African American Vernacular English
Origins of AAVE There is some controversy about the origin of AAVE. Some peoplebelieve that the Black people, who were brought to America as slaves,picked up English from the 'English-speaking' Southerners they came incontact with. The proponents of this theory, also known as the dialecthypothesis, note that the AAVE and the English spoken by the AmericanSoutherners have many features in common, such as the Southern Vowel Shift,vowel lowering, and double modals. (Sidnell, background) The theorycontends that the white Southerners in the 17th century spoke a distinct"Virginian" dialect that had its origins in a family of regional dialectsspoken in the south and west of England in counties such as Sussex, Surrey,Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Wiltshire, Oxford and Gloucester during the 17thcentury. (Williams, 24) Although the use of such a dialect in politeconversation quickly disappeared in England by the end of the 18th century,most of its characteristics persisted in the American South. According tothis theory, the 'incorrect' English picked up by the Blacks from theSouthern whites was passed down through subsequent generations. In other
) To sum up the argument about whether AAVE developed as a pidgin/creole or simply through contact with dialects of English spoken in theAmerican South, it is probably true that AAVE is the result of both thesefactors. The exception is the use of "s" with a single noun, as in John's. The marked aversion to the use of "s" in AAVE is carried over in the use of "don't" instead of "doesn't" ("She don't live here," instead of "Shedoesn't live here. Similarly, there is no "s" ending to indicatepossessions. On the other hand there are noticeabledifferences between AAVE and most other English dialects. Aspectual Particles: Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of AAVE isthe use of aspectual particles that are placed before the verb[6]. Further compelling evidence of the "creole theory" are theundeniable similarities between AAVE and West African languages. " ("I has gone," instead of"I have gone. Creoles typically have a largervocabulary and more complicated grammatical resources than pidgins[6] AAVE is considered to be unique among American dialects in the use ofaspectual particles placed before the verb. ")Deletion of the auxiliary "BE" in both AAVE as well as the West Africanlanguages is most striking. The use of "be" in AAVE is particularly important. This is not so in AAVE; for example, the sentence "I don'tknow nothing"[8] despite having two negatives-has a negative meaning. In order to communicate witheach other, they developed a pidgin[4], which combined vocabulary fromEnglish and their own (Western African) languages with the grammaticalstructure of their native tongue.
Common topics in this essay:
Western African,
English AAVE,
Vernacular English,
AAVE Similarly,
Aspectual Particles,
English SAE,
Vowel Shift,
Blacks American,
West African,
Origins AAVE,
african languages,
black population,
aspectual particles,
western african,
western african languages,
american vernacular english,
17th century,
creole origins,
creole hypothesis,
american south,
west african,
african american vernacular,
west african languages,
example sentence,
english spoken american,
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Acceptance Essays
