To be honest, I was a little disturbed by the commentary on the internet when researching the word “finna.” What I found online was that it is used majority by African Americans and much of the forums I read were making racist remarks about the African American community and their usage of this word. I was shocked that people in the linguistic community made these remarks. However, I was able to find some insightful data, commentary, and analysis online as well. The data I found was useful and helpful to the subject because it provided historic and modern examples of "finna's" usage. 

In the common day, “finna” is widely used amongst Generation Z. Every race has people who use the word “finna,” but it is particularly prevalent in city-like and urban atmospheres the most. Moreover, the word “finna” is not seen to be a formal word. The word is used amongst friends particularly and in informal settings. For example, one would not say “finna” in a job interview or to their professor. Obviously, in comparison to “going to,” “finna” is significantly less popular, but amongst younger generations, it is almost widely understood. 

“Finna” has been used by generations of English speakers. 

Some people claim the origins are from Southern American English.  According to dictionary.com, “finna” means “getting ready to (1700s),” “to intend,” “arrange,” or “make preparations.” By the 1800s, “finna” began to mean “preparing to,” “going to,” “intending to,” or “getting ready to.” These phrases are still what “finna” means today. In the 1980s “finna” began to become popularized in African American English. Many claim that the modern usage of “finna” is derived from Southern English. The word is also pronounced “finta” and “fitna.” It is especially important to respect the usage of the word “finna” as it has become a part of African American vernacular over the past 40 years. Although the data highlights that “finna” is particularly prevalent among the African American population, it is important to note that all types of people use the word as well. 

In my own personal life, I use either “going to” or “gunna” more often than “finna.” While I do use “finna” on occasion, and hear it often when talking to my friends, it has not become a prevalent part of my vocabulary. I think part of this has to do with the fact that I am not too interested in pop culture where “finna” is often used.  

In class, we talked about the different types of linguistic variables. The different variables fell into different categories like Semantic/ Lexical/Vocabulary Based, Grammatical/Syntactic/Morphological, and Phonological/Phonetic/Pronunciation Based. I believe that finna would fall best under the lexical category because it has more to do with a person’s personal vocabulary. However, I would also understand if someone put it into the syntactic category because it has to do with formulating sentences. 

For my third Padlet, I have decided to analyze how food trucks around NYU decide to use language to advertise their food. Specifically, I will be looking at the Mexican food truck and the Chinese food truck outside of the Stern building, Sidewalk Tacos and Fafu, respectively. I and many other NYU students see these food trucks everyday. I have been able to eat at both trucks as well and get an experience for their cuisines and cultures. 

Fortunately, I have been able to discuss the authenticity of the foods and the trucks with people from China and Mexico. From my conversations with my Mexican friend, he told me that the food truck was “pretty good” and the food was relatively authentic. The same friend also took me to an authentic Mexican restaurant where I was able to see how the two foods compared. Overall, they were pretty similar I would say. On the other hand, when speaking to my friend from China he said that the food truck was not authentic. 

What is unique about New York City is that advertisers are attempting to gain the business of people from many different races and cultures. The two food trucks likely understand that many NYU students from all over the world are interested in eating their food so they make their word choice, menu, and design very clear, so that regardless of background, people can easily order from their trucks. 

First, the Mexican food truck features their large logo that says “Sidewalk Tacos” on all sides of their truck. While maybe not everyone in New York knows the word “sidewalk,” “taco” is almost a universally understood word. In this way, the truck is able to easily grab the attention of people from all different walks of life, targeting all types of people. Additionally, the menu is also very easy to understand. The truck places images next to food items so that people not so familiar with Mexican cuisine can understand what food is available. I did not think of that much before, but associating images with words can be very helpful. The Chinese truck uses very similar tactics. They also put large vivid photos next to the menu words to help people who may not be familiar with their cuisine. Additionally, the food truck says “traditional Chinese cuisine” on it. While the words “traditional” and “cuisine” may not be understood by everyone around NYU, the word “Chinese” is almost universally known. The words “tacos” and “Chinese” are selected by the advertisers because they are commonly known buzz words for people across all cultures. I chose this data in particular because thousands of people see the trucks, their logos, and their word choice a day and are intrigued by it. 

One thing I also noticed was that the people running the trucks speak Spanish and Chinese. This makes it so that people of those groups feel a sense of community when visiting the trucks. On both occasions of eating at the trucks I heard people speaking Spanish and Mandarin. 

The use of the words “Chinese” and “taco” reminded me of the concepts in Kachru’s Concentric Circle we reviewed in recitation. While there are different degrees to which countries understand and use English, there are some words which are widely understood like “Chinese” and “taco.” So these words fall into all the circles we looked at. Also, this observation highlights that regional differentiation does not necessarily  include common words regarding culture. Physical, linguistic, social and linguistic isolation do not seem to impact words like “taco” and “chinese.” We also discussed in class about vocabulary-based linguistic variables. My roommate and I further discussed linguistic variables and came up with the thought that words like “taco” and “Chinese” are too common to have various ways of saying them. This is a question that I look forward to studying further.  

