LING/ANTH 203/503
Week 9: from language structures to
language politics: AAE
• African American English (AAE)
• Historical roots as pidgin/creole
• Some structural features of AAE
• Controversies over use of AAE in education
• balancing the forces of homogeneity/diversity;
social unity/division
What is AAE?
African American English (AAE)
African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
Black Vernacular English (BVE)
Ebonics…
Is it “a language”?
Movie: “Black on White”
Politics, perspective, & assumptions:
•White viewpoint, authorities/commentators
•Standard assumed to be “white”—
who “owns” the language?
•Maybe should be called “White on Black”?
• Cognitive linguistics— “bioprogram”:
all humans have instinct for grammatical language
• Standard: a prestige variety of a language
with an institutionalized norm
• The only languages that are simpler or “more
primitive” in terms of grammar are early contact
languages--pidgins
• standardization: imposing one language
variety (dialect) as the standard
™Note that: not all languages referred to as
“Pidgin” are technically pidgins—many are
actually creoles
• Non-standard: language variety that does
not conform to the standard norm
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SLANG
• informal, non-standard vocabulary
• Can used to create solidarity, to be different
from the official language
• In linguistics, SLANG is not a dialect even
though people do use it in this meaning
.
JARGON: the in-group vocabulary of a
professional or special activity group
Problems of naming:
• some whites speak AAE
• some African Americans don’t speak AAE
• historically AAE spoken by people of African
descent, standard spoken by whites
• less social segregation ⇒less linguistic segregation
• AAE rules & forms overlap with Std. US English
What AAE is NOT:
•
•
•
•
it does not lack grammar
its pronunciation is not due to “laziness”
it is not “slang”
it is not standardized--there is not one single
form of AAE
AAE phonology
• reduction of word-final consonant clusters
e.g.: told=‘tole’ [tol], last=‘las’ [læs],
kind=‘kin’ [kain] or [kajn] or [ka:n]
• std. English reduces certain consonant
clusters as well, such as word-final ‘lk’=‘k’
as in ‘walk, talk, balk’=[wak, tak, bak]
What AAE is:
• non-standard language, with its own phonological,
lexical, and syntactic rules
• AAE also refers to distinct speech styles (e.g.,
ways of joking, public oratory)
• AAE is not a single homogeneous variety—the
following slides give examples of features of some
varieties of AAE
AAE phonology:
pronouncing “th”
• voiceless th pronounced as such at the
beginnings of words (think)
• voiceless th pronounced as t or f at middle
or end of word (bath=baf; with=wit/wif)
• voiced “th” pronounced as d at beginning of
words (these=dese; that=dat)
• voiced “th” pronounced as v at end of word
(bathe=bave; smooth=smoove)
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some AAE lexicon
• some= to a great extent (He is some tall.)
• come= expresses speaker indignation
(He come walking in here like he owned the
place.)
• kitchen=hair at the nape of the neck; also
place to cook
• mash=to press (mash the button to call the
elevator)
AAE syntax: verbal tenses
•
•
•
•
past ineptive: I do see him.
prepresent, slightly longer ago: I did see him.
recent past: I done seen him.
pre-recent past, longer ago: I been seen him.
Moving ahead from the present:
• I’m a do it. (do it in 30 secs., or immediate future)
• I’m a gonna do it. (soon-post-immediate future)
• I gonna do it. (indefinite future).
AAE verbal aspect: BE and BIN
AAE syntax: double negatives
• I ain’t got no time.
• double negatives were widely used in Elizabethan
English, also now used in Ukrainian, Spanish,
French (it is a normal linguistic option, not an
issue of logic)
Aspect
• grammatical category that marks duration or
type of temporal activity
• may contrast between completed and not
yet completed action
e.g., in standard English:
• simple action or progressive
(I run vs. I am running)
Some sociolinguistic differences are matter of degree,
not absolute
• BE as a marker of habitual aspect (recurrence):
I be teachin at the UW. (I do this regularly.)
vs. I teachin a class. (I’m doing it right now).
My daughter be waking up too early. (She usually
wakes up too early.)
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Inequality & language
Linguistic differences ÍÎ Social differences
• mediated by Language Ideology
• As long as there are social differences, there
will be linguistic differences
Evaluations of
understanding
while listening
to the same
recording,
different picture
of lecturer
Ideologies of difference
• Understanding is not a neutral ability
• example: perceived ethnicity affects
comprehension in evaluations of lectures
Indiana students rating correctness of English
least correct
most correct
Why speak standard or non-standard?
• perceptions of correctness reflect regional
prejudices, stereotypes
• negative social evaluations exert pressures
to not use certain language varieties
• solidarity and local prestige support use of
non-standard languages
AAE inside & outside the circle:
• Phonology & Grammar :
the accent that marks your background, rules for how
subjects & verbs agree
• Speech style
emotion, intonation
play with words
discursive structure
• Both inside & outside features symbolize an identity:
here is where language ideology & politics come in
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Connotations of AAE today
• influence of hip-hop music: AAE as “countercultural,” “anti-authority”--”fight the power”
attitude--attractive to youth
• but not accepted as language of mass-media
(except for humor) or the corporate world
• Exception: oratorical style in politics
(rhythmic repetition, call & response)
How to fix inequities?
• Teaching people linguistics can help but…
the Oakland Ebonics controversy
• 1997: Oakland school district wanted to treat
“Ebonics (AAE) as a different language
• definition as distinct language brings special funds
for “bilingual education”
• treat Ebonics not as wrong, but different--boost
self-esteem while more effectively teaching
standard language
• responses:
“teaching Ebonics will hold Blacks back”
“Ebonics is just plain wrong, not a language”
Controversy over nonstandard language:
Should it be used in
children’s books?
• We are still left with language varieties that
are prestigious vs. stigmatized
Example:
“Nappy Hair”, written in
Black Caribbean dialect,
call & response style
Problem: How do we achieve equality
without homogeneity?
white teacher in NYC
used this book, was
threatened by parents who
thought she was racist, she
ended up leaving her job
Excerpts from “Nappy Hair” book:
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Empowerment
in praising stigmatized racial feature (nappy hair)
in accepting & praising non-standard language
versus
Why can’t everyone just learn the standard
and not make an issue of it?
IMAGINE
If “Standard American” was stigmatized, seen as inappropriate
in the workplace and in public with strangers
and British English was taught as the correct standard.
Disempowerment
focus on stigmatized racial feature (nappy hair)
institutionalizing non-standard language—
children won’t learn that this language is
stigmatized, won’t learn the standard forms
Most of you would have to learn to speak something other than the native
language variety you grew up speaking at home. If your native accent showed
through too much, you might not get hired and you would be looked down
upon. That is what it is like now for many speakers of AAE.
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Possibilities for AAE
• If not one standard, then another:
If AAE became the standard, others would
be disadvantaged.
• Diversity: acceptance of variety of forms
--but this can be less efficient
• Social Unity vs. Division
Competing ideologies of AAE and race
• Race is made too much of an issue: color and
heritage shouldn’t matter, they can only be
divisive—opportunities for success are
becoming equal
vs.
• Issue of race is skirted: power of standard
English reinforces power in hand of upperclass whites. You have to leave your native
dialect behind to succeed.
NORMS: How far should they go?
• Can we live without norms?
We need norms for:
• Efficiency and clarity of communication
• Knowing where you stand:
a reference point for status & values
Language is the glue of society
but it reflects social differences,
so it can be the cause or symbol
of social divisions.
• Can we live with them?
Norms vs. Freedom of expression
Power to change norms
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