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African American English

The Ebonics issue
Phonology
Grammar
Vocabulary
Sources of AAE
Maps for AAE

The term African American English language (formerly referred to every bit 'African American Vernacular English' and much earlier as 'Black English language') refers to the varieties of English spoken by those people in the United States who stem from the original African population transported there. These speakers are currently distributed geographically across the entire country. Even so, the African Americans were originally settled in the south (from Texas in the West to the Carolinas in the East) where they were kept as slaves to provide a labour strength for the plantations of the whites in this region.

With the industrialisation of the The states in the terminal century a migration from s to north began leading to considerable numbers of African Americans settling in industrial centres, particularly of the north and north east. These latter speakers are severed from the historical cadre area of African American English and have frequently undergone developments not shared with the original speakers in the southward.

There are iii basic views on the origin of African American English.

1) Baby talk theory Now completely out-dated; African American English language is said to have developed from a simplified form of English used in advice with slaves, supposedly akin to language in early childhood.

ii) Creole hypothesis African American English is viewed hither every bit having adult out of the necessity of slaves from different linguistic backgrounds on the plantations of the southward to accept a course of basic communication, i.due east. an English-based pidgin, later a creole with native speakers).

three) Dialect origin view Also known as the segregation hypothesis. This sees African American English equally having developed from dialects of English cutting off from others hence contained features arose not shared by the input forms.

Phonological simplification The sounds of the English which formed the base for African American English language have been reduced, particularly the phonotactics take been affected with consonant clusters being simplified (desk > dess; master > massa, with r-dropping in syllable-terminal position).

Development of a system of aspect Verbs have ii basic modes: tense and aspect. The former is quite developed in Western European languages: the time axis for a verbal action is always explicitly expressed. But at that place is another every bit of import centrality for verbs: that of attribute. The latter refers to the manner in which an activeness is carried out or refers to the result of an activity or its relation to the present signal in fourth dimension. Typical aspectual distinctions are habitual : non-habitual, durative : non-durative, perfective : non-perfective. The get-go distinction is present in Standard English (compare the progressive forms of verbs). The second is expressed in African American English by an unstressed grade of the verb do: He does be in his role in the morning, i.east. He is in his role every morning for a certain length of time. The third distinction is i which is common in the Slavic languages: the action of a verb is stated as being completed or not. Indeed African American English language frequently distinguishes between an Firsthand Perfective (I done go = I have gone) and a Remote Perfective aspect (I been go = I had gone). Like aspectual distinctions are to be plant in other varieties of English such every bit Irish English language, however, the relation with African American English language is not established.

3) Movement towards an analytic structural type African American English betrays its pidgin origin in a number of means. One of these is the tendency to develop grammar to the analytic ideal of one-word-ane-morpheme. This principle holds for practically all pidgins (at least for the small number of combinations of bones lexeme + inflectional ending).

4) Elimination of redundancy The clearest example of this is to be constitute with verbs. In the present tense the -s ending of the 3rd person singular is eliminated, eastward.g. he likes > he like. Illustration may cause the -south to be generalised to the entire tense leading to forms like I likes, we likes. With the past tense of regular verbs the -ed ending is frequently deleted; the context ensures that no ambiguity arises (no defoliation with present tense forms without any ending).

Another example of the elimination of redundancy is the deletion of the copula (cf. sentences like He a squeamish daughter in which the lack of stardom between 'he' and 'she' is too to be seen). Note that copula deletion is common in other languages as well (in Russian for example).

5) Multiple negation A feature both of older English and many dialects including African American English language. Information technology refers to the apply of 2 (or more) negative particles to intensify a negation, e.one thousand. He don't know nothing. This feature is also called negative concur as there is a requirement that the tensed verb and the quantifier both concord, i.east. both occur in the negative grade in a negated sentence.

