Although I have known about AAE for quite some time, but I have never been around someone who uses it and have only heard about it briefly. I did not truly understand how different African American Vernacular English is from Standard American English until I read this book. Through the book, A Piece of Cake, I learned that AAE is a dialect that is similar to SAE, but has different grammatical and phonological aspects associated with it as well as certain vocabulary. For example, some of the vocabulary that Cupcake uses throughout the book is specific to AAE itself. She used the term “ghetto star” on page one hundred-thirty and described it as a popular term used among the African American gangs that symbolizes someone who is highly respected in the gang. Cupcake also goes on to describe a ghetto star as someone who is not afraid of doing things like fighting, killing, and robbing others. Another thing that can be learned about the cultural language is that the final syllable or morpheme of certain words are often reduced. For example, the word “your” is commonly said as “yo” in the book, and words ending with an “ing,” like jumping, are often pronounced like …show more content…
However, when the book came to a close, it told a wonderful story of a woman who was once at the bottom and brought her life into perspective while becoming successful. Through Cupcakes story, she showed African American culture through African American Vernacular English. A Piece of Cake also was enlightening to two particular themes, conflict and violence, and