The changing attitudes towards and social standing of African Americans in the United States of American can be clearly seen in the different names given to the variety of English spoken by this minority – from Negro Dialect to African American English (AAE). Melchers (2003; p 84) defines AAE as the variety “used by the black population of the USA, but not by all and to a varying degree”.
Historical and Sociolinguistic
The English language was brought to the US by British settlers around 1600, beginning with the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. Africans were first transported to the US in 1619, by the Dutch, for slave labour. The first African slaves to be brought to the US were purchased by planters after having first been transported to the Caribbean islands, such as Barbados, as slave labour on the sugar plantations there. These African slaves were generally brought to the Southern states of the US, such as Virginia, Georgia, and South and North Carolina.
There have been several different theories proposed to account for the origins of AAE.
The Anglicist hypothesis maintains that Africans transported to the US were similar to any other immigrant group; they brought their own native language from Western Africa with them, but over the generations they would have acquired the local varieties of English from plantation owners or other indentured slaves, leaving only minor traces of the native African language. This theory is unlikely to be the true origin of AAE, however. As Wolfram (2000) has pointed out, the earliest Africans transported for slavery would not have all spoken the same language and their exposure to English would have varied depending on the location they were moved to. This theory, therefore, does not give any reason to believe there was an easy transition to a homogenized variety of English.
There are two different versions of the Creolist hypothesis; the strong theory and the weak theory. The strong theory argues that a creole, similar to Gullah, was spoken widely by African slaves in the South in the antebellum period and that AAE is a remnant of this creole. Gullah is an English based creole spoken by African slaves and their descendants. It was originally spoken from North Carolina to as far south as Florida, but today is mainly spoken in Georgia and the Sea Islands of South Carolina.
The weak version suggests that a pidgin was used during the formative stages of AAE and this has had an influence on the variety spoken today. This theory holds that while a creole may not have been widespread, some pidgin may have been used during the formative stages in the development of AAE that has had a lasting effect. (Davis: 2003)
However, new evidence came to light in the 1980’s which suggests that AAE was not as different from American English as the Creolist hypothesis would imply. Evidence such as written narratives of ex-slaves collected as part of the Works Project Administration and the Hyatt texts – interviews conducted with practitioners of voodoo in the 1930’s. From these texts we can see that AAE was not as distinct as would be necessary under the Creolist hypothesis. (Wolfram: 2005; 221).
AAE is distinct from standard American English, though not to a degree proposed in the Creolist hypothesis, and this is acknowledged in the neo-Anglicist hypothesis. Like the earlier Anglicist hypothesis, this suggests that AAE was influenced by the varieties spoken by the planters, but that it began to diverge from those once African Americans began to live in large groups in urban settings. Lieber (1849-51; 153) showed how Irish words did have some influence on the African slaves, such as the use of the word ‘biant’, meaning ‘beyond’ in Irish, was used by the slaves to mean ‘too bad’ or ‘beyond endurance’, so local varieties did clearly have some influence on AAE.
The Substrate hypothesis proposes that, originally, AAE may have used many local dialectal features, but that a substrate effect had already taken place before the initial contact with people from the Southern US states. A substrate effect is when initial contact with a language or variety has an enduring influence. The slaves that were originally in the Caribbean before being moved to the US could have been influenced by the Creoles spoken in countries such as Barbados.
Donald Winford has argued convincingly that it is none of these theories on their own, but rather a mixture of them that explains the origins of AAE. African’s new to the US would have been influenced by the settlers already there and also by new people moved there for the slave trade. African’s in some regions could have had a lot of contact with the plantation owners, indentured slaves from Europe, and other African slaves from west Africa and the Caribbean.
Winford maintains that it was essentially a form of language shift experienced by the African slaves that are the origins of AAE. For this he gives three explanations. Firstly, that some of the features were simply adopted from the local dialects. Secondly, some features were simplifications of features of the local dialects, such as copula absence. Thirdly, that distinctive features of AAE can be explained by substratum transfer or creole structural and semantic properties. Features such as absence of progressive be with auxiliaries can be explained by this, he maintains.
