Smitherman's 'Talkin': It Bees Dat Way Sometimes

"Of course, the real distinctiveness — and beauty —in the black sound system lies in those features which do not so readily lend themselves to concrete documentation —it’s speech rhythms, voice inflections, and tonal patterns.”

Upon reading Geneva Smitherman’s, excerpt of Talkin’ & Testifyin’: “It Bees Dat Way Sometimes”, my heart swelled with reminiscence. Often times, Africanized dialect presented in texts are archaic and far removed from present African American English Vernacular. However, I found myself remarkably enthusiastic to read the examples of African American dialect that Genevea Smitherman provided in Talkin’ & Testifyin’. In fact, the examples were all too familiar, as they were phrases and sounds that my family and I verbalized