African American English (AAE), Ebonics, Black Talk, Black English, African American Language is the language of African Americans or those who consider themselves black. The tongue is not always spoken by all African Americans. Upper class blacks rarily speak it because it is viewed as ungrammatical and low class or ghetto. Some blacks use it to re-enforce group and racial identity. Two theories exist as to the origins of AAE. One, it developed from west Africans trying to learn English and adapting English to an African grammatical structure or "universal grammar." Second, it was learned from southern English forms, which developed into a pidgin and later evolved as a creole. The lexicon is based on english, but her grammatical usage is different. African American English tends to drop consonant clusters at the end of words. In addition, linking "to be" verbs tend to be absence in AAE. For example: "She the first one started us off" "He fast in everything he do" Related Article: Black Jersey Dutch , Louisiana Creole(language) , Belizean Creole/kriol, Krio Language, Kromanti, Sranan Tango, Jamaican Patois, Barbadian Creole, English Creoles of Afro-descendants Works Cited Walte, Inga(2007). African American Vernacular English. GRIN Verlag. ISBN 3638747379, 9783638747370 Madhloum, Haider. African American Vernacular English - Origins and Features. GRIN Verlag ISBN 3640856058, 9783640856053. External Links: |
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