The view of an African American novelist

"The language, but the language... Information technology is the affair that black people love and so much – the saying of words, property them on the natural language, experimenting with them, playing with them. It'due south a love, a passion. Its function is like a preacher's: to make you stand upward out your seat, make you lose yourself and hear youserlf. The worst of all possible things that could happen is to lose that langauge. At that place are certain things I cannot say without recourse to my language."

(Toni Morrison)

The Ebonics issue

A term used in many discussions of the social and political position of African American English. The term is specifically connected with the debate, unleashed past a controversial determination past a schoolhouse board in Oakland, California in 1996, well-nigh whether African American English is so different from General American English to warrant teaching it as a separate language.

Ebonics is a word which combines 'ebony' and 'phonics', and was intended to describe the language of people of African ancestry, of Black Due north America, and West African people. Information technology emphasizes African roots and since 1996, it has been used to emphasize an independence from (standard) English language.

The initial use of Ebonics was by the psychologist Robert Williams in a dialogue with Ernie Smith in a briefing on 'Cognitive and Linguistic communication Development of the Black Child' in St. Louis in 1973. Two years later on the give-and-take appeared within the title and text of a book edited and co-written by Williams, Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks. Some writers stress how the term speaks for a view of the language of African Americans every bit African rather than European.

The term Ebonics did not announced within the 2nd edition of the Oxford English language Dictionary, published in 1989, and it was not used by linguists. The term was non pop among those who agreed with the reason for coining information technology. Information technology is niggling used even within the Ebonics book, in which 'Blackness English' is the far more familiar proper name.

The linguist John Baugh claims that the term Ebonics is used in different ways by its Afro-centric supporters, among which are references to English: 1 'is the equivalent of Black English and is considered to be a dialect of English," the other "is the antonym of black English and is considered to exist a language other than English'.

In 1996, the term became widely known in America from its utilise past the Oakland Schoolhouse Board to recognize the master language of many African American children attending school, and to help in the pedagogy of Standard English. Since then, Ebonics has become an alternative term for African American Vernacular English language, emphasizing its African roots and its independence from English.

From the linguistic signal of view, African American English is a neutral, contained multifariousness of English. Its social status has to do with attitudes in the United States. Some see it as a sign of slight education, which it most certainly is not. Others think it is an impoverished form of English, against a very false idea. Like all forms of linguistic communication, African American English has a logical internal structure and evolved in the communities of African Americans over the by few centuries. For many people today information technology is withal a carrier of their linguistic identity.

Some African Americans have internalised negative social views of their variety of English every bit can be seen with the following well-meaning but misguided publication aimed at "correcting" salient features of this variety.

Other publications and sources showroom a pride and consciousness of African American English every bit a rich source of unique language which deserves its rightful place in school didactics.

Main linguistic features of African American English

I Phonology

1) Non-rhotic (syllable-terminal /r/ is not pronounced)
machine [ka:], party [pa:ti]

2) Frequent deletion of final /50/, specially after labials or give-and-take-finally with auxiliaries
help [hep], he'll be home [how-do-you-do bi ho:m]

3) Reduction of give-and-take-final clusters
test [tes], desk [des]
looked [luk], talked [tɔ:k]

four) Fortition (hardening) of initial /ð/ to either [ḏ] (dental stop) or [d] (alveolar stop)
this [ḏɪs], in that location [ḏɛ:]

5) In word-final position /θ/ is oft shifted to [f] (also found in Cockney English). This shift is also found for /ð/ (> [v]) in word-internal position.
bath [ba:f], teeth [ti:f].
brother [brʌvə]

6) Velar nasal shifted to alveolar point of articulation (very common in dialects of English language)
She'southward comin' tomorrow

vii) The distinction between short /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ is often lost before nasals as it is southern white American English (and other forms of English language). The neutralisation is to the raised vowel [ɪ].
pen, pin [pɪn]; ten, tin [tɪn]