AAE is historically rooted in a rural labouring plantation variety of Southern English, but following its emergence on southern plantations it was subsequently spread to more urban, Northern areas. This is due to what became known as the Great Migration, when at the beginning of the 20th century large numbers of African Americans moved from to the Southern states to Northern cities, such as New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Census figures for 1910 show that almost 90% of African Americans lived in the south. By 1970, 47% of African Americans had moved northwards and by the time of the 2000 census 60% of African Americans were living in a Northern state (Wolfram: 2005; 224-5)
The move to the North was important because it meant large numbers of African Americans were now living in close proximity to one another. Policies such as segregation meant that African Americans were forced into an environment suitable to the development of an ethnically distinct variety.
The racism that African American men and women had to cope with throughout a large part of the twentieth century also included attitudes towards AAE. It was considered by many to be inferior to that spoken by white European Americans. In some cases speakers of AAE were thought to have mental difficulties because of the variety they used and in some instances people were institutionalised because of it.Speicher(1992; p 383) writes of the commonly held view of AAE at the time, that it “was considered an illiterate, illogical code without rules; in short, poorly learned English”, and that the government were no of help to the African American community, because the of the prescriptive approach taken to language in its focus on reading and writing in the educational system. This meant that AAE speaking children were “classified as learning disabled, language impaired, or deprived, and they were placed in special classes”.
This focus on prescriptivism did not end at secondary education, however. Geneva Napoleon Smitherman(1998; 139) has written about her experience of attending university and having to take a speech test. The African American students failed the exam and subsequently had to see a speech therapist before beginning university. The speech therapist, recognising there was nothing physically wrong with any of these people, simply taught them how to memorize the standard American English pronunciation for the words on the test. Thus, they all passed the exam on the second attempt.
This view of AAE began to change in 1979, with the case of Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School Children et al. v. Ann Arbor School District. In 1974, the case of Lau v. Nichols had set a precedent when a group of Chinese American students successfully argued that they were entitled to special help in school due to their limited English proficiency. In the 1979 case, it was argued that the school district failed to take into account the language African American children spoke in the home when providing education. The court judged that the school district must use its knowledge of AAE when teaching students to read Standard American English (SAE).
After this, in December, 1996, the Oakland school board declared that AAE was a language in its own right, sparking the “Oakland Ebonics controversy”. They said that “LEP (Limited English proficient) African American pupils are equally entitled to be provided bilingual education and ESL (English as a second language) programs to address their LEP needs” (Smith: 1998; p 58). The controversy culminated in a hearing of a United States Senate subcommittee on the status of AAE in American education. However, it should be noted that the Oakland school board did not consult any linguists when deciding on the status of AAE, and it has been pointed out by John Baugh (2000; 37-48) that the board would have benefited financially from changing the classification.
The view of AAE among African Americans is a mixed one. Spreicher’s (1992) study among African American academics showed that a small section of the African American community, at least, feel uncomfortable about using AAE in all situations and would code switch between AAE and SAE. The respondents all claimed that they could not use AAE in the work place or in other formal settings, instead preferring to use SAE. They reported that they would only use AAE with family members, in relaxed social settings among other AAE speakers, or in church.
In another context, Fordham and Ogbu (1986; 226-227) have shown how some members of the African American community use AAE to reflect their own identity in relation to society. The use of features of AAE is important as they emphasize the speaker’s identity as an African American. They write that among high school students:
part of what it means to speak African American English is the use of features associated with AAE; however, the avoidance of features associated with regional and standard “White speech” is also important…the adoption of standard English is at the top of the inventory of prominent behaviours listed by African American high school students as “acting White”.
This means African American teenagers define themselves as not being White. The use of distinctive features of AAE, such as remote been, are more common among young African Americans. The reason for this could be that it is a feature not seen in SAE, and therefore marks the speaker as being an African American and not a White European American.
Wolfram (2005) has observed that changes in variety among African Americans do not occur while it is happening in the varieties of white European Americans. While varieties in major cities across the US are undergoing change, within African American communities features can be seen to be intensifying and new features appearing.
