Download or read book African American Vernacular English as a Literary Dialect written by Sophia Huber and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book African American Vernacular English Origins and Features written by Haider Madhloum and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2011-03 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pre-University Paper from the year 2011 in the subject English - Pedagogy, Didactics, Literature Studies, Antwerp Local School, course: Last year of High School, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety formerly known as Black English Vernacular or Vernacular Black English among sociolinguists. It is also called Ebonics outside the academic community. While some features of AAVE are apparently unique to this variety, in its structure it also shows many similarities with other varieties including a number of standard and nonstandard English varieties spoken in the US. AAVE has been the subject of several public debates. The analysis of this variety has caused a lot of discussion among sociolinguists and also among the American people. AAVE is a language that I hear every day through the music I hear and the Internet I use. This was the main reason that I chose to learn more about AAVE. Many people think AAVE is the same as Standard American English but this is not true. In this paper I will investigate whether AAVE is a dialect or a slang. And also the origins of AAVE and the features of AAVE (Phonological-, grammatical and lexical features) and the social and educational context of AAVE will be explained more in this paper. Through many research in the library of the university of Antwerp and the library of the university of Leuven but also through many research on the internet I was able to collect and investigate this subject. With the great help of my teacher I was able to make this paper

Download or read book African American Vernacular English written by Desirée Kuthe and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2007-11 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, University of Córdoba (Spain: Universidad de Córdoba), course: Sociolinguistics, 8 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: African American Vernacular English or AAVE, which is also variously labelled 'African American English', 'Black English', 'Black Vernacular English' or 'Ebonics', is the non-standard variety of English spoken by many African Americans, at least to some extent and in some contexts. The now very popular term Ebonics is a portmanteau of the words 'ebony' and 'phonics', created in 1973 by a group of black scholars, who disliked the term 'Nonstandard Negro English', which was in use at that time. The circumstances of the creation of the term, (which has gained considerable popularity during a huge debate in 1996, which will be discussed later), already highlights one of the main features associated with AAVE: the controversies which centre upon it, "even" - according to McCrum et al. - "within the Black community. For some, it is an authentic means of self-expression for Black English speakers throughout America and the world. For others, who prefer the norms of Standard English, Black English represents the disadvantaged past, an obstacle to advancement, something better unlearned, denied or forgotten." The first thorough sociolinguistic study of AAVE was carried out by William Labov in 1968. It was funded by the US Office of Education, which was interested in "the relation between social dialects and the teaching of English." The problems many Black American children had to acquire thorough reading skills was, in fact, what first brought attention to AAVE. Still scholars can't seem to agree on what exactly AAVE is and where it comes from. Scholars on one end of the scale of opinions hold it to be very different from Standard English, even a distinct language, those on the other end claim it to be a mere product of regional a

Download or read book The Uniqueness of African American Vernacular English written by Lea Lorena Jerns and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2014-06-13 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, Humboldt-University of Berlin, language: English, abstract: "The language, only the language...it is the thing that black people love so much – the saying of words, holding them on the tongue, experimenting with them, playing with them. It’s a love, a passion. Its function is like a preacher’s: to make you stand up out of your seat, make you lose yourself and ear yourself. The worst of all possible things that could happen is to lose that language. There are certain things I cannot say with-out recourse to my language." With these words Toni Morrison, an American professor and novelist, probably expressed exactly what many African American people felt and still feel. In her statement she refers to the so-called “African American Vernacular English”, abbreviated AAVE, which is “a variant of English spoken mostly by black people in the United States.” (Jokinen 2008: 1) It is also known as “African American English”, “Black English Vernacular”, “Black Vernacular Eng-lish”, “Black Vernacular”, “Black English” or “Ebonics”. It is important to point out that not all African Americans inevitably speak this ethnolect and that there are also people with a non-African American background who nonetheless may speak it. (cf. Patrick 2007: 1) Fur-thermore, it is hard to define who actually speaks AAVE as some speakers may only use some features, e.g. vocabulary or grammatical aspects, of this variant. (cf. Jokinen 2008: 1) AAVE is a variant of English that you can see and hear every day – it is present in the Internet and in many songs and that makes it so interesting to find out more about it and to get a better understanding of AAVE. In this paper, I will focus on different aspects. I will start dealing with the question “Where does AAVE come from?” under point two and will continue with a brief overview of some basic grammatical features of AAVE in point three. Under point four, I will present and discuss a concrete example of a text, in which AAVE plays an important role, namely in the short story The Gilded Six-Bits of Zora Neale Hurston, written in 1933. Afterwards, under point five, I am going to talk about AAVE in Rap and HipHop songs as there can be found a considerable number of this kind of music all around the world and, under point 6, I will deal with the controversial question whether AAVE should be taught in schools or not. Finally, in the conclusion of my paper, I would like to let the uniqueness of AAVE and the importance of recognizing...

