African American English
Introduction
The variety of English known as African American English (AAE) or African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is spoken natively by both working- and middle-class African Americans and is primarily used in urban communities. AAE is widespread throughout the United States, but it is not the native dialect of all African Americans, nor are all of its speakers African American.
AAE is made up of components of “standard English, dialectal English, innovative developments, and [some] creole,” with the proportions of all of those components varying from conversation to conversation, from speaker to speaker, and from region to region. Not all African Americans will express AAE the same way: there are notable differences between how the same linguistic structure is produced in different regions of the United States. Additionally, the same person may produce the same linguistic structure differently at different times, perhaps using some AAE-exclusive structures only some of the time. In our analysis, we attempted to include features you are most likely to encounter in speech language pathology.
Theories of AAE Origin
Anglicist Theory: The English Origins Hypothesis (EOH) states that “the distinctive features of AAE [African American English] were transmitted largely intact from earlier nonstandard varieties of English.” In other words, this theory is that AAE’s structures came from earlier nonstandard varieties of English. This theory assumes that, although some of AAE’s important grammatical features appear to be ungrammatical according to the rules of Standard American English, these features were once more general and have disappeared over time.
Creole Theory: The other strongest theories of AAE’s origin contend that AAE originated from “a widespread full creole across large areas of the American South.” Because large groups of slaves were trafficked from all parts of Africa through the Caribbean islands and to the Southern colonies of the United States, and because these slaves were from various African tribes speaking various languages, the claim is that they might have formed a pidgin—and then eventually a creole—to communicate. “The conditions for the importation of creole English from the Caribbean,” from the founding of the American colonies until the end of the 1800s, “are very strong.” This creole would have been the beginnings of AAE.
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The Anglicist theory and the creole theory are the two main theories of how AAE was developed. Although at first glance they seem mutually exclusive, Winford argues that they are both beneficial to us. “The different positions complement each other” and “together. . . offer the most comprehensive view” of the origins of AAE.
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In any case, AAE can be traced back to the first hundred years of the British colonizing America, coming from varieties spoken “in the Chesapeake Bay area (Virginia and Maryland), and in the Carolinas”; this is also true of SWAVE (Southern White American Vernacular English). These two dialects have evolved together and influenced each others’ developments.
Pronunciation
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Metathesis of final /s/ + stop.
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Example: ask becoming [æks]​
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1:48 - “And they asked [æks], “Howard, what are you doing?’”
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4:42 - “I mean come on you asked [ækst] for it.”
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Vocalization of postvocalic /l/: the /l/ sound that occurs after a vowel is pronounced with a vowel-like sound.
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Example: bell is [bεɤ]; pool is [puɤ]​
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2:46 - “And the church was full [fuɤ].”
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Final consonant cluster reduction.
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Example: the cluster [nd] in round is [n]
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0:24 - “These takes the shapes of long, round [ɹæÊŠn], arch, with its path high."
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Syllable-initial fricative stopping (replacing /d/ for /ð/ when it occurs initially. This does not occur for the voiceless /θ/).
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Example: These as [diz]​
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​2:30 - "It was about 3000 students there [der]."
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Stopping of voiceless interdental fricatives in the medial or final positions (replacing with /t/ or just deleting altogether).
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with becomes [wɪt]
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2:10 - “...so Sarah was able to hold onto her, and give her a relaxing bath [bæ:t]…”
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Labialization of interdental fricatives (/f/ and /v/ for /θ/ and /ð/ in the medial and final positions. This does not occur in the initial position).
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Example: Brother as [bɹʌvə], teeth [tif]
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​1:06 - "... and that's in Winston-Salem North [nɔrf] Carolina."
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R-lessness.
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The /r/ sound is dropped after vowels
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2:20 - “Everybody came out of nowhere [noÊŠwɛə].”
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Grammar
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Absence of copula: the to be linking verb is omitted, but the stative meaning is preserved.
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1:48 - “I also have, uh, several step chi’ren, with they all mine.
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Standard English: "They are all mine."​
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2:42 - “An’, by the way, he 89 now, an’ I’m 52, so you can see the age diff’n’.”
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Standard English: “He is 89 now.”
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Absence of auxiliary verbs: verbs such as to have or to be are omitted, but meaning is preserved.
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1:45 - “They seen that I had pre-Algebra.”​
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Standard English: “They had seen.”​
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Preverbal marker: finna. It is typically preceded by auxiliary to be and is followed by a non-finite verb form. Finna originates from fixing to which is equivalent to 'going to' in Standard English.
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Example: “She was finna go to the party.”
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Standard English: “She was going to go to the party.”
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Be + present participle. This form indicates a habitual action.
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2:06 - “They’d be goin’ to the field.”
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In Standard English, you can express habitual actions with adverbs such as usually or often, as in “They often went to the field.”
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Lexicon
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Brotha/Sista - ‘Brother and sister.’
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What’s up, brotha? You good today?
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That sista over there is always lookin’ out for us.
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Bad - ‘Really good.’
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Man, that car is bad! You see those rims?
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Cat - ‘Friend.’
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I was chillin’ with this cat from school yesterday.
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Goin’ down - ‘To be happening.’
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You comin’ to the party tonight? It’s goin’ down at 8.
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Pad - ‘House.’
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You can crash at my pad if you need, tonight.