In recent years the use of AAE has begun to be adopted by members of different social groupings other than African Americans. Igoudin (2008) has documented the use of AAE among Asian American high school girls. Surprisingly, she found their use of it was quite similar to that of African American academics. They reported that they would use AAE among friends and in informal settings, but knew when SAE was required of them and would code switch to that variety in appropriate circumstances, such as addressing a teacher. Igoudin’s finding was that for the girls “Aligning themselves properly with the tastes of a subcultural peer group earns substantial social capital” (p 2).
Lee (1999) has also found something similar in the growing use of AAE in the media. She found an increase in the use of AAE in certain sections of newspapers, mostly covering music, films, television, and sports. The journalists writing these pieces want to identify themselves with the perceived prestige around AAE and the social capital that is associated with it. Lee found that 40% of the articles that use AAE were about African Americans and that these journalists use AAE slang in an attempt “to illustrate that they are as “cool” and “hip” as the African Americans about whom they write by using black language when writing about African Americans or African-American culture” (p 379).
From Igoudin and Lee’s research we can deduce that AAE has gained prestige in the last number of years, although a markedly different kind of prestige to SAE. While SAE is still used in formal settings, such as the classroom and when discussing politics or world events in the media, AAE is more popular for informal topics. African American culture has been so influential in arts and music since the jazz age, that the use of AAE gives the speaker a certain amount of prestige by identifying themselves with that culture. Lee writes that journalists would like to appear as “cool” and “hip” as the people they are writing about, but even those words have come from AAE.
Features
There are many features that mark AAE as distinct from other varieties of American English. Phonologically, AAE has many similarities to other varieties, but Labov (1972) has noted an absence of liquids /r/ and /l/ in the variety. The liquid /r/ will become a glide or be deleted before a vowel and postconsonantal /r/ will be deleted. In the case of /l/ it will be replaced by a back unrounded glide, [ɣ], or may be deleted if preceding a back rounded vowel.
It is in the morphosyntax of AAE that distinguishes it most from other varieties. Habitual be is probably the most salient feature of AAE. The use of habitual be is distinct from that of ordinary finite be. Habitual be can require do support, it is not necessary in any situation, and can be used with finite forms of be, as in the sentence 1.
1. She be standin’ with her hand in her pocket, and her friend is standin’ there, and a man is messin’ with her friend.
The use of habitual be may be age graded, however, as most studies show that its use is most prominent with younger speakers.
The copula in AAE is one of its most distinctive and documented features. Studies show that this is one of the most stable features of AAE. In AAE the copula may, as well as contracting, also be absent, as in a sentence such as 2.
2. They acting silly.
Labov (1972) wrote that this was due to the fact that contraction and deletion are under the same constraint.
Wolfram (2004) has recorded a feature that is relatively new to AAE in the use of the auxiliary had with a past or perfect form of the verb to indicate a simple past tense action, as in such sentences as 3.
3. They had went outside.
The use of possessive pronouns is a distinctive trait of AAE. It is common among both urban and rural speakers of AAE to use they in utterances such as 4
4. It’s they book
Linguistic Camouflaging
AAE employs interesting use of linguistic camouflaging. The use of auxiliaries such as come and steady set AAE apart from other varieties. The use of auxiliary come with V-ing can be used to convey a sense of indignation in the speaker, as in 5.
5. He come walkin’ in here like he owned the place.
Whereas the use of auxiliary steady can mark a continuative activity in a more intensifying form, as seen in sentence 6.
6. Ricky Bell be steady steppin’ in them number nines.
Wolfram (1994) has done the most research into the use of this feature. He writes that this feature may have been overlooked because of the emphasis on phonological and morphosyntactic research originally. The feature appears to be similar to acrolectal forms of English, but does in fact have culturally embedded evaluative functions for members of the African American community.
Wolfram has come to the conclusion that stress is not necessary for this feature, it is from pragmatics that the meaning of the utterance comes across. This type of feature occurs most frequently with a subject pronoun, or with an elliptical subject in sentence 7
7. 0 call themselves dancing
Wolfram suggests that this shows that this feature is heavily contextualised.
Although it occurs most frequently with a subject pronoun it can also occur with a noun subject in sentences 8 a and b
8. a. That man call(s) himself fixing my car.
8. b. The woman called herself working.
Comment b indicates that a woman was trying to work, but was failing. The meaning of this sentence comes from the speakers evaluation of the activity rather than the person performing attempting to work.
