African American English (AAE): A Distinct Language from Standard English or an English Dialect?

Transcription

1 African American English (AAE): A Distinct Language from Standard English or an English Dialect? In 1996 the Oakland, California school board declared Ebonics the language of its African American students, rather than a dialect of English Ebonics is a Separate Language: recognizes extensive borrowing of English words, but maintains that grammar follows Niger-Congo rules (similar to the way English borrowed Latin words but follows Germanic rules) - Niger-Congo deep structure has been retained; based on this continuity, there s no evidence Black English ever existed - In that teacher she mean, the verb to be wasn t deleted but never existed in the first place (as in other African languages) - African deep structure (not segregation and poverty) causes African-American children to perform poorly on standardized tests of English proficiency (Ernie Smith, 1998) The Dialect Hypothesis: maintains AAE has English origins (to the exclusion of significant African influence) - It s mutually intelligible with standard English (both written and spoken) and its speakers don t occupy a separate nation - AAE doesn t differ enough from standard English to impede children from acquiring the standard - Some non-standard features of AAE can be directly traced to regional dialects spoken by British colonists - If AAE was an African Language System English words would be superimposed upon an African grammar (as in other African Englishes such as Jamaican patois) (John McWhorter, 2001)

2 The Creole Hypothesis: AAE was derived from a creole based on English and W. African languages. - to prevent revolts, slave traders placed slaves from various W. African tribes together in ships headed to the NW - to communicate, slaves developed a pidgin based on various W. African languages and the language of their captors (British English) Source:

3 African American Vernacular English, Code-Switching and the K- 12 Inclusive Classroom Dr. Victoria Deneroff, Dr. Rebecca C. McMullen, and Nicholas Helfrick Georgia College The Third Annual Middle GA Student Diversity Conference, Atlanta GA Background Information: African American Vernacular English (AAE) Between 80 and 90 percent of all African-Americans speak what is known as African-American English, also known as African-American Vernacular English, Black English, or Ebonics (Redd and Webb 2005). AAE manifests itself as a language that, while not always following the norms and rules of Standard English, nonetheless follows a set of rules that are just as complex (Redd and Webb 2005, Craig and Washington 2002). Rickford (2000) argues that it is no more correct to refer to African-American English as lazy or broken English than it is to refer to Italian as lazy Latin, citing a rule-governed language rich in conventions, such as the use of double negatives, the dropping of the letter r and g at the end of words, and rhetorical devices such as signifyin and exaggerated language (Redd and Webb 2005). No matter the richness of the language, AAE deviates from the standard in the sense that many African-American students speak AAE, yet attend schools in which Standard English is the primary, if not sole, language taught (Wolfram 1999). African-American students often go from a home where they hear only AAE to a classroom where they are told by their teachers that the language they speak is incorrect. In an era of high-stakes standardized testing, African- American students take tests that are written in a language with which they are often unfamiliar (Redd and Webb 2005). In the case of African-American students, a difference is viewed as a deficiency, with someone speaking in primarily AAE being viewed in a manner that is lesser-than a speaker of SE; a speaker of AAE will find trouble, for instance, in the workforce, where there is a standardized English (Delpit, 2002). Teachers find themselves in the position of balancing an appropriate acknowledgment a student s culture, while also preparing them for success in school and life after school. It is for this reason that the ability to code-switch is of the utmost importance. An effective code switching strategy includes scientific inquiry, comparison and contrast, and metacognition.

4 References Baker, J. (2002) Trilingualism. In L. Delpit and J.K. Dowdy (Eds.) The skin that we speak: thoughts on language and culture in the classroom New York, NY: W.W. Norton Craig, H.K. et. al. (2009). African-American English speaking students: An examination of the relationship between dialect shift and reading outcomes. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. (52) Delpit, L. (2002) No Kinda Sense. L. Delpit and J.K. Dowdy (Eds.) The skin that we speak: thoughts on language and culture in the classroom New York, NY: W.W. Norton Dowdy, J.K. (2002). Ovuh Dyuh. L. Delpit and J.K. Dowdy (Eds.) The skin that we speak: thoughts on language and culture in the classroom New York, NY: W.W. Norton Gee, J.P. (1990). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. Critical perspectives on literacy and education. London: Falmer Press. Hill, K.D. (2009) Code-switching pedagogies and African-American students voices: Acceptance and Resistance. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 52(3) Redd, T.M. and Webb, K.S. (2005) A teacher s introduction to African-American English. Urbana, IL: National Council for Teachers of English. Rickford, J.R. and Rickford, R.J. (2000). Spoken word: The story of black English. New York, NY: Wiley. Smith, E. (2002). Ebonics: A Case History. L. Delpit and J.K. Dowdy (Eds.) The skin that we speak: thoughts on language and culture in the classroom New York, NY: W.W. Norton Wolfram, W. (1999) Repercussions from the Oakland Ebonics controversy- The critical role of dialect awareness programs. In C.T. Adger, D. Christian & O. Taylor (eds.) Making the connection: Language and academic achievement among African-American students. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics Source: lar%20english%20handout-1.docx.

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6 Worksheet 6.2: African American English Group 1 African Americans have been described as citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. Most African Americans are descendants of Africans who were brought over during slavery though some come from immigrants of Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. However, you know that defining African American ethnicity is much more difficult than where someone s ancestors came from. Regardless, many linguists have studied the language of African Americans and have found similarities in the way many of African Americans speak. This language variety is typically referred to as African American English (AAE) or African American Vernacular English (AAVE). You may have heard people call it Ebonics, but most people do not prefer this term. There are many language features that define AAE. One of the first is lexical items, vocabulary, or certain words that many African Americans use or first originated in AAE. Below are examples of these words. Some of these terms might be used by other language varieties now because of the substantial impact rap music has had on many speakers; however, they are still considered to be part of AAE. Words Word Definition Sentence Bread Money Man, I didn t make no bread working at the restaurant tonight. I m broke. Bling Flashy jewelry He got his bling tonight wearing all those gold chains. Crib Home You wanna come over to my crib later tonight? Straight All right; okay; fine Hey, don t worry about it. We straight. No problem. Shawty Attractive girl; term of endearment for a close girl friend Hey, what s up, shawty? I haven t seen you in a while. Can you think of any other words you have heard that you associate with African American English?

7 Sounds African American English also has certain phonological features, which simply means different ways of pronouncing words, which are different from other ethnic language varieties. Below is an example in AAE. Feature Standard English AAE Explanation th - f tooth aftermath mouth toof aftermaf mouf Many times when a word ends with a sound like th speakers of AAE will use an f sound instead. Example: I broke my toof because he punched me in the mouf. This is just one of the many phonological patterns that many AAE speakers follow, even though many do not know they are doing it systematically, just like other speakers of ethnic language varieties. Grammar African American English has many different language structures that are different from Standard English as well. One of the grammatical features you have already learned about is third person singular s absence (e.g., she walk_ v. she walks or he laugh_ v. he laughs). Another example of a grammatical feature of AAE is below. Feature Standard English AAE Explanation Habitual be He often works late. We usually play basketball after school. He be working late. We be playing basketball after school. Using be in these sentences means that something happens regularly or often, which is why it is called habitual be. AAE speakers do not use this form when they are talking about something that only happened once or does not happen a lot. My leg hurts all the My leg be hurting. time. Once again, AAE speakers follow these rules and use these patterns in their speech when they are talking about something that takes place frequently. Have you ever heard AAE speakers use this grammatical form or the pronunciation used above? Did you know what they meant, how they were used, or that they had a pattern?

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