African American Vernacular English

African American Vernacular English is a language created by African American slaves who had to create a means of communication because they all spoke different languages and were not taught Standard American English. Words like “fam” and “hella” are more Black slang than they are African American Vernacular English , and it’s important to draw some distinctions between Black slang and African American Vernacular English when discussing issues like code-switching because the concept of code-switching really applies to African Americans who have been taught African American Vernacular English as a primary language and have to “switch” to their non-personal interactions in order to be more palatable. It’s not the same as removing newer idioms…

Did you know that Black English or African American Venicular Englsih was born by a combination of Africans grammar and what they heard from the White Europeans. Many believe that black english is wrong and it is slang, but in reality the black language is right. Black english is wright because it has its own history, grammar, phonology, lexicon, and intonation. First, I will talk about the history of African American English. African American english is also called Ebonics. Some scholars…

The persistence of Ebonics defies the intentions behind the dehumanization of African people. Furthermore, the use of Ebonics in literature highlights this defiance and persistence. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston paints the picture of displaced descendants of enslaved Africans lacking their native tongue in the color of their innovative vibrant language (Ebonics). In her use of Ebonics, Hurston promotes the value of African American language while adequately displaying the complexity…

working-class parents cannot provide. The cultural knowledge gained from these experiences are essential for success in the American educational…

In the article “Do You Speak American?” Robert MacNeil reminds us of one of the many reasons the United States is so linguistically diverse. He gives various examples of how American English has evolved throughout time. The analysis of the American language is meant for people who read the magazine, U.S.A. Today, but it also applies to a secondary audience, which are American English speakers. The author uses multicultural dialect to help explain forms of regional linguistics, rhetorical…

Introduction "Our language has more rhythmic tones," Ms. Hudson said. To some people, 'she be going ' just flows, it 's just a natural thing." Over decades, Linguists have attest to the Black English Vernacular (BEV) as being a remnants and a fusion of the West African Language used by enslaved persons brought to the Americas over 400 years ago. Enslaved people were denied a formal education, but were required to learn the language to communicate with white master, hence the BEV dialect was…

African American Vernacular English is also known as Ebonics is commonly defined as black English. While trying to define Ebonics on an American English grammatical level is tricky, there have been arguments on whether it should be considered a dialect or language. How one comprehends the meaning of Ebonics should do with their understanding of a play on words, while still allowing these similarities and difference to branch off English. There is more depth to Ebonics than people realize, from…

Ebonics, like all other vernaculars and dialects of English, is undergoing a constant yet nearly impercievable evolution. The jargon of african americans today could very well be unintellegeble to the african americans of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Perhaps one of the most accesible and legitimate illustrations of modern ebonic language can be found in rap and hip hop music. Simply browsing a list of the top 10 rap songs today will present you with prime examples of the vocabulary,…

autobiography by author Cupcake Brown. Her memoir is one that tells the riveting story of her as a young African American woman going through tough times and ends with her finding herself and pulling her life together. Through the experiences presented in her book, she gave an inside look to readers about African American culture, conflict and violence, self-esteem. The story follows a plot line of a little girl whom at first has a great life; her family, although not together, is happy.…

Features of British Isles speech have been lost and preserved in white and African American dialects, as well as some independent innovations: “These independent innovations have been facilitated by the relatively small amount of social contact between African Americans and whites in many parts of the USA” (Trudgill 52-53). By losing social contact with different social groups, our language can change or be altered because our interaction changes from old groups to possible new groups. For a…