Ebonics – It be more than just a dialect, y’all!”

by: Mathias Hanf

1. Ebonics – An ethnic dialect and more than just a plain “way of speaking” page 2

2. Forms and functions of AAVE page 2

2.1 A classification of AAVE page 2
2.2 Characteristic features of AAVE page 3

3. Ebonics – an independent language page 4

3.1 The Ann Arbor Trial page 5
3.2 Reactions to the Ann Arbor Trial page 7

4. AAVE vs. “white English” page 8

4.1 Black skin doesn’t automatically make you black page 8
4.2 Statements towards Ebonics from within the black community page 10

5. Ebonics – not only a dialect but also a social phenomenon page 11

6. Bibliography page 12

7 Appendices page 13

7.1 Appendix A page 13
7.2 Appendix B page 13

1. Ebonics – An ethnic dialect and more than just a plain “way of speaking”

A wide range of language variations exist in the world. A.D. Edwards, a Senior Lecturer at Manchester University, brings out different kinds of dialects, which exist within every world language (Edwards 1976). One of these types, which he names the ‘Ethnic Dialect’, he determines as a variation which “often contains reminders of the ‘native’ language, the intrusion of ‘foreign’ sound, words and structures, and it often reflects the residential and perhaps occupational segregation” (1976: 48). Picking up this definition, a rather controversial dialect comes to mind: Ebonics, which is often just defined as Black English, or African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). In this paper, the concept of Ebonics will be depicted by giving examples and by describing its controversy in conjunction with isolation/segregation. It will also point out that the concept of Ebonics is more than just a plain “way of speaking” and how a language is a status symbol and a social curse to a whole culture at the same time.

2. Forms and functions of AAVE

2.1 A classification of AAVE

There are two diverging opinions about the classification of AAVE (Hansen 1996): Dialectologists see Ebonics as variety of the Southern American English. It was in the southern states, where slaves imported from Africa learnt their English in the 17th, 18th century. Whereas they understand all features of Ebonics to be dialects of Standard English, Creolists see Black English as an independent language. What can be agreed upon though, is that Black English possesses certain features that do not occur in Standard English.

One of its most prominent qualities is its oppositional nature towards the language of the whites. Language professor Ronald Alan Perry (2004) goes one step further and arguments that from the first, African-Americans were confronted with the reality of white power and the need to avoid or subvert white domination. He has noted that slaves circumvented this scrutiny by using linguistic codes, dialects, and gestures which their masters couldn’t understand. AAVE continues to reflect these power realities and sharply delineates those who are within and those who lie without the group boundaries. In black slang of the mid-20th century, whites were "ofays", pig latin for foes. One can say, that Black English has been maintained because whites could not understand it. Thus segregation and isolation by language was asked for by African-Americans.

2.2 Characteristic features of AAVE

William Labov (quoted in Luelsdorff 1975), professor of Linguistics at the University of Philadelphia, found out several phonological characteristics of AAVE - among them the phenomenon of r- and l-lessness: When articulating, most speakers tend to drop the r-consonant, especially when situated after vowels or at the end of a word. In communication the deletion of r becomes noticeable in words like ever or after, where they are pronounced with a schwa instead of er. By performing a phonological minimal pair analysis with mother tongue speakers, Labov also discovered that l “is often replaced by a back undergrounded glide and disappears entirely, especially after back rounded vowels” (1975: 13). Another characteristic is the use of the alveolar d for voiced Standard English (StE) th. The loss of interdentally fricatives comes apparent in words like the, there, that or those that a AAVE-speaker pronounces as de, dere, dad and dose. This use of language can also be heard in other varieties of StE (Whatley 1981) though it is mostly black speakers who use the d at the beginning of a word. There is a considerable list of other phonological features in AAVE, such as the final consonant weakening (last consonants are pronounced weakly or not at all, e.g.: pas’ for past (Wolfram 1969)), absence of a distinction between i and e before nasals (e.g.: tin / ten) as well as consonant cluster simplification (Luelsdorff 1975). The AAVE also has no marker for the third person singular present tense in verbs and auxiliaries. A black speaker skips the verbal s-suffix: “the man walk.” Accordingly, the negation of this sentence is: “the man don’t walk.” And whereas in StE “he has a bike”, in AAVE “he have a bike”. The auxiliary have is not obligatory in AAVE and thus forms of it can optionally be omitted: “I been here for hours”. The same rule can be applied on contracted forms of future will and conditional would: “he go away” for “he’d go away” or “he’ll go away” in StE (relating to the r- and l-lessness in AAVE). Concerning copula, Labov reports that “wherever Standard English can contract, Black English can delete is and are, and vice-versa” (1975: 17). Possible black counterparts of the StE-sentence “she’s nice” can accordingly be “she’s nice” as well as “she nice”. Another characteristically feature of AAVE is the omission of the copula be (copula deletion). While in StE, forms of be are often contracted in sentences (e.g. “what’s your name?”) the Black English will omit it completely (“what your name?”). Differences between StE and AAVE also become apparent when taking a closer look at ways of negation. While in StE only a single negation is necessary in order to negate a sentence, black speakers tend to make use of multiple negations: “You ain’t never go nowhere.” The use of ain’t, mainly belonging to the black lexis, is a single negative that can have several applications and is often used instead of “don’t”, “didn’t”, “hasn’t” or “isn’t”.

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