a place of rubes whose ZIPCODE is all zeros.

Ohio Blogging In Tongues Protest: Time Magazine Picks Up The Story

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Time's Karen Tumulty has picked up on the protest by Ohio bloggers who have written posts in languages other than English today. The protest is a pushback against Cincinnati-area GOP State Rep. Bob Mecklenborg's bill that makes English the state's official language. Below is a sample of some of the participating blogs, and it's fun to try and guess the languages when you click on the list of links to see they've written:

Bad American
Blogesque
Bring Ohio Home
Buckeye State Blog
Glass City Jungle
Gloria Ferris
Ohio Daily Blog
Rowsey Blog
The Bellwether Daily
Writes Like She Talks

Throughout the day, the list has expanded . At last count, there were 17 Ohio blogs taking part in the the protest. Andthey all have cranked out content in languages other than English. There are posts in everything from Portuguese to Hungarian, Vietnamese and Dutch. If you want to see the English translations, click here. The protest was organized by Jill Miller Zimon, a Cleveland area blogger who authors Writes Like She Talks. (But I wonder if she can really speak Portuguese.)

English-Only Bill Clears Ohio House: Do Backers Believe Rush Limbaugh Could Be Forced To Broadcast In Spanish?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- There's something new that is scaring the mierda out of the English First crowd. On the same day the Ohio House debated and approved a measure that makes English the state's official language, supporters issued a press release warning that right wing radio talkers Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Dr. James Dobson "could be forced off the air" by the FCC. English First -- an organization pushing English as an official language -- has apparently tuned in to another gathering threat to the Mother Tongue: A movement for greater cultural diversity on the nation's airwaves. And this time, it's not over proposals to restore the Fairness Doctrine:

"The FCC's proposed regulations claim that radio station programming -- particularly network programming -- often is not sufficiently culturally diverse and that the FCC seeks to ensure that broadcasters serve their communities, especially underserved audiences, such as non-English speakers, whether or not these people actually exist."

Caramba (good grief!) The proposed boards are intended to include people of different colors, nationalities, religions, genders, ages, sexual orientations and political persuasions. In other words, they would largely reflect America as it is populated today. The advisory boards would be spread across the cultural spectrum. Somehow, the English First crowd equates being inclusive and diverse as a threat to Rush Limbaugh and other right wing broadcasters:

"These advisory boards should include representatives of all segments of the community, a requirement which would empower self-appointed community leaders, such as representatives of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) or the Center of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), to discourage commercial radio stations from airing discussions of controversial matters such as the costs of illegal immigration or the meaning of jihad."

English First has even set up a Web site called Keep Rush On The Air to try and put the brakes on those cultural diversity fiends at the FCC. Check out the site to see the picture of Limbaugh with duct tape across his mouth. So not only are the advocates who favor official English protecting the Mother Tongue, they are also . . . what, trying to slow the sales of duct tape?

Ohio Tells Foreign-Trained Physicians: To Serve Here, Speak English

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- Last November, a tavern owner in suburban Cincinnati caved to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and took down a sign the state agency declared unlawful. Tom Ullum's sign said, "For Service, Speak English" and he was accused of engaging in discriminatory practices at his Mason bar. Now the state itself is imposing a strict new English proficiency requirement -- foreign-trained physicians who want to practice in Ohio will have to pass a legally mandated examination.

Ohio is demanding a score of at least 26 in speaking and a score of 26 in listening on the TOEFL -- the Test of English as a Foreign Language. The average scores for those portions of the test among people seeking professional licenses is around 21. Ohio is demanding that doctors who aren't native speakers be able to communicate clearly to interact with patients in this state, an action that acknowledges that English is the dominant, if not official, language.

Ullum's case is here. The State Medical Board of Ohio's proposed regulation was introduced last week and the details are here. The medical board for years has said that doctors trained outside the U.S. working in Ohio had to know some English, but the new rule is required by HB119, the state budget bill adopted last May. The measure for the first time specifies by legislative action the minimum level of achievement required:

"Sec. 4731.142. (A) Except as provided in division (B) of this section, an individual must demonstrate proficiency in spoken English, by passing an examination specified by the state medical board, to receive a certificate to practice issued under section 4731.14 of the Revised Code if the individual's eligibility for the certificate is based in part on certification from the educational commission for foreign medical graduates and fulfillment of the undergraduate requirements established by section 4731.09 of the Revised Code at an institution outside the United States. The individual may demonstrate such proficiency by obtaining a score of forty or higher on the test of spoken English conducted by the educational testing service. The board shall adopt rules specifying an acceptable examination and establishing the minimum score that demonstrates proficiency in spoken English.

"(B) An individual is not required to demonstrate proficiency in spoken English in accordance with division (A) of this section if the individual was required to demonstrate such proficiency as a condition of certification from the educational commission for foreign medical graduates."

English As 'Official' Language: Must 'Ohio' Change Its Iroquois Name?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A linguist I know pointed out a possible unintended consequence of congressional efforts to establish English as the sole "official language" of the United States -- an awful lot of things are described with words borrowed from other tongues. And she wondered if a federal law applied too literally would lead to a great scrubbing and cleansing. The problem, she said, is that it is often difficult to discern where English starts and other languages stop. We are a nation of immigrants and the words we use every day are a melange. English is predominant, but there are plenty of other languages in the cultural Cuisinart.

Take the word ballot. The plan is to make all ballots appear in English. But the word ballot itself is from Italy, ballotta. This might be an extreme, but consider the possibility that ballot is banned. Or this: A health inspector goes out to check a pizzeria. What word appears on the health report, which as an official government document has to be written entirely in English?

Citizens who pledge allegiance would be people whose description, "citizen," originated in Middle English, a polyglot of Low German, Old English, French and Latin. Allegiance came from the same source, the polyglot spoken and written between 1100 and 1500 in portions of the British Isles.

Other examples abound, starting in Washington, D.C., which is located in the District of Columbia, which means of or related to Christopher Columbus, who sailed for the Spanish Crown but was an Italian. U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Oh-02, who is cosponsoring two official English measures, comes from Clermont County, Ohio. Clermont is French, and presumably might have to be retranslated into English to appear in legal records, deeds, and on government-issued maps.

Ohio has its roots in the Iroquoian language family that was spoken by the Native Americans from a confederation of nations that exercised domain over what are now western and northern New York, Ontario and Quebec.

The French explorers who traded with the Iroquois were seeking a passage to the Pacific, and the Indians told them of a great or beautiful river -- Ohio. The French translated it as belle riviere -- beautiful river. If English becomes official, does Ohio officially become Beautiful River? Would that be the true English name used for the state and its namesake waterway?

Toledo is named after a city in Spain and Detroit is French, meaning of the strait, a geographical reference to the Motor City's location on bank of the short waterway that links Lake Huron to Lake Erie. And what about Erie? That, too, is an Indian word, meaning either fox or wildcat.

All across the United States, there are seemingly endless examples of non-English words in everyday use. Florida (flowers) , Los Angeles, San Francisco are all Spanish. Cincinnati is Latin. All the Berlins -- and there are many --hail from German. Pulaski, Tenn., is named for a Polish nobleman who served in the Revolutionary War.

American currency and money is designated as dollars -- a word that originated in low German and Dutch. An American slang expresssion, bucks, could easily be substituted for dollars. But inquiring minds want to know: Is switching to English worth making change?