Download or read book African American Vernacular English written by John Russell Rickford and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 1999-07-16 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In response to the flood of interest in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) following the recent controversy over "Ebonics," this book brings together sixteen essays on the subject by a leading expert in the field, one who has been researching and writing on it for a quarter of a century.

Download or read book African American English and White Southern English Segregational Factors in the Development of a Dialect written by Timm Gehrmann and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2007-09 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Wuppertal, course: African American Culture as Resistance, 14 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In 1619 the first Black People were violently taken to Virginia, United States. Many more Blacks were to follow and hence had to work as slaves on the plantations in the south, fueling the trade of an emerging economic power. Families and friends were separated and people from different regions who spoke different African dialects were grouped together. This was to make sure that no communication in their respective native languages would take place in order to prevent mutinies. Thus the Africans had to learn the language of their new surroundings, namely English. Today the English of the Blacks in America is distinguishable as African American Vernacular English (AAVE). AAVE and American White Southern English (AWSE) were very similar in colonial times, and according to Feagin1 AWSE still has features of AAVE, such as the non-rhoticism and falsetto pitch2, which is supposed to add to the apparent musicality of both AAVE and AWSE today. Many commonalities can be attributed to the coexistence of the two cultures for almost 200 years, while many differences are claimed to be due to segregation. Crystal claims that first forms of Pidgin English spoken by Africans already emerged during the journey on the slave ships, where communication was also made difficult due to the grouping of different dialects in order to prevent mutiny. The slave traders who often spoken English had already shaped the new pidgin languages on the ships and helped shape a creole that was to be established in the Carribean colonies as well southern US colonies in the 17th century.

Download or read book Whether or not African American Vernacular English should be used in Schools written by Niklas Tänzer and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2018-03-21 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Osnabrück, language: English, abstract: The United States is characterized by a notedly broad linguistic diversity. One part of this diversity in American English has always been at the center of scholarly research and publications: African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). It is one of the most influential varieties of English that is spoken across the US. This paper will shortly present the most distinctive featuring AAVE. Further, the main differences between AAVE and Standard American English, which can be largely found in grammar, phonology and semantics will be explained. History, discussions and hypotheses about AAVE, as well as the scorching criticism it received in recent attempts to implement it into the curriculum will also be included. Having elaborated on that, the question arises whether AAVE should be integrated into the educational system these days. Although African-American Vernacular English has been chosen as the standard term in linguistics it is important to note that there are many labels referring to AAVE. It is also known as African American English, Black English Vernacular, Black Vernacular English, Black Vernacular, Black English or Ebonics. These terms are most common amongst linguists today and all refer to the same variety.

Download or read book African American Vernacular English A New Dialect of the English Language written by Patrick Tretina and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2012-06-20 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2012 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: A, University of New Hampshire, course: English 550 - Graduate Studies in English Language, language: English, abstract: This scholarly research paper examines the substantial reasoning behind why African American Vernacular English is a true dialect of the English language. The AAVE controversy has been long debated by scholars and linguists alike. The debate is centered on two substantial ideas of its definition and genesis. The debate is split; half of the spectrum believes AAVE is simply an apathetic form of speech, while other concrete theories suggest that AAVE is a dialect of the English language that stems from the West African Slave Trade. This research paper not only analyzes a number of scholarly theories to credit the idea that AAVE is a true dialect of the English Language, but it also calls on a number of other variants to supplement the facts provided.

