Download or read book Features of African American English in the Context of Language Varieties written by Janine Lacombe and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2014-01-08 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Koblenz-Landau (Anglistik), course: Varieties of English, language: English, abstract: African American English in general is used to describe a wide range of language varieties spoken mostly by the black population in the United States. During the past decades however multiple names and definitions have been established including Black English (BE), Ebonics, Black Vernacular English (BVE), and African American Vernacular English (AAVE). The term “Negro Non-standard English” used until the late 1960s has been abolished by now due to the fact that it insinuates the presence of a superior “White Standard English” In the preface of her book African American English: A Linguistic Introduction Lisa GREEN points out that there has been a substantial amount of linguistic research on AAE, oftentimes however neglecting a closer look at the structural patterns and features. This is where the focus of the paper presented shall be on. After some developmental and socio-historical background information concerning AAE, phonological, morphological, and grammatical attributes will be examined and subsequently illustrated by an exemplary analysis of three different rap songs. The focal point here lies in the lyrical/ textual presentation of AAE in rap music and not in the actual vocal performance. The aim of this paper and the entailed analyses is to ascertain whether AAE consequently aims for persistent, stable patterns on some or even all linguistic levels or if certain features occur in a more elective, non-obligatory way. The rap songs chosen for the analyses offer a creditable alternative to hard to find authentic text material and display sufficient characteristic of AAE. A complete version of each rap text is attached in the appendix of this work. The textual extend of this paper is substantiated in the amount of examples given to illustrate features of AAE.

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 Language Variety in the South Revisited written by Cynthia Bernstein and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2014-01-22 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Top linguists from diverse fields address language varieties in the South. Language Variety in the South Revisited is a comprehensive collection of new research on southern United States English by foremost scholars of regional language variation. Like its predecessor, Language Variety in the South: Perspectives in Black and White (The University of Alabama Press, 1986), this book includes current research into African American vernacular English, but it greatly expands the scope of investigation and offers an extensive assessment of the field. The volume encompasses studies of contact involving African and European languages; analysis of discourse, pragmatic, lexical, phonological, and syntactic features; and evaluations of methods of collecting and examining data. The 38 essays not only offer a wealth of information about southern language varieties but also serve as models for regional linguistic investigation.

Download or read book African American English written by Salikoko S. Mufwene and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-30 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was the first to provide a comprehensive survey of linguistic research into African-American English and is widely recognised as a classic in the field. It covers both the main linguistic features, in particular the grammar, phonology, and lexicon as well as the sociological, political and educational issues connected with African-American English. The editors have played key roles in the development of African-American English and Black Linguistics as overlapping academic fields of study. Along with other leading figures, notably Geneva Smitherman, William Labov and Walt Wolfram, they provide an authoritative diverse guide to these vitally important subject areas. Drawing on key moments of cultural significance from the Ebonics controversy to the rap of Ice-T, the contributors cover the state of the art in scholarship on African-American English, and actively dispel misconceptions, address new questions and explore new approaches. This classic edition has a new foreword by Sonja Lanehart, setting the book in context and celebrating its influence. This is an essential text for courses on African-American English, key reading for Varieties of English and World Englishes modules and an important reference for students of linguistics, black studies and anthropology at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Download or read book Sociocultural and Historical Contexts of African American English written by Sonja L. Lanehart and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume, based on presentations at a 1998 state of the art conference at the University of Georgia, critically examines African American English (AAE) socially, culturally, historically, and educationally. It explores the relationship between AAE and other varieties of English (namely Southern White Vernaculars, Gullah, and Caribbean English creoles), language use in the African American community (e.g., Hip Hop, women's language, and directness), and application of our knowledge about AAE to issues in education (e.g., improving overall academic success). To its credit (since most books avoid the issue), the volume also seeks to define the term 'AAE' and challenge researchers to address the complexity of defining a language and its speakers. The volume collectively tries to help readers better understand language use in the African American community and how that understanding benefits all who value language variation and the knowledge such study brings to our society.

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.

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 The Development of African American English written by Walt Wolfram and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on one of the most persistent and controversial questions in modern sociolinguistics: the past and present development of African American Vernacular English (AAVE).

