African American Vernacular English
Venla Jokinen, Fall 2008
FAST-US-1 (TRENPK2) Introduction to American English (Hopkins)
The FAST Area Studies Program
Department of Translation Studies, University of Tampere

African American Vernacular1 English [AAVE] is a variant of English spoken mostly by black people in the United States. But while it is called African American Vernacular English, the language cannot be defined racially because not all black Americans speak this variety of English. There are also people who are not black Americans but may still speak it, sometimes even natively (Patrick). And then again, some people use only some features of this variant, for example vocabulary, so it is difficult to define who actually speaks it (Sidnell).

About the Labels

There are several labels by which African American Vernacular English is known. During the period when African Americans were generally called Negroes, terms such as Negro Dialect, Nonstandard Negro English, Negro English, and American Negro speech could be heard. Nowadays Afro American English, African American English (AAE), African American Language, and African American Vernacular English (AAVE)2 are used. There are also several names with the word ‘black’ contained in them that can be heard: Black communications, Black dialect, Black folk speech, Black street speech, Black English (fairly common), Black English Vernacular, and Black Vernacular English.

There is also the term ‘Ebonics,’ which was created by Robert Williams, but he intended it to cover also many languages spoken by black people outside the United States. Even so, it is widely used even by scholars to refer to AAVE (Green 5-8).

The Origins of AAVE

Because of the history of slavery and racial issues, AAVE has been and is still a politically sensitive subject in the United States (Wolfram and Torbert). There are two theories on how AAVE came into existence: the dialect hypothesis and the creole hypothesis. According to the dialect hypothesis, slaves learned English “wrong” when they arrived to the new world and this “bad English” was passed on. The creole hypothesis claims that in the mouths of the slaves, English was mixed with many West African languages to create a pidgin3 which was then learned as a first language by the next generations. Thus, it became a creole which has again gone through the process of decreolization and begun to sound more like Standard English (McLucas).

Vocabulary

Green suggests that the AAVE vocabulary can be divided into two categories: words and phrases that are used by all age groups and words, and phrases that are used by a certain age group. The use of certain words and phrases also naturally varies between different regions (13). Slang words are usually introduced to AAVE through hip-hop culture and are characteristically short lived (27). In addition, there are some terms that have both the Standard American English meaning and an African American English meaning. For example, the word kitchen in AAVE is not only the room you cook in, but also the hair at the nape of the neck (19- 20).

Here are some examples of AAVE vocabulary collected from Green (15-30):

balla a man with money and material posessions
bopper / chickenhead a woman who is interested in gaining material things
bounce / push off / murk leave
funeralize to conduct funeral services
get over take advantage, to succeed by using wit but little effort
krunk exciting
saddity a bourgeois, snobbish, and pretentious black person
ting an' ting exactly alike
yard axe preacher of little ability
He didn't pay me no mind.He didn't pay me any attention.

The Grammar of AAVE

Verbs

AAVE speakers leave out the verbs is and are, indicating present states and actions.

He tall. - “He is tall.”
They running. - “They are running.”

For habitual aspects be is used.

He be walkin'. - “He usually walks.”

Steady marks an intensified continuative thing.

Them students be steady trying to make a buck. - “Those students are always working diligently to make money.”4

Unstressed been or bin is used for present perfect. The stressed BIN is used to indicate something that happened a long time ago.

He been sick. - “He has been sick.”
She BIN married. - “She has been married a long time.”
He BIN ate it. - “He ate it a long time ago.”

Be is used to indicate something happening in the future.

He be here tomorrow. - “He will be here tomorrow.”

Done marks an action that is completed and be done is used for future/conditional perfect.

He done did it. - “He's already done it.”
She be done had her baby. - “She will have had her baby.”

Finna indicates something happening in the immediate future.

He finna go. - “He's about to go.”

The use of come shows the speaker's indignation about an action.

Don't come acting like you don't know what happened. - “Don't try to act as if you don't know what happened.”5

AAVE speakers use double modals, such as may can, might can or might could for “might be able to”, and must don't for “must not.”

Liketa is used for something that nearly happened, poseta is a form of “supposed to”.

I liketa drowned. - “I nearly drowned.”
You don't poseta do it that way. - “You're not supposed to do it that way.”

Third person singular present tense -s is dropped and don't and have are used with the third person.

He walk. - “He walks.”
He don't sing. - “He doesn't sing.”
She have it. - “She has it.”

