3. Lexical peculiarities
For the most part, AAVE uses the lexicon of SAE, particularly informal and southern dialects. There are some notable differences, however. It has been suggested that some of this vocabulary has its origin in West African languages, but etymology is often difficult to trace and without a trail of recorded usage the suggestions below cannot be considered proven, and in many cases are not recognized by linguists or the Oxford English Dictionary.
dig from Wolof dëgg or dëgga, meaning "to understand/appreciate"
jazz
tote
bad-mouth, a calque from Mandinka (38)
AAVE also has words that either are not part of Standard American English, or have strikingly different meanings from their common usage in SAE. For example, there are several words in AAVE referring to white people which are not part of mainstream SAE; these include the use of gray as an adjective for whites (as in "gray dude"), possibly from the color of Confederate uniforms, possibly an extension of the slang use for "Irish", "Ofay," which is pejorative, is another general term for a white; it might derive from the Yoruba word ofe, spoken in hopes of disappearing from danger such as that posed by European traders. However, most dictionaries simply refer to this word as having an unknown etymology. Kitchen refers to the particularly curly or kinky hair at the nape of the neck, and siditty or seddity means snobbish or bourgeois. (39)
Past Tense Markers
Phonological Features
Consonant Cluster Simplification, or Reduction
Final Consonant Simplification, or Deletion
Final and Post-vocalic -r Variation
[I] + [n] is realized as [æ ] and [I] + [nk] is realized as [ænk]
[theta] > [f] in Word/Syllable-final Position
[ð] > [d] in Word/Syllable-inital Position
[ð] > [v] in Word/Syllable-medial Position
Remote phase marker
VOCABULARY
AAVE does not have a vocabulary separate from other varieties of English. However AAVE speakers do use some words which are not found in other varieties and furthermore use some English words in ways that differ from the standard dialects.
A number of words used in standard English may also have their origin in AAVE or at least in the West African languages that contributed to AAVE's development. These include:
banana (Mandingo)
yam (Mandingo)
okra (Akan)
gumbo (Western Bantu)
A discussion of AAVE vocabulary might proceed by noting that words can be seen to be composed of a form (a sound signal) and a meaning. In some cases both the form and the meaning are taken from West African sources. In other case the form is from English but the meaning appears to be derived from West African sources. Some cases are ambiguous and seem to involve what the late Fredric Cassidy called a multiple etymology (the form can be traced to more than one language -- e.g. "cat" below).(10,252)
West African Form + West African Meaning:
bogus 'fake/fraudulent' cf. Hausa boko, or boko-boko 'deceit, fraud'.
hep, hip 'well informed, up-to-date' cf. Wolof hepi, hipi 'to open one's eyes, be aware of what is going on'.
English Form + West African Meaning:
cat 'a friend, a fellow, etc.' cf. Wolof -kat (a suffix denoting a person)
cool 'calm, controlled' cf. Mandingo suma 'slow' (literally 'cool')
dig 'to understand, appreciate, pay attention' cf. Wolof deg, dega 'to understand, appreciate'
bad 'really good'
In West African languages and Caribbean creoles a word meaning 'bad' is often used to mean 'good' or 'alot/intense'. For instance, in Guyanese Creole mi laik am bad, yu noo means 'I like him alot'. Dalby mentions Mandingo (Bambara) a nyinata jaw-ke 'She's very pretty.' (literally 'She is beautiful bad.'); cf. also Krio ( a creole language spoken in West Africa) mi gud baad.
Black English also emplys a d sound for the voiced Standard English th at the beginning of the words such as the, that, those, there; which are replaced by duh, dat, dose, dere, and dey. Black English has the "d" mostly at the beginning of the words, but otherwise v for the voiced th. For example "other" may be pronounced as "ovvah". Another phonological characteristic is "r-lessness," or the dropping of r´s after vowels. At the end of the words that is shown by -ah, as in "evvah" for the word "ever" and "remembah" for "remember."
