Black on White: African American Vernacular English

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Black on White African American Vernacular
English

• What is it?
• What is its origin?
• Why are debates about it significant?

2
Background

• African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is
  the variety of English formerly known as Black
  English Vernacular or Vernacular Black English
  among sociolinguists, and commonly called Ebonics
  outside the academic community.

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AAVE can be described by a number of different
features

• Phonological
• Reduction of final consonant clusters when
  followed by a word beginning with a vowel
• lifup for lift up
• But not
• thing today for think today
• Note also that nearly all dialect speakers say
  things like Im goin to the store.

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• Grammatical
• Present tense/3rd person absence
• he walk for he walks
• she raise for she raises

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• 2. Plural absence on general plural (but not
  plurals for weights and measures)
• four girl for four girls
• some dog for some dogs
• But not
• four cup for four cups

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• 3. Remote time been (something that happened a
  long time ago and is still relevant)
• You been paid your dues.
• I been known him for a long time
• But not
• You been gone to school today.

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• Possessive s absence
• man hat for mans hat
• Jack car for Jacks car

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• Copula (verb be) deletion
• She nice for Shes nice
• He in the kitchen for Hes in the kitchen
• You ugly for You ugly.

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• 6. Use of habitual be
• Sometimes my ears be itching.
• She dont be usually be there

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Vocabulary

• Food words with African origins
• banana  (Mandingo)yam  (Mandingo)okra
   (Akan)gumbo  (Western Bantu)

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Vocabulary

• Adjectives
• bogus  'fake/fraudulent' cf. Hausa boko, or
  boko-boko 'deceit, fraud'.
• hep, hip  'well informed, up-to-date' cf. Wolof
  hepi, hipi 'to open one's eyes, be aware of what
  is going on'.

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• cat  'a friend, a fellow, etc.' cf. Wolof -kat (a
  suffix denoting a person) cool  'calm,
  controlled' cf. Mandingo suma 'slow' (literally
  'cool')
• dig  'to understand, appreciate, pay attention'
  cf. Wolof deg, dega 'to understand, appreciate'

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• bad  'really good'
• In West African languages and Caribbean creoles
• a word meaning 'bad' is often used to mean 'good'
  
• or 'alot/intense'. For instance, in Guyanese
  Creole
• mi laik am bad, yu noo means 'I like him a lot'.
• Dalby mentions Mandingo (Bambara) a nyinata
• jaw-ke 'She's very pretty.' (literally 'She is
  beautiful
• bad.') cf. also Krio ( a creole language spoken
  in
• West Africa) mi gud baad.

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What is its origin?

• 1. Dialectologists view
• AAVE is a variety of English that has its roots
  in the varieties of English spoken in the British
  Isles, just like any other variety of English

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Dialectologists (Anglicist) View

• African Languages
• Earlier English------------------------Pidgin
• 
  
• 
  Creole
• 
  
• Modern Non-standard
  Gullah/Jamaican
• Standard Varieties
• English (including AAVE)

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• Creolist View
• AAVE developed out of a Creole language used
  during the times of slavery. This language can
  be traced back to various West African Languages
  of the slaves who were brought to the New World.

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Creolist View

• African Languages
• Earlier English------------------------------Pidgi
  n
• 
  
• 
  Creole
• 
  
• Modern Non-standard
  Gullah/Jamaican/AAVE
• Standard Varieties
• English

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Which view do you believe?

• What evidence can you provide in support of your
  view?

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Exercise

• Read Ebonics Slang No Substitute for Standard
  English by Michael King
• What is the main point he is making?
• What points do you agree with? Why?
• What points do you disagree with? Why?

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Why are Debates about it significant?

1. Is AAVE systematic and rule-governed just like
   all languages are?
2. Can an understanding an appreciation of AAVE help
   students whose home language is AAVE acquire
   standard American English?