This Padlet was particularly interesting to me because it made me understand the linguistics behind advertising and other business decisions. 

The first example I have of someone saying Harvard with an r drop is in the popular television show Family Guy. Family guy is a particularly satirical show and in the episode in which the main character, Peter, goes to Harvard he pronounces the school's name like “Haavuhd” to fit in and sounds smarter. Obviously, the show's producers make him pronounce Harvard like that to poke fun at the upper class for r dropping. Later Peter goes on to say “I am at Haavuhd, the smartest school in the country.” Family Guy is an extremely popular and comedic show and the producers of the show often make fun of the upper class. This addresses the associations with pronouncing Harvard like this and r dropping. In the show, Peter is a middle-class man but he adopts r dropping to seem more sophisticated and well off. Although the show is not very serious it addresses the very important political and linguistic phenomenon of r-dropping. The show did a great job of showing how Peter tried to sound smarter by r dropping. I also chose this example because Family Guy is a very popular show so their opinions on r dropping are likely widespread. 

Interestingly enough when I watched youtube videos of current Harvard students saying Harvard they pronounced it with the rs. I believe this is because of the negative association with r dropping. Nowadays, people think that when people drop their rs they are doing it to sound sophisticated, smart, and wealthy. Obviously, Harvard students do not want other people to think of them like that so they properly say their rs. I feel as though there is a lot of negative association with r dropping in 2022. Especially, as economic and social gaps continue to expand, I think it is extremely important for all groups to have similar ways of speaking to mitigate division amongst classes. It's almost as though r dropping is inappropriate in the common day. In the videos I watched, Harvard students clearly pronounced their rs. 

In my own life, I have heard this happening as well. Last year, when we were applying to colleges I often heard people mock Harvard by r dropping. People did this because the school is associated with so much prestige it is almost funny. In the modern day, when people r drop when saying “Harvard” it is mostly satire and to make fun of the elitism associated with the school. 

However, the tendency to make fun of people for r dropping may show some social progression. It reveals how trying to copy the dialects of people other people in higher social groups is embarrassing. An idea of covert prestige is that a higher group adopts a certain dialect that they use, and that dialect is often adopted by others. In Labov’s case, we learned that r dropping was also a way to discriminate and separate groups. It is good that popular media and the younger generation are almost shaming r dropping so that there is more equality amongst dialects. 

An example where an emoji was used in a directive way was when my roommate sent me the emoji with a person putting a finger over their mouth to indicate “be quiet.” This would go under the directive category because he was telling me to be quiet. I found this to actually be a really successful use of the emoji because it made it seem like he was saying it in a friendly manner instead of being mean about it. When he could have just said “be quiet” he used the emoji to be a little friendlier. To me, this showed that he was trying to be kind but still commanding me to do something. I think emojis can be really useful when trying to tell people what to do in a kind way. 

When my mom was texting me a few days ago she sent me the heart emoji which is an example of an emoji being used in an expressive way. Instead of my mom typing “I love you” she decided to use the emoji. I found the emoji to convey her love better because it gave an image/symbol of her love. She also made the heart blue which is my favorite color. The thought behind picking the emoji she did expresses her love and dedication to her message. 

I chose the data I did because they were all examples of the ways in which emojis can be functions of language. Also, I chose the data I did because I feel as though many other people may have received or sent similar emojis. 

I feel as though emojis are almost art nowadays. They show way more thought and dedication than simply writing messages to people. While doing this assignment I started to think about whether emojis fall into the standard language. I could not come up with a definitive answer but I had reasons for both sides. On one hand, high-level people and the societal elite use emojis, so this would support that it is part of the standard language. On the other hand, emojis are viewed as informal, so, therefore, it would not be a part of the standard language.  

I found it really interesting the public reaction to her use of AAVE. From what I took away from various articles was that most people do not think that Awkwafina is racist, but rather the people who pointed her out felt the need to point out that what she was doing is wrong. Although Awkwafina herself is a minority her and the rest of the public agree that Black struggle in America is different than Asian struggle. 

I found Awkwafina’s apology to be genuine. I felt that she had reflected on the way she spoke and that it was inappropriate. Although Awkwafina had no derogatory intent, when she was speaking in AAVE it seems as though she knew she was appropriating black culture. Overall, I found that she handled the situation well. She took time to reflect, almost 2 years, and had discussions with members of the Black community on why what she did was harmful and how she could improve. 

Throughout the course, cases like these have been really interesting. I feel in the modern-day language interacts with race and gender significantly. This course has taught me how you speak can tell a lot about you - your morals, where you come from, your awareness of social issues, and so on. Moreover, I found that language is a huge part of people’s identities and not something to take lighty.