Term
| African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) |
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Definition
| name for the variety of English that has also been called Black English and Ebonics. Not all Africans speak it; people who grow up in areas that are majority African-American can learn it too. AAVE is not a monolith-there are regional varieties |
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Term
| 2 theories about the origins of AAVE |
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Definition
| dialectologist and creole hypotheses. But since the 1980s, there seems to be a synthesis, a middle way between the two emerging. |
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Term
| Dialectologist Hypothesis |
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Definition
| says that AAVE is a carryover from settlers from Britain. This approach is tantamount to claiming that there are no differences between the speech of African-Americans and the speech of the SAE speakers of the region. (Today this theory is largely abandoned by researchers) |
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Term
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Definition
| The match between expressions and the way they are used by SAE speakers and African Americans is not exact (she come acting like she was real mad vs. she came running; different meanings) |
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Term
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Definition
| AAVE comes from a West African pidgin, which was brought to the New World along with Wolof. As children were born and raised on plantations, a creole developed. During slavery more people were brought from Africa, and African languages, pidgin English, plantation creole English, and Standard English were all in competition. As a result of frequent contact, the creole gradually become decreolized (more like the standard form). IT IS THIS DECREOLIZED LANGUAGE THAT IS THOUGHT TO BE THE BASE FOR AAVE. |
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Term
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Definition
| an African language used as a lingua franca in West Africa, brought to the New World with slaves and competed with the West African pidgin |
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Term
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Definition
| a variety of AAVE spoken on the coastal islands of South Carolina and Georgia. Given the isolation of the islands, the language spoken by their inhabitants has remained very conservative. Lots of similarities between Gullah and West African languages (a variety of AAVE that has decreolized a lot less). West African influence on Gullah's phonology and semantics (lots of words from West African languages). |
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Term
| Grammtical features of AAVE that show it is an African-based creole |
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Definition
1. repetition of subject,
2. do questions,
3. same form for singular and plural, 4. no tense on verb,
5. verb not inflected for person, done to indicate completion.
(These similarities to other creoles and to West African languages led the creolists to say that AAVE had creole origins) |
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Term
| New evidence to the origins of AAVE debate |
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Definition
| it appears that AAVE may not have developed from a creole in the US, but that it may have been imported by the many slaves brought to the US from Jamaica and other areas where Atlantic creoles were spoken. (substantial similarities with Atlantic creoles) |
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Term
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Definition
| Features of AAVE that have appeared relatively recently that are clearly distinct from SAE (Standard American English): be done (resultative), -s (narrative present, be V-ing (habitual). Reasons for divergence: effective conditions of segregation, socioeconomic disparity, which leads to the formation of a specific African-American identity that is then reflected in a separate linguistic variety. |
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Term
| AAVE is best considered... |
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Definition
| a dialect of English because it is mutually intelligible with SAE. However, an African influence is probable, if not certain. (This does not mean AAVE is somehow "inferior" to SAE) |
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Term
| Phonological rules for AAVE |
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Definition
| No consonant pairs (jus for just, men for mend), few diphthongs, no "r" in middle or final position (mow for more), "th" becomes a "d" sound in initial position (dem for them) and "th" becomes an "f" sound in the final position (souf for south). |
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Term
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Definition
| an optional way of describing whether the action of the verb is continuing or completed (the clearest grammatical evidence that AAVE is a system following its own rules) |
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Term
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Definition
| in AAVE, aspect is obligatory and tense is optional. The absence of "be" (known as zero copula) shows that we're talking about the present, about right now. |
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Term
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Definition
| The absence of the copular verb "be" |
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Term
| Aspect: Completive "Been" |
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Definition
| "Been" indicates recently completed action, and works something like Standard English's "have/has/had been." It can also be used for emphasis |
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Term
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Definition
| "Done" alone indicates recently competed action. When used with other verbs, "done" focuses on the recentness of the action (I done finish my homework -> I finished it today). So "done" works a little like SE's "have/has." |
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Term
| Summary of Differences between AAVE and SAE |
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Definition
| 1. AAVE is a dialect of English with its own set of phonological and syntactic rules that are similar to the rules of other dialects. 2. It shares features with the southern dialect and AAVE in turn has affected the dialects of the South where there has been contact. 3. It has a distinctive aspect system, which makes it different from other dialects of English. |
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Term
| Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School case in Ann Arbor, Michigan |
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Definition
| African American students weren't doing well, were labeled as learning disabled and mentally retarded as a result of the use of culturally and linguistically biased tests and evaluations. Judge ruled they needed evidence that it was a linguistic question, so linguists testified and proved that AAVE was a widely spoken variety. They also explained the difference between home and school languages. Judge ruled for the plaintiffs, board of education had to draw up a plan to fix the situation. |
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Term
| Oakland School Board Controversy |
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Definition
| School board tried to recognize Ebonics as the home language of many of its students, in order to remedy the declining achievement among African American students by treating AAVE speakers as bilingual students. US Department of Education shot it down, (declared Ebonics was a dialect) as it was concerned Oakland would want more bilingual education funds. |
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