African American Dialect
AAVE
African American Vernacular English (AAVE)—also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular(BEV), or Black Vernacular English (BVE)—is a variety (dialect, ethnolect, and sociolect) of American English, most commonly spoken today by urban working-classand largely bi-dialectal middle-class African Americans.[1] Non-linguists sometimes call it Ebonics (a term that also has other meanings and connotations).
It shares parts of its grammar and phonology with the dialects of the Southern United States. Several creolists, including William Stewart, John Dillard, and John Rickford, argue that AAVE shares so many characteristics with African creole dialects spoken in much of the world …show more content…
As in other dialects, it can be used where most other dialects would use am not, isn't, aren't, haven't and hasn't. However, in marked contrast to other varieties of English in the U.S., some speakers of AAVE also use ain't instead of don't, doesn't, or didn't (e.g., I ain't know that).[54] Ain't had its origins in common English, but became increasingly stigmatized since the 19th century. See also amn't.
Negative concord, popularly called "double negation", as in I didn't go nowhere; if the sentence is negative, all negatable forms are negated. This contrasts with standard written English conventions, which have traditionally prescribed that a double negative is considered incorrect to mean anything other than a positive (although this wasn't always so; see double negative).
In a negative construction, an indefinite pronoun such as nobody or nothing can be inverted with the negative verb particle for emphasis (e.g. Don't nobody know the answer, Ain't nothing going on.)
While these are features that AAVE has in common with Creole languages,[55] Howe and Walker use data from early recordings of African Nova Scotian English, Samaná English, and the recordings of former slaves to demonstrate that negation was inherited from nonstandard colonial
African American Vernacular English (AAVE)—also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular(BEV), or Black Vernacular English (BVE)—is a variety (dialect, ethnolect, and sociolect) of American English, most commonly spoken today by urban working-classand largely bi-dialectal middle-class African Americans.[1] Non-linguists sometimes call it Ebonics (a term that also has other meanings and connotations).
It shares parts of its grammar and phonology with the dialects of the Southern United States. Several creolists, including William Stewart, John Dillard, and John Rickford, argue that AAVE shares so many characteristics with African creole dialects spoken in much of the world …show more content…
As in other dialects, it can be used where most other dialects would use am not, isn't, aren't, haven't and hasn't. However, in marked contrast to other varieties of English in the U.S., some speakers of AAVE also use ain't instead of don't, doesn't, or didn't (e.g., I ain't know that).[54] Ain't had its origins in common English, but became increasingly stigmatized since the 19th century. See also amn't.
Negative concord, popularly called "double negation", as in I didn't go nowhere; if the sentence is negative, all negatable forms are negated. This contrasts with standard written English conventions, which have traditionally prescribed that a double negative is considered incorrect to mean anything other than a positive (although this wasn't always so; see double negative).
In a negative construction, an indefinite pronoun such as nobody or nothing can be inverted with the negative verb particle for emphasis (e.g. Don't nobody know the answer, Ain't nothing going on.)
While these are features that AAVE has in common with Creole languages,[55] Howe and Walker use data from early recordings of African Nova Scotian English, Samaná English, and the recordings of former slaves to demonstrate that negation was inherited from nonstandard colonial