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 2007-02-19 with total page 14 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, 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 A Survey of African American Vernacular English Considering the Drama A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Vivian Hansberry as an Example written by Jessica Schweke and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2007-09 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, course: 'Varieties and Variability of English' - Proseminar 'English as a World Language', 11 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This paper will give an overview of some distinctive features of African American Vernacular English. Since drama in general aims to demonstrate everyday speech, I will also give evidence from the drama "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Vivian Hansberry from 1959. This will underline these features as well as their use and show their practicability in speech. Generally speaking, the term vernacular describes a variety of speech which is often analyzed in contrast to the Standard of a language and which is used by a certain group of speakers. The term African American Vernacular English (AAVE) thus describes a dialect used by African Americans. In course of time this variety has also been called "Black Vernacular English, Vernacular Black English, Black English Vernacular, Afro-American English, or simply Black English". (Crystal 2003: 491) The African American Vernacular is a variety of the English language that "has set phonological (system of sounds), morphological (system of structure of words and relationship among words), syntactic (system of sentence structure), semantic (system of meaning) and lexical (structural organization of vocabulary items and other information) patterns". (Green 2002: 1) In the course of this term paper I will take a closer look at these patterns. However, it has to be kept in mind that even though these features are characteristics of the African American speech variety, not every African American uses this variety. Additionally, some speakers use certain features more often than others, depending on the speaker's age, social status, the situation of communication or the person they hold a conversation with. Belonging to the African American

Download or read book Middle Class African American English written by Tracey L. Weldon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-04 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African American English (AAE) is a major area of research in linguistics, but until now, work has primarily been focused on AAE as it is spoken amongst the working classes. From its historical development to its contemporary context, this is the first full-length overview of the use and evaluation of AAE by middle class speakers, giving voice to this relatively neglected segment of the African American speech community. Weldon offers a unique first-person account of middle class AAE, and highlights distinguishing elements such as codeswitching, camouflaged feature usage, Standard AAE, and talking/sounding 'Black' vs. 'Proper'. Readers can hear authentic excerpts and audio prompts of the language described through a wide range of audio files, which can be accessed directly from the book's page using QR technology or through the book's online Resource Tab. Engaging and accessible, it will help students and researchers gain a broader understanding of both the African American speech community and the AAE continuum.

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 The Americas and the Caribbean written by Edgar W. Schneider and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2008-12-10 with total page 833 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume gives a detailed overview of the varieties of English spoken in the Americas and the Caribbean, including regional, social and ethnic dialects (such as Southern US, Canadian or Chicano English) as well as Caribbean creoles from the Bahamas to Suriname. The chapters, written by widely acclaimed specialists, provide concise and comprehensive information on the phonological, morphological and syntactic characteristics of each variety discussed. The articles are followed by exercises and study questions. The exercises are geared towards students and can be used for classroom assignments as well as for self study in preparation for exams. Instructors can use the exercises, sound samples and interactive maps to enhance their classroom presentations and to highlight important language features.

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 Do You Speak American written by Robert Macneil and published by Nan A. Talese. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is American English in decline? Are regional dialects dying out? Is there a difference between men and women in how they adapt to linguistic variations? These questions, and more, about our language catapulted Robert MacNeil and William Cran—the authors (with Robert McCrum) of the language classic The Story of English—across the country in search of the answers. Do You Speak American? is the tale of their discoveries, which provocatively show how the standard for American English—if a standard exists—is changing quickly and dramatically. On a journey that takes them from the Northeast, through Appalachia and the Deep South, and west to California, the authors observe everyday verbal interactions and in a host of interviews with native speakers glean the linguistic quirks and traditions characteristic of each area. While examining the histories and controversies surrounding both written and spoken American English, they address anxieties and assumptions that, when explored, are highly emotional, such as the growing influence of Spanish as a threat to American English and the special treatment of African-American vernacular English. And, challenging the purists who think grammatical standards are in serious deterioration and that media saturation of our culture is homogenizing our speech, they surprise us with unpredictable responses. With insight and wit, MacNeil and Cran bring us a compelling book that is at once a celebration and a potent study of our singular language. Each wave of immigration has brought new words to enrich the American language. Do you recognize the origin of 1. blunderbuss, sleigh, stoop, coleslaw, boss, waffle? Or 2. dumb, ouch, shyster, check, kaput, scram, bummer? Or 3. phooey, pastrami, glitch, kibbitz, schnozzle? Or 4. broccoli, espresso, pizza, pasta, macaroni, radio? Or 5. smithereens, lollapalooza, speakeasy, hooligan? Or 6. vamoose, chaps, stampede, mustang, ranch, corral? 1. Dutch 2. German 3. Yiddish 4. Italian 5. Irish 6. Spanish

Download or read book African American Vernacular English written by Ismail Durgut and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009-03 with total page 41 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, 6 entries in the bibliography, 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.