African American English (AAE): A Sociolinguistic Perspective - Essay Sample

Introduction

African American English (AAE), also popularly known as Black English in American linguistics, is defined as a set of English dialects that the black people in the United States primarily speak. It is also common in some parts of Canada where in most cases, it refers to a dialect continuum that ranges from African-American vernacular to a version of English, which is more standard (Wolfram and Thomas). There are a lot of variations in AAE, such as in sociolinguistic criteria, features that are region-specific, urban versus rural characteristics, and the standard and vernacular forms. The AAE has also had a significant body of oral tradition and African American literature for centuries. Notably, the AEE has experienced a lot of changes over time until presently, where it uses is not standard and is subject to a lot of contemporary changes (Poplack). This essay discusses various aspects of African American English from its history, features, and elements such as phonology, and various changes that it has been faced over time.

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There are three fundamental theories of African American English. It includes baby talk theory, which is now outdated. It is said that AAE developed from a simple English form to allow for communication between the slaves and their masters (Mufwene). It is supposed to be akin to early childhood language. Creole hypothesis AAE is thought to have developed from slaves who had varied linguistic backgrounds on the plantations. The segregation hypothesis or dialect origin view theory views African American English to have come from English dialects that have been borrowed from others, thus creating some independent features.

Sources of African American English

The set of variables that have been mentioned above are traceable to some English forms that developed in the Caribbean during the 17th century. English took form in this area because of the slave trade, which was being initiated by the European powers in the 16th century, such as England, Spain, and others. The trade dictated that the individuals should be taken from West African countries, and they were transported to the Caribbean islands where they worked on European plantations. They were then forced to stay in the plantations where they worked on cotton and tobacco farms. Linguistic nature and assumptions were developed as they were mixed from different tribes hence preventing them from plotting. They moved to the Caribbean, and the language grew to a fully-fledged creole-based English fragment, which constituted of re-structuring and putting together various English varieties.

Another hypothesis that explains the origin of African American English is that the specific features that it has resulted from contacts with English dialects. The dialects had been transported from the southern United States by white settles (Hall, Dianne, and Elizabeth Malcolm). It continued to grow in isolation within various groups for a couple of centuries. It is, however, undeniable that AAE has come up with its features, but it has a lot of structural similarities with Caribbean creole. This aspect of the language has undergone a lot of changes and decreolization of varying degrees hence making its degree of approximation almost the same as the case American English that surrounds it. There are a lot of debates and controversies regarding the structural characteristics of African American English. For instance, it has a habitual aspect of Caribbean creole features that are also found in West Atlantic languages, which gave provision of substrate input to the early forms of Caribbean area English (Lanehart). As such, it is found to indicate creolization and has inherited a lot of features from African languages.

Vocabulary

African American English has a lot of vocabulary that has a West African origin. Some of these include buckra to mean 'white man,' and tote inferring to carry. Other terms are more obvious, especially when referring to food such as yam for 'sweet potatoes' and goober for 'peanut.' Also, there is a semantic extension from English existing words that can be found, such as homies for close friends. It originated from the aspect of sharing the same spell in prison (Lambert). Other terms include rednecks to mean poor southern whites, whities to mean the white people, and blood when inferring to other blacks. However, some of the terms seem to have some form of symbolism like 'honkey' which is sometimes used when referring to a white person. This aspect is, however, not easy to quantify.

Phonology

The phonology for African Americans is quite different from the rest because it does not use the same kind of pattern when forming words and phrases that make sense. Spelling for many variants of the English language is consistent, and there is an exception regarding African American English. Some aspects of AAE language phonology include non-rhotic where they do not pronounce /r/. For instance, party [pa:ti], car [ka:]. There is also a frequent deletion of final /l/, especially in labials or words that has auxiliaries, help [hep] is one such example, and he'll be gone should mean 'he will be gone.' The AAE allows the use of stress, which often is on some words that have two syllables, such as to define [di: fain] and police [po:lis]. Moreover, there is a glide reduction in its phenotype. This feature is often applicable in American English of the southern whites and typical in African American English and other English varieties such as that of South Africa.

