Ruhr - Uni - Bochum
Englisches Seminar

Proseminar: Einführung in die afro-amerikanische Literatur

Thema des Referates: Black American English

Hausarbeit

von

Maritta Schwartz

WS ′97/98

Content List

Introduction ... 3

1. Who speaks Black American English? ... 3

2. Grammar ... 4
    2.1 Tense and verb categories ... 4
        2.1.1 Point-of-time and phase category ... 5
        2.1.2 Remote Perfective Aspect and Immediate Perfective Aspect ... 6
    2.2 The auxiliary have in StE and is in BAE ... 7
    2.3 Contrast between the zero copula and be ... 8
    2.4 Pronoun system ... 8
    2.5 Relative clauses ... 9
    2.6 Pluralization System ... 10
    2.7 if-clauses ... 10
    2.8 Conjunctions ... 11
    2.9 Prepositions ... 11

3. The Vocabulary of Race ... 11
    3.1 Labels for Whites ... 12
        3.1.1 Negative labels ... 12
        3.1.2 Neutral labels ... 12
        3.1.3 Positive labels ... 12
        3.1.4 Summary ... 12
    3.2 Labels for Blacks ... 13
        3.2.1 Negative labels ... 13
        3.2.2 Neutral labels ... 13
        3.2.3 Positive labels ... 14
        3.2.4 Summary ... 14

4. Ethnographic Speech Behaviour ... 15

5. The African Element in Black American English ... 17
5.1 List of Africanisms in BAE ... 17

6. Bibliography ... 19

Introduction
In this essay we are going to deal with Black American English and its specific features and differences to Standard English. The analysis includes an introduction to the grammar of BAE, its specific vocabulary, the African elements in BAE and the ethnographic speech behaviour connected with the use of BAE. At the beginning a short survey will be given on who actually speaks BAE.

1. Who speaks Black American English?
In general, we can say that all those speak BAE (= Black American English) who consider themselves to be Black. Those are 80% of the Black American population. But also some Puerto Ricans and members of the southern plantation owning class do use this language. In former times BAE was also used by some Indian tribes and Seminoles. The dialect patterns depend on social factors rather than racial or geographic. Many people are capable of several dialects, and also some Whites do speak those dialects.

The history of the Afro–American languages correlates with a caste system. The use of BAE indicates a low level of education as well as a low social standard. It indicates that the speaker belongs to a social group that has remained unassimilated to the white culture. Rich black families tend to speak Standard English. In the use of Standard English among Blacks agegrading plays a great role. First the children adopt the language they learn in their peer groups, later on they learn Standard English in school. The age-grading towards Standard English is closely connected with status grading, i.e. children of families with a higher social level tend to the use of Standard English. The higher a Black climbs on the social ladder the more he tends to Standard English.

In general, women find it easier to affiliate with the middle-class and to adopt the white culture standards.

But the use of BAE is also an indicator of racial awareness and identity. And even highly educated Blacks want to express their roots linguistically to show their identification. They do so by the use of ethnic slang which they use, even if they detest the grammar and phonology of BAE ¹

2. Grammar
In general, we can say that BAE does not contain words we do not find in Standard English (in this text the abbreviation StE will be used for it). Neither do we find word forms that white dialects do not have. But BAE has a greatly different syntax.

2.1 Tense and verb categories
The probably most distinctive and striking difference between BAE and StE is that of tense marking and aspect marking. Whereas the marking of tense is compulsory in StE, it is optional in BAE.

Past tense in BAE is usually expressed by the base form of the verb which is not identical with the historical present, known from StE as forms like could, carried and called do also appear..

[...]

1 Dillard, J.L.; Black English, New York, 1972. (p.229 – 240)