- The Oxford Handbook of African American Language
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- About the Editor
- List of Contributors
- Language Use in African American Communities: An Introduction
- The English Origins Hypothesis
- The Creole Origins Hypothesis
- The Emergence of African American English: Monogenetic or Polygenetic? With or Without “Decreolization”? Under How Much Substrate Influence?
- The Origins of African American Vernacular English: Beginnings
- African American English over Yonder: The Language of the Liberian Settler Community
- Documenting the History of African American Vernacular English: A Survey and Assessment of Sources and Results
- Regionality in the Development of African American English
- The Place of Gullah in the African American Linguistic Continuum
- Rural Texas African American Vernacular English
- African American English in the Mississippi Delta: A Case Study of Copula Absence and r-Lessness in the Speech of African American Women in Coahoma County
- African American Voices in Atlanta
- African American Language in Pittsburgh and the Lower Susquehanna Valley
- African American Phonology in a Philadelphia Community
- African American Language in New York City
- African American Vernacular English in California: Over Four Decades of Vibrant Variationist Research
- The Black ASL (American Sign Language) Project: An Overview
- The Sociolinguistic Construction of African American Language
- Syntax and Semantics in African American English
- The Systematic Marking of Tense, Modality, and Aspect in African American Language
- On the Syntax-Prosody Interface in African American English
- Segmental Phonology of African American English
- Prosodic Features of African American English
- Language Acquisition in the African American Child: Prior to Age Four
- The Development of African American English through Childhood and Adolescence
- Development of Variation in Child African American English
- Narrative Structures of African American Children: Commonalities and Differences
- Some Similarities and Differences Between African American English and Southern White English in Children
- Assessing the Language Skills of African American English Child Speakers: Current Approaches and Perspectives
- African American Language and Education: History and Controversy in the Twentieth Century
- Managing Two Varieties: Code-Switching in the Educational Context
- Balancing Pedagogy with Theory: The Infusion of African American Language Research into Everyday Pre-K‒12 Teaching Practices
- History of Research on Multiliteracies and Hip Hop Pedagogy: A Critical Review
- African American Vernacular English and Reading
- Dialect Switching and Mathematical Reasoning Tests: Implications for Early Educational Achievement
- Beyond Bidialectalism: Language Planning and Policies for African American Students
- African American Church Language
- The (Re)turn to Remus Orthography: The Voices of African American Language in American Literature
- African American Language and Black Poetry
- African American Divas of Comedy: Staking a Claim in Public Space
- The Construction of Ethnicity via voicing: African American English in Children’s Animated Film
- SWB (Speaking while Black): Linguistic Profiling and Discrimination Based on Speech as a Surrogate for Race against Speakers of African American Vernacular English
- Racializing Language: Unpacking Linguistic Approaches to Attitudes about Race and Speech
- African American Standard English
- African American English in the Middle Class
- African American Women’s Language: Mother Tongues Untied
- Black Masculine Language
- Hip Hop Nation Language: Localization and Globalization
- African American Language and Identity: Contradictions and Conundrums
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Abstract and Keywords
It is now widely accepted that most of the grammar of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) derives from English dialectal sources—in particular, the settler dialects introduced into the American South during the 17th and 18th centuries. The roots of AAVE were established during the first century of the British colonization of America, in the Chesapeake Bay area (Virginia and Maryland), and later, in the Carolinas and Georgia. The socio-historical evidence suggests that conditions in most of the South were favorable for Blacks to acquire relatively close approximations of the dialects spoken by White settlers, particularly indentured servants. Since Blacks were exposed to a variety of British English dialects and shaped by influence from African languages and possibly also from creole varieties introduced by slaves brought from the Caribbean, AAVE evolved against a background of continuing language contact.
Keywords: African American Vernacular English (AAVE), British English dialects, creole varieties, African languages, language contact, sociohistorical evidence, indentured servants
Donald Winford is Professor of Linguistics at the Ohio State University. He did his undergraduate degree in English at King's College, University of London and his Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of York, England. His teaching and research interests are in creole linguistics, variationist sociolinguistics, contact linguistics, and African-American English. He is the author of Predication in Caribbean English Creoles (1993) and An Introduction to Contact Linguistics (2003). He has been editor of the Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages since August 2001.
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- The Oxford Handbook of African American Language
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- About the Editor
- List of Contributors
- Language Use in African American Communities: An Introduction
- The English Origins Hypothesis
- The Creole Origins Hypothesis
- The Emergence of African American English: Monogenetic or Polygenetic? With or Without “Decreolization”? Under How Much Substrate Influence?
- The Origins of African American Vernacular English: Beginnings
- African American English over Yonder: The Language of the Liberian Settler Community
- Documenting the History of African American Vernacular English: A Survey and Assessment of Sources and Results
- Regionality in the Development of African American English
- The Place of Gullah in the African American Linguistic Continuum
- Rural Texas African American Vernacular English
- African American English in the Mississippi Delta: A Case Study of Copula Absence and r-Lessness in the Speech of African American Women in Coahoma County
- African American Voices in Atlanta
- African American Language in Pittsburgh and the Lower Susquehanna Valley
- African American Phonology in a Philadelphia Community
- African American Language in New York City
- African American Vernacular English in California: Over Four Decades of Vibrant Variationist Research
- The Black ASL (American Sign Language) Project: An Overview
- The Sociolinguistic Construction of African American Language
- Syntax and Semantics in African American English
- The Systematic Marking of Tense, Modality, and Aspect in African American Language
- On the Syntax-Prosody Interface in African American English
- Segmental Phonology of African American English
- Prosodic Features of African American English
- Language Acquisition in the African American Child: Prior to Age Four
- The Development of African American English through Childhood and Adolescence
- Development of Variation in Child African American English
- Narrative Structures of African American Children: Commonalities and Differences
- Some Similarities and Differences Between African American English and Southern White English in Children
- Assessing the Language Skills of African American English Child Speakers: Current Approaches and Perspectives
- African American Language and Education: History and Controversy in the Twentieth Century
- Managing Two Varieties: Code-Switching in the Educational Context
- Balancing Pedagogy with Theory: The Infusion of African American Language Research into Everyday Pre-K‒12 Teaching Practices
- History of Research on Multiliteracies and Hip Hop Pedagogy: A Critical Review
- African American Vernacular English and Reading
- Dialect Switching and Mathematical Reasoning Tests: Implications for Early Educational Achievement
- Beyond Bidialectalism: Language Planning and Policies for African American Students
- African American Church Language
- The (Re)turn to Remus Orthography: The Voices of African American Language in American Literature
- African American Language and Black Poetry
- African American Divas of Comedy: Staking a Claim in Public Space
- The Construction of Ethnicity via voicing: African American English in Children’s Animated Film
- SWB (Speaking while Black): Linguistic Profiling and Discrimination Based on Speech as a Surrogate for Race against Speakers of African American Vernacular English
- Racializing Language: Unpacking Linguistic Approaches to Attitudes about Race and Speech
- African American Standard English
- African American English in the Middle Class
- African American Women’s Language: Mother Tongues Untied
- Black Masculine Language
- Hip Hop Nation Language: Localization and Globalization
- African American Language and Identity: Contradictions and Conundrums
- Author Index
- Subject Index