Download or read book African American Vernacular English in Contemporary Music written by A. Glatz and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2012-01-25 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bachelor Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, language: English, abstract: This thesis investigates the use of African American Vernacular English in contemporary music. AAVE is an ethnic variety spoken by many, though not all, African Americans living in the United States. This dialect does not have one name only, but is also called “Negro dialect,” “Nonstandard Negro English,” “Black English,” “Black Street Speech,” “Black Vernacular English,” “Black Vernacular English,” or “African American English.” I would like to add that some terms are historical. It is crucial to know that researchers call it differently because to a large degree it depends on the time he/she conducted research on this topic. Today, the dialect is either called African American Vernacular English or African American English. The words “contemporary music” in the title refer to Hip Hop. This music genre was chosen to be investigated because out of the music genres African Americans are involved in, it is the one that generates most of the sales and is the most popular one. The rappers which are going to be analyzed in this thesis use many of the features of the African American vernacular. Given the huge number of AAVE features, only one of them will be analyzed, the copula verb to be, which in the following will only be called “the copula.” According to Wolfram, the copula is “one of the most often described structures of AAVE” (2008: 517). For this reason, the copula might be an interesting feature to look at. When researchers examined AAVE in the past, they did not necessarily take music as a source of data, but rather spoken language. One has to know that language in music is a different genre of language use, which differs from the usual use of the language. Music can be considered an artistic expression, but not “real” speech. Nevertheless, as music has always been and presumably will always be a big part in African American culture, it should be possible to recognize features of AAVE and use music as a reliable source. In the analysis conducted in this thesis, the use of the copula will be examined by having a look at the lyrics of three famous rappers from the US: Tupac, Jay-Z and 50 Cent. Even though the three of them can be assigned to “gangsta rap”, they all differ from each other. They all started their careers in different decades, come from different cities and have a different style of rapping. What they have in common is that they are African American rappers from a lower class who grew up in poverty and have become successful musicians.

Download or read book African American Vernacular English written by Ismail Durgut and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1.0, University of Duisburg-Essen, course: Language and Interaction, language: English, abstract: The majority of the US-citizens of African ancestry speak a characteristic variety of English that has been referred to by several names. It has variously been called Non-Standard Negro English, Negro Dialect , Black English Vernacular, Black English, African American English, African American Vernacular English, Ebonics, etc. In this paper, I will use the term African American Vernacular English, abbreviated AAVE, because it is the term most current among linguists today. The term “vernacular” refers to the everyday language spoken by a speech community, often a non-standard variety. No other variety inside the United States has been studied as much as AAVE. During the last fourty years, many works have been released concerning this topic. This paper is an overview of AAVE. It starts with the historical backgrounds of the variety by discussing the major theories concerning its origin. The main part of this paper deals with AAVE’s linguistic features in comparison to Standard American English. The features are subdivided into the sub-chapters phonology, grammar and vocabulary. A summary forms the final chapter of this paper.

Download or read book African American Vernacular English and its Use in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston written by Leonie Weißweiler and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2016-09-09 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pre-University Paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 15, , language: English, abstract: African American English (AAVE) was first brought to the attention of linguists when in the 1960s, the government realised that African American (AA) children from urban ghettoes were worse in school than white pupils. To counteract this, it financed compensation programmes in which AA children should be taught Standard English (SE) “by means of structural drills and techniques adopted from foreign language learning”. When this approach failed, linguists suggested that AA children only spoke a different dialect than white children and that consequently, it would be necessary to teach them SE as an additional dialect. However, this approach also failed because the failure of AA children in school seems to be a result of a cultural and social divide between AA and white American society, of which separate dialects of English are only a symptom. It will therefore be the aims of this paper to prove this belief wrong and prove that AAVE is indeed a rule-governed language, to investigate its origins and its use in Zora Neale Hurston’s most famous novel, Their EyesWereWatching God.