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Props - ‘Respect.’
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Mad props to you for gettin’ that promotion!
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Thang - ‘Thing.’
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That’s not my thang but go for it.
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To play - ‘To deceive.’
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Why you tryna play me? I thought you was being serious.
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Wit - ‘With.’
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I’m cool wit whatever we wanna do tonight.
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Word - ‘Positive, reinforcing response to a previous statement.’
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"I’m goin’ to see the new movie this weekend!" "Word! That’s sick!"
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Get over - ‘To take advantage of, to succeed by using wit but little effort.’
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The students tried to get over the teacher.
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The students tried to get over on the teacher
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Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation
Word
Standard American
AAE
Brother [bɹʌðÉš] [bɹʌvÉ™]
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Teeth [tiθ] [tif]
References
1. Walter F. Edwards in A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool, eds. Edgar W. Schneider et al., vol. 1, Phonology (Mouton De Gruyter, 2004), 383.
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2. Edgar W. Schneider, Varieties of English: The Americas and the Caribbean (Mouton de Gruyter, 2008), https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110208405.
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3. Edgar W. Schneider, “Documenting the History of African American Vernacular English: A Survey and Assessment of Sources and Results,” in The Oxford Handbook of African American Language, ed. Sonja Lanehart (Oxford University Press, 2015), 136.
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4. Schneider, “Documenting the History of African American Vernacular English,” 136; and Walt Wolfram and Mary E. Kohn, “Regionality in the Development of African American English,” in The Oxford Handbook of African American Language, ed. Sonja Lanehart (Oxford University Press, 2015), 143.
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5. Gerard Van Herk, “The English Origins Hypothesis,” in The Oxford Handbook of African American Language, ed. Sonja Lanehart (Oxford University Press, 2015), 23.
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6. Van Herk, “The English Origins Hypothesis,” in The Oxford Handbook, 23.
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7. Van Herk, “The English Origins Hypothesis,” in The Oxford Handbook, 24.​​​
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8. John R. Rickford, “The Creole Origins Hypothesis,” in The Oxford Handbook of African American Language, ed. Sonja Lanehart (Oxford University Press), 41.
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9. Winford, “The Origins of African American Vernacular English,” in The Oxford Handbook, 101.
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10. Donald Winford, “The Origins of African American Vernacular English: Beginnings,” in The Oxford Handbook of African American Language, ed. Sonja Lanehart (Oxford University Press, 2015) 85.
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11. Winford, “The Origins of African American Vernacular English,” in The Oxford Handbook, 85.
12. Salikoko S. Mufwene et al., eds., African-American English: Structure, History, and Use (Routledge, 2021), https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003165330.
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13. Mufwene et al., African-American English.
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14. Mufwene et al., African-American English.
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15. Mufwene et al., African-American English.
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16. Mufwene et al., African-American English.
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17. Mufwene et al., African-American English.
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18. Erik Thomas, “Phonological and Phonetic Characteristics of African American Vernacular English,” Language and Linguistics Compass 1, no. 5 (2007): 450–475, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818x.2007.00029.x.
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19. Margaret E. L. Renwick and Bailey Bigott, “African American Language,” Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, University of Georgia, https://mrenwick.franklinresearch.uga.edu/southern_speech/AAL; and Walt Wolfram, “Urban African American Vernacular English: Morphology and Syntax,” in A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool, eds. Edgar W. Schneider et al., vol. 2, Morphology and Syntax (De Gruyter Mouton, 2004), 319–339.
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20. Renwick and Bigott, “African American Language,”; and Wolfram, “Urban African American Vernacular English,” 1511–1532.
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21. Lisa J. Green, African American English: A Linguistic Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2002), 70–71; and Wolfram, “Urban African American Vernacular English,” 1511–1532.
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22. Green, African American English, 45–54.
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23. Renwick and Bigott, “African American Language.”
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24. Renwick and Bigott, “African American Language.”
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25. Renwick and Bigott, “African American Language.”
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26. Mufwene et al., African-American English; and Renwick and Bigott, “African American Language.”
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27. Renwick and Bigott, “African American Language.”
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28. Renwick and Bigott, “African American Language.”
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29. Mufwene et al., African-American English; and Renwick and Bigott, “African American Language.”
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30. Renwick and Bigott, “African American Language.”
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31. Mufwene et al., African-American English; and Renwick and Bigott, “African American Language.”
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32. Mufwene et al., African-American English; and Renwick and Bigott, “African American Language.”
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33. Green, African American English, 21; and Mufwene et al., African-American English.
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Recordings
North Carolina 5︱IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive. (1999, August 12). https://www.dialectsarchive.com/north-carolina-5.
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Missouri 24︱IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive. (2014, September 9). https://www.dialectsarchive.com/missouri-24.
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Michigan 9︱IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive. (2004, October 18). https://www.dialectsarchive.com/michigan-9
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District of Columbia 3︱IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive. (2020, August 20). https://www.dialectsarchive.com/district-of-columbia-3.
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Illinois 4︱IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive. (1999, October 14). https://www.dialectsarchive.com/illinois-4.
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Mississippi 2︱IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive. (2008, January 14). https://www.dialectsarchive.com/mississippi-2.
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Mississippi 3︱IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive. (2000). https://www.dialectsarchive.com/mississippi-3.