8) Glide reduction, a general characteristic of southern white American English, is besides typical of AAE (along with many other varieties of English, such as those in S Africa). Information technology applies to both /ai/ and /au/ with the slight retraction of the onset of the second diphthong maintaining the stardom between the ii phonemes.
wife [wa:f], time [ta:thou]
house [hɑ:s], loud [lɑ:d]

ix) Strong initial stress is often constitute with words of 2 syllables
police [ˡpo:lis], define [ˡdi:fain]

II Morphology and syntax

one) Multiple negation is common (as it is in many non-standard varieties of English it serves the purpose of intensifying a negation and not of neutralising one). This type of negation is as well termed 'negative concord' considering polarity particles must agree with each other, i.e. all be in the positive or all be in the negative.
I ain't goin' to give nothin' to nobody.

ii) Existential at that place is replaced by it
It ain't no football game pitch at schoolhouse.

three) Plurals are non marked if preceded by numerals.
He here for 3 year at present.

four) The genitive is not necessarily marked with /southward/ (as position is sufficient to indicate this category)
I drove my brother auto.

5) A formal stardom is frequently made between second person atypical and plural. This is realised by y'all [ju:] in the singular and y'all [jɒ:l] (derived from you + all). AAE shares this feature with southern white American English. The distinction in question is found in many dialects of English, e.g. with you # ye, y'all # youse or you lot # yez where ye is the archaic 2d person plural pronoun and yez is a doubly marked plural form.
Y'all have to leave now. 'All of you have to get out now.'

Notation: 3) and 4) are examples of the elimination of back-up as the grammatical categories intended are obvious from the combinations of words and their club in the respective sentences.

II.i Verbal syntax

i) Third person singular -s is omitted.
She like my brother.

ii) Deletion of copula. Every bit in Russian, the copula is not required in so-called equative sentences, i.e. those of the class Ten = Y.
She a teacher. They workers in the factory.

3) Come up has been grammaticalised as a type of auxiliary. This is ofttimes referred to in the literature as 'indignant' come because it contains a connotation of disapproval.
He come up tellin' me some story. 'He told me some fake story.'

iv) Like to has often the meaning of 'virtually'.
She similar to fell out the window. 'She almost roughshod out of the window.'

five) Base subject relative clauses are institute in AAE though not in standard English. Even so, such structures practise occur in other forms of English language, e.g. popular London English.
He the man (who) got all the quondam records. (AAE and London English)
He'south the man she talked to.

half dozen) AAE in common with southern white English in the United States can accept two modals within the same verb phrase. This is probably an inherited feature from Scots-derived dialects originally brought to the United States in the 18th century which so diffused into the language of the African-American population.
He might could do the work.
She may tin practice the work.

7) The numbers of forms of verbs is reduced vis à vis standard English language. Typically in the past there is 1 form, based either on the simple past or the past participle. While reduction of verb forms is common in creoles it is besides widespread in dialects of English, such as those from Ireland which had an influence on AAE in its early on days (both in the Caribbean and in the southern United states).
I take already ate.
Bruce have drunk chocolate milk before.

II.2 Aspect

This is a grammatical category which determines the internal construction of a temporal event. In a manner it is a refinement of tense (see above). Whereas tense only says whether an event is located in the past, nowadays or future, attribute specifies how it occurred or how its occurrence was viewed by the speaker, by indicating whether an action has merely started (inchoative), just ended (terminative), continued over a catamenia of time (progressive), took place repeatedly (iterative), took place repeatedly for a certain length of time (durative), was not terminated (imperfective) or was indeed finished (perfective), to mention some of the more than common aspectual types.

i) Uninflected be functions as a marker of the habitual aspect
They exist out on the street at dark. 'They are ever out on the street at night.'

two) An iterative aspect is expressed by means of steady which can occur in final position.
They steady rappin' outside our business firm. 'They are always talking outside our house.'
They high steady. 'They are always loftier on drugs.'

three) A stressed of been occurs to indicate the remote by
I ˡbeen travel to New York. 'I travelled to New York a long fourth dimension agone.'
Jodie, she ˡbeen marry to Chuck. 'Jodie married Chuck a long fourth dimension ago.'

four) An intentional aspect is found with the particle a which precedes the verb grade.
I'1000 a bulldoze to town. 'I'yard about to drive to town.'
I'm a gonna meet her. 'I'm about to meet her.'

