5.2.1 Black English: history
Black English (henceforth BE) has also been elsewhere referred to as African American Vernacular English (abbreviated to AAVE), African American English (AAE), Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV), and Black Vernacular English (BVE). In addition, it is sometimes called Ebonics or Inner City5 English (ICE).
As far as its origin is concerned, several hypotheses have been formulated. According to one view, it is based on the English that African slaves learnt from their masters as a second language, but as the children of the slaves learnt English from their parents (rather than their masters) throughout the generations, this resulted in a kind of "imperfect" acquisition, with ensuing divergence from Standard English.
Nowadays, however, another view is more popular. Some authors claim that American BE is a de-creolized (see above) form of a so-called Plantation Creole (ultimately deriving from WAPE), which was once spoken throughout the American South (and Gullah* is possibly related to it), therefore BE has the traces of the West African languages originally spoken by the black slaves. This is the so-called creole hypothesis. In fact, most coursebooks today admit that both explanations may hold true to a
5 Inner city is a euphemism for the ghetto.
5.2.1 BLACK ENGLISH: HISTORY
certain extent, and both factors may have contributed to how the present-day lexis and structure of BE is built up.
Another riddle in connection with (American) BE concerns its relationship to the linguistic south of the US (cf. Chapter 4.2.2 – also see the discussion there). It is the naked truth that BE shares many features with southern US (white) speech. The basic question here is whether it is Southern US English that has affected (especially the pronunciation of) American BE, or the other way round. Most probably, though, there has always been a two-way interchange, which has produced a reciprocal influence. As for the English lexicon, the BE influence is undeniable, since certain vocabulary items even percolated into Standard English, such as jive, chill out, soulmate, juke(box), jazz and threads 'clothing'. There have even been etymologies made up for inevitably the most widely recognized English word in the world, okay (or O.K.), according to which it has its origins in African languages, was carried to North America by the slaves, from where it has spread all over the globe (see Anecdotes in Section 5.4 below).
5.2.2 Black English: pronunciation
The major features shared by Southern US English and BE are the following:
- non-rhoticity: in its broadest variety, this is Type D non-rhoticity in Harris' system in Chapter 1.2.3, where the r is only pronounced when followed by a stressed vowel. That is, it is also dropped in words like Paris (which becomes homophonous to pass) or terrace (which becomes homophonous to Tess).
- l-deletion/vocalization: again, homophones arise like toll=toe, all=awe.
- consonant cluster simplification, especially finally, and especially that of an alveolar obstruent, so that meant=mend=men, past=passed=pass all sound the same. However, the deletion is more likely when the target is not a past tense morpheme (that is, deletion is more likely in past than in passed, although when it is the past tense inflection, even then there are more deletions in BE than in Southern US English).
- neutralization of [] and [] before nasals, therefore pin=pen both sound as [].
- monophthongization of the PRICE-vowel.
Interestingly, a well-known feature of BE pronunciation is shared by Cockney (Chapter 2.2) rather than US accents, namely TH-fronting: the
5.2.2 BLACK ENGLISH: PRONUNCIATION
fronting of the two interdentals [, ], that is, they are replaced by labiodental [f, v], respectively, e.g., brother [].
In addition, there are non-systematic pronunciation features, too, e.g., business [], ask [] (see metathesis* above), or initial stress in words like police.
5.2.3 Black English: grammatical and lexical features
Some of the grammatical and lexical features of BE are the following:
- double/multiple negation, e.g., Don't nobody know the answer 'Nobody knows the answer', Ain't nothin' goin' on 'Nothing is going on', I don't know nothing about no one no more 'I don't know anything about anybody anymore'.
- no copula (e.g., She my sister 'She is my sister'), but habitual/invariant be to express habitual actions and states, e.g., John happy 'John is happy now' vs. John be happy 'John is always happy', he working 'he is working now' vs. he be working 'he is always working'.
- the past tense and past participle forms of certain verbs, irregular in Standard English, are often identical, e.g., ate for eat, cf. I ain't/haven't ate for 'I haven't eaten'.
- zero relative in relative clauses, even in subject relatives, e.g., the man come here yesterday 'the man who came here yesterday'.
- question formation without inversion, e.g., Who that is?, and inversion in indirect questions, e.g., They asked could she go.
- double modals, e.g., I might could have gone.
- numerous characteristic vocabulary items, e.g., goober 'peanut', dig 'understand', bad-mouth 'criticize severely', gray 'white (man)', kitchen 'the particularly curly or kinky hair at the nape of the neck', siditty or seddity 'snobbish, bourgeois'.
5.2.4 British Black English
British BE is the variety spoken by the descendants of blacks living in Britain, originally coming from the Caribbean*. The most populous of its dialects is London* Jamaican (or British Jamaican Creole), a form of West Indian Creole. It resembles Jamaican Creole, although it does not contain many of the broadest creole forms. Most of its speakers usually speak London* English (especially women, or in formal situations), and they only speak the patois* on certain, informal occasions.