It is used in both /au/ and /ai/ where it has slight retraction of second diphthong onset hence maintaining a distinction between the varied phonemes. Example include loud [l:d], house [h:s], time [ta:m], and wife [wa:f]. Also, the short // and // distinction is often lost before nasals like in other forms of American English. The vowel [] is raised hence giving a neutralization. Examples are ten, tin [tn], and pen, pin [pn]. African American English has a form where the final word position /θ/ is often shifted to [f]. Also is found in some aspect of the language for internal word position of /ð/ (> [v]). A few examples include, brother [brve], teeth [ti:f], and bath [ba:f]. African American English is different from most of the varieties of English since it has phonemic length distinction whereby various vowel only differs by the length. The consonants in African American English are the same as the ones used in non-rhotic English varieties. The comparison to other varieties used in a similar environment has a flapped variant of /d/ and /t/ like in common American English.

Morphology and Syntax

African American English has a lot of negative negation. The feature is taking shape, and a lot of people, even those who are not in the same context, use it quite often. It is in several varieties of non-standard English, and it serves the purpose of intensifying the negation. It should not be confused with neutralizing the statement. It is termed as 'negative concord' since the polarities have to agree with each other. That is, they all have to be negative or all positive (Gnevsheva, Ksenia, et al.). For example, "I ain't going' nowhere, and I can give nobody nothing.' There is also a lot of replacement of existential words such as 'there ain't no food at home. Also, the plurals in most cases are not preceded by the appropriate numerals; such an example is, "he gone for four years now." The aspect of ownership where is /s/ is put is not always possible. For instance, one can say something like, "I ate my momma food." African American English also has a formal distinction between the second person plural and singular. The element is realized in the use of you [ju:] for singular for where the plural for the same is y'all [j:l], which got its derivation from you and all. The African American English shares this feature with American English spoken by the southern whites. The only distinctions which can be found are from the many dialects of English such as you # yez or you # youse or you # ye. Here 'yez' is used as a double marked plural form whereas "ye" is used as a second person plural noun. "Thank you, y'all for coming" can be translated to "thank you all for coming."

Most aspect of African American English used in the societal and social perspective can only be understood by the local since there is a lot of words borrowing from the local sublanguages. However, most of these terms are often relatable and applicable only in unofficial or informal settings. For instance, a piece of equipment that has fallen would be said to have bunged up where it has gone bung, or it is on the bung. The term within the setting is used to describe a person who is pretending to be hurt. An example where it can be used is saying that a person is bunging on it.

Varieties of AAE

The present African American English has a lot of differences regarding how it is used. Most of the slang terms are fairly general, such as the use of dude for 'male,' hip for 'knowledge,' cool for 'good,' or something admirable. However, it is considerable to note that most of the terms have been diffused and are now used in the general American English in which some of the words like 'cool' have been normalized (Leitner). The black streets gangs have characteristic in-group languages, especially in major cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York. The African American English here has a quite pragmatic discourse hence making it different from that of the white Americans. Verbal insulting is normal and takes subtle and ritual forms, and sometimes rhythmic eloquence, which is now popularly known as rapping.

The obligatory and variable rules that are applied in AAE applies to most words and are not consistent. For instance, the rule would ensure the deletion of the ending of regular verbs in their past tenses, such as looked to 'luk.' It is obligatory, on the other hand, as it leads to a reduction of clusters that are in singular words such as desk to 'des.' The rule does not occur to all words; hence cannot be classified as a general rule.

Works Cited

Lambert, James. "African American English: Pronunciation And Transcription." African American Journal Of Linguistics, vol 33, no. 1, 2013, pp. 85-88. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/07268602.2013.768154.

Lanehart, Sonja L. Sociocultural And Historical Contexts Of African American English. Benjamins Publ., 2001.

Leitner, Gerhard. African American English - The National Language. De Gruyter, 2004.

Mufwene, Salikoko S. African-American English. Routledge, 2007.

Poplack, Shana. The English History Of African American English. Blackwell Publishers, 2000.

Wolfram, Walt, and Erik R Thomas. The Development Of African American English. Blackwell Publishers, 2002.