Obama's Blaccent

Sarah Jones is a Tony Award-winning playwright and performer. Her shows, like "Bridge and Tunnel" feature multiple characters - black, white and other races and ethnicities - all played by Jones herself. So she thinks about nuances in language and voice a lot.

Last year, while listening to Barack Obama's campaign for change, Jones noticed Obama's speech change. His voice was different depending on the audience. A question occurred to Sarah Jones: now that we have our first African-American president, what exactly does it mean to sound black?

She spoke with linguist John McWhorter, author of Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English, which comes out in paperback later this month. The piece was produced by Studio 360’s Derek John and you can listen to it here.

(Photo by Joshua Wanyama via Flickr/Creative Commons)