As this feature has become more widespread among African Americans it has taken on some additional functions. Firstly, it is also used as an indirect accusation, such as
9. What do you call yourself doing?
A question like this will usually receive a response such as 10
10. I call myself minding my own business
This response now loses the counterfactual call and instead becomes a statement of actual behaviour.
The second function that this feature now plays is that of a form of sarcasm. It is a type of ritualistic insult, something that is quite common among members of the African American community and has been well documented.
Remote Been
Remote been is one of the features most associated with AAE and has been well documented by Rickford (1999). The use of been can perform an aspectual function if used with a past tense form of a verb which will mark an occasion in the recent or distant past. Been can be used in a stressed or unstressed manner and depending on how it occurs will have different syntactic constraints.
If been is stressed it is capable of signalling remoteness on its own, such as 11
11. I been had this
and requires no other temporal markers in the sentence. However, unstressed been does not function in this way. Instead, unstressed been appears frequently with temporal adverbs and specifiers, as seen in 12
12. I been playing cards since I was four.
Time adverbials are, in fact, restricted from occurring with stressed been. This shows the semantic difference between the two forms. The only utterances where time adverbials can appear with stressed been are seen in 13
13. He been home – since last week
Unstressed been can occasionally appear with have preceding, such as 14
14. ‘Cause I’ve been through it. I’ve been through them changes
This would mean that unstressed been can be classed as a present perfect, which stressed been cannot.
When stressed been is followed by a non-stative verb it signals that something is complete and in the past, as in 15
15. She ain’t tell me that today, you know. She been tell me that.
However, if stressed been is followed by a stative verb it signals that something began in the distant past but is still ongoing, as in sentence 16
16. I been had this.
Bibliography
Baugh, John. 2000. Beyond ebonics: linguistic pride and racial prejudice. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Davis, Stuart. 2003. “Is this Negroish or Irish?” African American English, the antebellum writings of Francis Lieber, and the origins controversy. American Speech, Vol 78, No. 3, pp. 285-306
Fordham, Signithia, and John Ogbu. 1986. Black students’ school success: coping with the burden of “acting white.” Urban Review, 18: 176-206}
Igoudin, Lane. 2008. Asian American girls who speak African American English: a subcultural language identity. Speech presented at AILA, Essen, Germany.
Labov, William. 1972. Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Lee, Margaret G.. 1999. Out of the hood and into the news: borrowed black verbal expressions in a mainstream newspaper. American Speech, Vol. 74, No. 4, pp. 369-38
Lieber, Francis. 1849–51. Americanisms, Anglicisms, etc, etc.. Unpublished MS. Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Melchers, Gunnel and Philip Shaw. 2003. World Englishes: an introduction. London: Arnold.
Rickford, John R. 1999. African American vernacular English: features, evolution, educational implications. Stanford University: Blackwell.
Smith, Ernie. 1998. What is Black English, what is ebonics? In Theresa Perry and Lisa Delpit (eds.). The real ebonics debate: power, language, and the education of African American children. Pp. 49-58. Boston: Beacon Press.
Smitherman, Geneva Napoleon. 1998. “Dat Teacher Be Hollin at Us”: What Is Ebonics? TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp 139-143
Speicher, Barbara L. and Seane M. McMahon. 1992 .Some African-American perspectives on Black English vernacular. Language in Society, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 383-407
Winford, Donald. 1997. On the Origins of African American Vernacular English – A Creolist Perspective. Diachronica, Vol. 14, pp 305 – 343
Wolfram, Walt. 1994. On the Sociolinguistic Significance of Obscure Dialect Structures: The [NPi Call NPi V-Ing] Construction in African-American Vernacular English. American Speech, Vol. 69, No. 4, pp. 339-360.
Wolfram, Walt and Dan Beckett. 2000. The role of the individual and group in earlier African American English. American Speech, Vol. 75, No. 1, pp. 3-33
Wolfram, Walt. 2004. Urban African American vernacular English: Morphology and syntax. In Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Scheider (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English: Vol 2: Morphology and syntax. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Wolfram, Walt and Natalie Schilling-Estes. 2005. American English: Dialects and variation. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell.
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