Download or read book Talking Back Talking Black written by John H. McWhorter and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative, impassioned celebration of Black English, how it works, and why it matters

Download or read book African American English written by Lisa J. Green and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-08-08 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This authoritative introduction to African American English (AAE) is the first textbook to look at the grammar as a whole. Clearly organised, it describes patterns in the sentence structure, sound system, word formation and word use in AAE. The textbook examines topics such as education, speech events in the secular and religious world, and the use of language in literature and the media to create black images. It includes exercises to accompany each chapter and will be essential reading for students in linguistics, education, anthropology, African American studies and literature.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of African American Language written by Sonja L. Lanehart and published by Oxford Handbooks. This book was released on 2015 with total page 945 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a set of diverse analyses of traditional and contemporary work on language structure and use in African American communities.

Download or read book African American Vernacular English written by Inga Walte and published by Grin Publishing. This book was released on 2007-09 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, University of Hannover, 7 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: English is the most spoken language in the world. Wherever you go, you can express yourself via English. But English is not the same anyplace you go. British English and American English, for instance, differ a lot. Not only by means of pronunciation, but also concerning vocabulary, grammar etc. Moreover, the language within each country differs and there exist many dialects. One may say that African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a dialect; others may say it is a separate language system. In this paper I will try to show how AAVE works, who speaks it and how it differs from Standard English. My focus lies on AAVE spoken in the United States. "Significant research on black English in the United states is almost entirely a product of the 1960s" (Dillard1972: 6) and thus not that old. Nevertheless there exist different opinions concerning as well? Its the origin and the status it has. So, in this essay I am going to deal with Black American English and its specific features and differences to Standard English. Standard means here the achieved official recognition of a language. The standard is spoken by the majority of speakers in the US. The analysis includes an introduction to the grammar of AAVE and its specific vocabulary. At the beginning a short survey will be given on who actually speaks AAVE. At the end of the paper, I will give some examples how AAVE actually works and is used by blacks. Tense, mood, and aspect cannot always be strictly separated, and thus the explanations and examples of each category are sort of melted together. Moreover, I will talk about the question whether AAVE should be looked at as if being a self-governed language system or a dialect of Standard English spoken in the United States.

Download or read book History of English in the US and of African American Vernacular English in particular written by Alissia Wiener and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2018-07-20 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Applied Geography, grade: 1.7, University of Duisburg-Essen (Geisteswissenschaften), course: English in North America, language: English, abstract: From the very start I was very interested in African American Vernacular English (AAVE). In this work I also wanted to include a bit of history. I consider that history is an important influence on the present, not only regarding language but everything. History shows us the roots of things and a person who knows history avoids doing the same mistake again. In case of AAVE the language is indeed connected to the history of the African Americans, to the history of slavery and so to the history of the United States of America. For me it is also important to give a wide range on the knowledge about AAVE, a frame of history starting with the broad picture about the settlement and the rest of the history of the US. Then I will look on the history of the African Americans and the origin of their language. Finally a description of AAVE and its features follows. The question this essay deals with was mostly inspired by the controversal views about the origin of AAVE, namely the Creole-based and the dialect theory. Those might be “only” theories about the origin of AAVE but assuming one of those theories is correct defines a certain point of view on AAVE. Is AAVE “only” a dialect derived from a pidgin which developed somewhere in the Caribbean or on in West Africa or is AAVE a dialect which developed in the same manner and at the same time like all the other American dialects? Is it correct to compare AAVE to Standard English listing the mistakes this variety makes or should it rather be compared to other varieties?

Download or read book Readings in African American Language written by Nathaniel Norment and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2003 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Readings in African American Language: Aspects, Features, and Perspectives, Volume 2 brings together scholars who research various theoretical approaches of the origin, characteristics, and development of African American Vernacular English (AAVE). The advantages of AAVE, codeswitching, dialect interference in writing, theories, and politics in AAVE, text analysis, and critical pedagogy all are discussed in this volume. Each article provides a different perspective attesting to the vitality and relevance of African American language as an academic, social, and cultural/linguistic entry in the field of language studies.