African-American Vernacular English

African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a name for the way some African-American people talk in English.^[1] Linguists named it AAVE, which is used by some non-black people. Some of the dialects' pronunciations and grammar are similar to how West African languages.^[source?]

Overview

AAVE first came about in the 16th and the 17th centuries.^[2] It became famous in 1996, when some educators in Oakland, California, said they wanted to use AAVE to help teach black kids. They called it Ebonics, but the term often has a negative connotation.^[source?] There are many rules that govern how the sounds of AAVE are different from standard English. Some have to do with pronunciation and vocabulary, or lexicon, but most have to do with grammar, including verb tenses and sentence structure.^[source?]

Hip hop

Hip hop music has made AAVE more famous since the 1980s. Some people think it is cool and try to speak or learn it even if they are not really familiar with it. Some non-black people speak it well.^[source?] AAVE is influenced by Southern American English spoken by their white slave masters.^[source?]

Phonology

Many features set AAVE apart from other forms of American English. McWhorter^[who?] argues that what truly unites all AAVE accents is a uniquely wide-ranging intonation pattern or "melody", which characterizes even the most "neutral" or light African-American accent. Many versions of African American Vernacular English are non-rhotic engaging in r-dropping, turn the i diphthong into a monothong alike.^[3] Many multisyllabic words in AAVE differ from General American in their stress placement. For instance, police, guitar, and Detroit are pronounced with initial stress instead of stress on the last syllable or neutral stress.^[4]

Related pages

• British English
• Canadian English
• Southern American English