Black English also often simplifies or weakens consonant clusters at the ends of words. This tendency is quite strong; some words are regularly pronounced without the final consonant, such as jus´ and roun´. Nouns that end in a cluster such as -s, -p,-t or -k in Standard English will change in Black English so that those clusters are dropped and an "-es" is added in the plural. Thus "desk" becomes "des´" and the plural becomes "desses"; "test" becomes "tes´" and the plural becomes "tesses." (11, 78)
The most common application of elision or loss of unstressed word-initial syllable is the loss of the schwa in word-initial position, as in ´bout (about), ´gree (agree), ´low (allow). The unstressed word-initial syllables themselves may be lost, as in ´bacco (tobacco), ´cept (accept) and ´member (remember). (18.47)
Loan Translations:
Another interesting set of vocabulary items are called loan translations or "calques". In such cases a complex idea is expressed in some West African language by a combination of two words. In AAVE these African words appear to have been directly translated and the same concept is expressed by the combination of the equivalent English items
bad-eye 'nasty look', cf. Mandingo, nyE-jugu 'hateful glance' (lit. 'bad-eye')
big-eye 'greedy', cf. Ibo. anya uku 'covetous' (literally 'big-eye').
Any discussion of AAVE vocabulary must take note of the many recent innovations which occur in this variety and which tend to spread rapidly to other varieties of English. Most recent innovations are not enduring. These lexical items give regionally and generationally restricted varieties of AAVE their particular texture.
AAE is definitely not the only nonstandard vernacular spoken in the USA. Its excessive stigmatization and the related commitment on the part of some to eradicate it may have to do with negative attitudes inherited from the American colonial past, the period since which African Americans have been thought of as less intelligent. The very fact that vernaculars of the White middle-class have typically been identified by fiat as standard, although only some of them are close to it, reflects that prejudice, some tacit consensus in the overall society that everybody should adapt to White middle-class norms.
It is true that socio-economic stratification has imposed a system in which command of either standard or White middle class English has become part of the requirements for success in the professional world. However, developing proficiency in these norms need not be at the cost of abandoning one’s vernacular for all communicative functions. Vernaculars have their own social identity functions; and many speakers are not ready, least of all eager, to renounce that social-indexical role of their vernacular.
As observed by A. Delpit (12, 454), they see in the humiliations of excessive corrections and in the very style of the corrections themselves, aggressions of their own ethnic and cultural identities. The children’s negative reactions to inadequate approaches to the Standard English proficiency problem foster lack of enthusiasm, which in turn produces poor performance not only in Standard English but also in the classroom in general, especially when they become self-conscious linguistically.
It remains imperative that school systems teach Standard English more successfully to AAE-speakers. What hopefully we have presented in this paper is that this effort should be consistent with the development of diverse non-standard English vernaculars in North America since the colonial period. AAE is only one subset of such varieties out of many others. Perhaps excessive concern with AAE is in itself a negative factor that has ethicized the more general question of how to teach standard English efficiently to speakers of non-standard vernaculars in general without bruising their speakers’ self esteem nor eroding their enthusiasm and interest in being educated.(38)
Conclusion.
In our diploma paper we have researched the linguistic aspects of Black English. Black English is very actual in terms of sociolinguistics and language interaction development, in racial relations and ethnic cultures.
The Black English historic development and its linguistic characteristics make up the core content of work. This diploma paper has considered historical review, development of contemporary Black English in the US and its linguistic aspects
We have observed Black English as a social dialect of English language, reviewed the historical development of Black English - its origin and development in the framework of Pidgin and Creole. We have considered the present characteristics of the U.S. Black English, differences between Black English, British English, and British Black English, investigated Black English contemporary development and its use in teaching process. We have also studied linguistic aspects of Black English, especially its phonetic, grammar, lexical peculiarities which have been formed in the process of language interaction.
This material can be used as teaching manual in the course of English Language, Lexicology, History of the English language, Area studies( UK/USA).
Black English is the communicative and social system, originally created at the intersection of three dimensions – social class, ethnic and territorial. Black English has existed as a social dialect since XVII century, but the term goes back only to 1969. At present 80% of Black Americans speak Black English.
Black English is widely used in modern literature (fiction and non-fiction), music, mass media ( news broadcasts, newspapers, commercial advertising) and in such daily routine matters as safety instructions, everyday conversations etc.
Black English also called African American English, or African American Vernacular English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular, or controversially Ebonics - is an African American Variety (sociolect/social dialect, ethnolect).
Black English has been used in many parts of world: the USA (Hawaii), Great Britain, in Africa (Gambia, Sierra, Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon), West Indies, Vanuatu, Papua New, Guinea, in the northern part of Australia, in Vietnam etc.
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