Back Off - "Let's Conversate for a Few"

This introduces a new opinion column to the Hiphop Archive Newsletter from the director, Marcyliena Morgan. The purpose is to critique events and issues directly related to Hiphop and youth. We will invite occasional guest columnists to weigh in as well. Our hope is that these columns increase discussion and spur action about issues and ideas that affect our lives and communities.

"Let's Conversate for a Few"

This past year there were many direct and indirect attacks on Hiphop. As a linguist, and an educator, and someone who grew up in the Black community on the South side of Chicago, I am particularly irritated with those people out there who keep insisting that conversate is not a word. Focus people! Don't get twisted by the culture wars!

Biggie Smalls (Notorious B.I.G) delivered one of the most unforgettable hiphop lyrics of all time in 1994 when he explained how smooth he was when he met women at ‘the club.' He describes seeing a woman that everyone keeps trying to meet and then shows how it should be done with his ‘unique' pick-up line: "Let's conversate for a few/ cause in a few/ we gon' do/ what we came to do/ ain't the right, boo?" And she says, "True." - (In his dreams! Does that work? Is it really that easy?) No matter, I still smile when I hear those lyrics and I smile when I write them. But Biggie was not the first person to use the word conversate. He did not think up or create it. It was already circulating in the African American community, and he used it beautifully.

I first heard conversate used repeatedly when I lived in LA in the late 80s and early 90s. I actually recorded its use on the Ricky Lake show in 1992. That same year I heard it used on the Jerry Springer Show when his guests from an anonymous Trailer Park started sharing their wild stories. It was then that I suspected that conversate was probably going to last a long time. I wanted to study it and write stimulating articles on the grammaticalization in the African American community that was taking over general English. My colleagues, who weren't having any of it, shunned me! ("Black kids are not changing the grammar of the language.") Then in 1994 Biggie Smalls mellifluously delivered his rap and everyone knew then what they should have known (If you don't know, now you know) - the verb conversate was in usage and it referred to serious talk!

Imagine my amusement in 2010 when watching the reality television show Judge Judy and a white sorority girl, who was suing her sorority sister for spilling beer onto her laptop, answered Judge Judy's question of what was she doing when the spill occurred. She said: "I was conversating with my friends when it happened." To that Judge Judy screamed: "What!? What did you say!?" The innocent sorority girl said meekly "talked?" Later Judge Judy said (actually seethed), "I heard you say conversate!" She looked at the young lady with disgust and yelled: "Stay in school! Learn something! CONVERSATE IS NOT A WORD!"

Why does it matter? The main point about conversate is that there is nothing unusual about it. If it isn't an accepted word it could be or was or maybe even should be. There is a reason it won't go away. It fits into our grammatical system and rules. We have procrastination/procrastinate; illustration/illustrate etc. The noun conversation does not follow this pattern and is paired with the verb converse instead of conversate. Conversate is logical, but it's not accepted. It is probably seeping into general discourse because Americans generally say talk instead of converse. We say, "I talked to her." We seldom say, "I conversed with her." We say: "Can I talk to you?" We don't say: "Can I converse with you?" It is bewildering to say conversate is not a word when it follows all the rules. The real issue is much more complicated.

Americans, in general, don't like to admit that we judge people by their grammar. The British don't expect everyone to talk the same, but we do. In general the British believe that dialects reflect differences in region, social class and privilege. We believe that everyone should be the same, social class does not matter and that dialect differences are choices people make and people are choosing to be different. We act as though everyone in life has the same chance and opportunity. So when people use language that is not accepted as standard, we lose our collective minds. The problem is that not only is conversate considered dialect usage, it came into widespread usage with the help of African American speakers. Just to break it down once again. Noun: conversation; - if I create a verb using Basic English rules I end up with conversate. The process is called back formation. It is natural and predictable. It may be that we say converse so infrequently that some of us don't even know it is an option and just say talk instead. But we do use conversation and if we follow the basic word formation rules of English it could be Conversation/conversate - but for now it's not and if certain grammar fanatics have their way it will never happen. It is not accepted as educated speech. But it is creative.

One final note. If we take a close look at when an unaccepted use of a word seems to make people cringe, it seems to be associated with verbs and predication. Predication is how we say something about something. It is not just that the predicate ties a sentence or idea together. It is something that we need to hear. We focus on it and are listening for it. People don't shout "Not a Word!" when people say wack to mean bad or bad to mean good. But mispronounce the past tense of ask and a bolt of lightning suddenly comes out of the sky and strikes you down! Nouns name, adjectives describe and predicates focus on ideas, the mind, what is meant, etc. It is power. And how dare young people, especially young people of color introduce these powerful verbs into the language and refuse to let them go?

The reason you don't tell young children conversate is not a word is because they are learning the rules of the language and they know them. They don't know that some of us resist change, especially when it comes from Hiphop. What we must explain is why it's not acceptable. Maybe it will eventually enjoy general usage. Until that happens we should just be accurate. Imagine the dictionary etymology that must include: [Conversate: late 20c. from back formation of American conversation "to participate in verbal interaction" e.g. Biggie Smalls (Notorious B.I.G. 1994) "Let's conversate for a few/ cause in a few/ we gon' do/ what we came to do/ ain't the right, boo?" As a verb since 1990s] - "If you don't know, now you know."

Professor Marcyliena Morgan

Director, Hiphop Archive