Then again, singular is and was are used with plural forms.

They is some crazy folk. - “They are crazy people.”
We was there. - “We were there.”

Past tense forms are used for past participle and vice versa. Present tense forms can also be used to mark past tense.

He had bit. - “He had bitten.”
She seen him yesterday. - “She saw him yesterday.”
He come down here yesterday. - “He came down here yesterday.” (Rickford 6-7)

Negatives

Ain'(t) is a general preverbal negator in AAVE and is used as in He ain' here for He isn't here” and He ain' do it for “He didn't do it.” An inversion also occurs in AAVE. Therefore “Nobody is home” would be rearranged into Ain't nobody home. But is used instead of “only” in sentences like They didn't take but three dollars meaning “They only took three dollars” (Rickford 8).

One very distinctive feature of AAVE is the multiple negation system6. Therefore there can be several elements in the same sentence expressing negation, and sentences like He don't never do nothing are heard produced by the speakers (Yule 213).

Questions

In direct questions the subject and the auxiliary verb are not inverted. The question “Why can't I play?” would be asked Why I can't play? and the question would be expressed with a rising intonation. In embedded questions, however, the subject and auxiliary verb are inverted, but there is no if or weather. I asked him could he go with me means simply “I asked him if he could go with me” (Rickford 8).

Expressing existence and location

In existential clauses, it is used in sentences like It's a school up there, meaning “There's a school up there.” The plural equivalent is they got. Therefore, “There are some hungry women here” would be said They got some hungry women here (Rickford 8-9).

Nouns and pronouns

One significant feature of AAVE is the absence of possessive and plural -s. That is why instead of “John's house” and “two boys” AAVE speakers say John house and two boy. The third person singular - s is also missing and AAVE speakers use the corresponding pronoun, as in That teacher, she yell at the kids meaning “That teacher yells at the kids.”

Associative plurals are marked with and (th)em or nem, so “Felician and her friends/family/associates” would be Felician an' (th)em or Felician nem. Second person plural possessive is marked with y'all and third person plural is marked with they. Hence, “It's your ball” would be It's y'all ball and “It's their house” would be It's they house. Object pronouns are used as personal datives, as in Ahma git me a gig meaning “I'm going to get myself some support.”

Some relative pronouns are omitted.

That's the man come here. - “That's the man who came here.” (Rickford 7- 8)

The Phonology of AAVE

A lot of sounds are systematically reduced in AAVE. Word-final consonant clusters are shortened so that “hand” and “post” become han' and pos'. R is dropped from thr sequences and for this reason, “throwdown” is pronounced thowdown. After a vowel, l and r are deleted or vocalized7. That's why “help” becomes he'p and “sister” becomes sistuh.

Even more sounds are changed into other sounds. The voiceless th is turned into t or f and the voiced th is turned into d or v. Thus, “thin” and “bath” become tin and baf, and “then” and “brother” become den and bruvver. Syllable-initial str becomes skr, like in the words “street” and “destroy” which change into skreet and deskroy. The final ng in gerund forms are reduced to n. Accordingly, “walking” becomes walkin'.

Adjacent consonants are transpositioned so that “ask” becomes aks and “wasp” becomes waps, which means that metathesis also takes place in AAVE.

Some vowels change too. For example, ing and ink are converted into ang and ank. In conclusion, thang is used for “thing” and drank for “drink.”

And finally, there are also some stress changes. First syllables are stressed rather than second syllables, so “políce” is pronounced pólice and “hotél” is pronounced hótel (Rickford 4- 5).

Notes

  1. Vernacular is a social dialect spoken by a lower-status group. It is usually considered to have less authority due to its differences compared to standard language (Yule 252).
  2. From here onwards, African American Vernacular English (AAVE) will be used to refer to this variant of English.
  3. A 'Pidgin' is a language involving numerous elements from other language(s) which is created for some practical purpose. It has no native speakers, but when people start acquiring it as a first language, it becomes a creole (Yule 201-202).
  4. This example is from Green (72).
  5. This example is also from Green (73).
  6. AAVE is being criticized as being sloppy or not following good grammar because of this feature, but for example French has this feature as a part of its general grammar, so it is not necessarily wrong or a grammatically impossible feature (Yule 213).
  7. “Vocalization” means pronouncing the word with a weak neutral vowel (Rickford 5).

Works Cited


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Last Updated 22 November 2010