5) The unstressed by participle form of do, done [dʌn], is used to signal an action which has just occurred. This is similar to the immediate perfective found in other varieties of English language and realised in different ways, cf. Irish English I'm after breaking the drinking glass 'I have only broken the glass'.
The mirror done broke. 'The mirror has just broken.'
The melt done cooked the food. 'The cook has merely/already cooked the food.'

Iii Vocabulary

ane) Some vocabulary items are clearly of West African origin, such as buckra 'white man', tote to carry. Fifty-fifty more obvious are terms referring to food also found in African, e.g. goober 'peanut', yam 'sweetness white potato'.

two) Many semantic extensions of existing English words are also to be found such as homies for shut friends (often those with whom 1 shared a spell in prison), bloods for other blacks, whities for white people, rednecks for poor southern whites. Some of these terms appear to have some sound symbolism such every bit honkey for a white person, though this is difficult to quantify.

IV Varieties of AAE

1) There are considerable register differences within present-day AAE. Slang terms are fairly full general, such as bad for 'good, admirable', cool for 'good, peachy', hip 'knowledgeable', dude 'male person' (often disparaging). Some of these terms have diffused into general American English and from there to other languages, e.g. the word cool.

2) In-grouping language is feature of black street gangs in the major cities of the United States (such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago). Here as elsewhere in AAE the pragmatics of discourse is quite different from that of white Americans. Exact insulting tin take on ritual forms and a volatile, rhythmic eloquence is known as rappin'.

Obligatory and variable rules

The dominion which deletes the ending of regular verbs in the past, cf. looked [luk], is obligatory whereas that which leads to the reduction of clusters within a single word, cf. desk [des], is variable, i.e. information technology does not always occur for all words which could possibly undergo this reduction.

Sources of AAE

This set of varieties tin be traced back to forms of English which adult in the 17th century in the Caribbean area. The reason for English existing in this surface area to brainstorm with is that the slave trade was initiated by European powers, notably Spain and England, in the 16th century. This trade consisted of taking native Africans from the region of Due west Africa slaves and transporting them to the islands of the Caribbean where they worked on the plantations of the European powers. Later, with crowding on smaller Caribbean area islands such equally Barbados and Montserrat, blackness slaves were moved to the southern coast of the present-twenty-four hours United States and put to work on tobacco and cotton plantations. These celebrated facts supports the linguistic supposition that the native Africans start developed a pidgin in West Africa (as they were mixed with members of unlike tribes to preclude plotting) and and so when moved to the Caribbean the post-obit generations adult this make-shift language into a fully-fledged ane, a creole based on fragments of English and dramatically re-structures with constructions not found in the input varieties of English.

The second major hypothesis concerning AAE is that its specific features arose due to contact with dialects of English language which had been transported to the southern United States by white settlers and which connected to develop in isolation in this region for a couple of centuries. While it is undeniable that AAE has developed features of its ain, the structural similarities with Caribbean area creoles (copula deletion, aspectual distinctions such as the habitual) point towards an origin as a creole which has undergone varying degrees of decreolisation (approximation to more standard varieties of English surrounding it, in this case American English language).

The exact status of structural characteristics in AAE is much debated. For instance, the habitual aspect is a prominent feature of Caribbean creoles but also found in many W Atlantic languages which provided the substrate input to early forms of English language in the Caribbean area. Thus habitual attribute may not so much be an indication of creolisation as an inherited features from African languages. Against this one can point out that other creoles - those in the Pacific region, for example - also prove habitual aspect so that this characteristic may exist prototypical for creoles.

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