FU Berlin, FB Philosophie und Geisteswissenschaften
HS Sociolinguistics, WS 05/06, 09.04.06

African American Vernacular English and the Afrocentric School

by: Janna Falkenstein

1. Introduction 3

2. The origins of AAVE 5

3. AAVE – a separate system? 9

4. AAVE in education 14

5. Afrocentric schools 20

6. Conclusion 26

Bibliography 30

1. Introduction

The subject of this paper is the variety African American Vernacular English (AAVE) formerly known as Black English Vernacular among linguists and often called Ebonics in the media. I will use the term AAVE throughout this paper.

AAVE is a variant of English that shows some unique features no other variant of English shares. Aside there is a huge amount of commonalities between AAVE and Standard English (SE) and English vernaculars. Most of the commonalities AAVE shares with non-standard variants of the south of the United States. But even Caribbean languages resemble AAVE; a fact that has led to discussions about the origins of AAVE and its status. There are two theories in competition: the dialectal hypothesis and the Creole hypothesis. The discussion is not only linguistically interesting but also of political importance. This will be discussed in the first two chapters of this paper.

It is very difficult to say how many people speak AAVE. There may be speakers who use AAVE pronunciation and vocabulary but none of the grammatical features. Others may use other distinctive aspects of the variant. Linguists generally use the term AAVE for those variants that show certain distinctive grammatical features like copula deletion, losing of third person singular –s or double negation. Since these grammatical features occur variably - that means in alternation with features of Standard English - it remains difficult to say how many people speak AAVE. This variability shows the complex social attitudes that surround AAVE. Among other things that is why it has attracted the attention of many sociolinguists and has been the main focus of several public discussions.

Ten years ago a resolution passed by the Oakland School Board hit the headlines. In comparison to their white contemporaries black children come off badly in school. As a result the members of the School Board claimed that AAVE should be officially recognized “as the predominantly primary language of African-American students”.

The hope was that black students would do better in school when thought would be given to their language and their origins. The resolution led to public controversy. The problems of the education of black students and approaches that have been made to improve the children’s situation are discussed in chapter 4.

The major problem of AAVE probably is its reputation in public. Many people, including public policy makers, have a wrong idea of what AAVE is. They think it is poor or wrong English and condemn speakers of AAVE. This also led to a complex attitude towards AAVE among the community of AAVE speakers. Many Blacks contrast their vernacular to “proper English” and evaluate their language by doing so. At the same time the usage of AAVE is very important for them and reflects their identity as a member of the Black community. Especially among young Blacks this ambiguity causes difficulties.

An institution that tries to help those children and to offer them good education is the Afrocentric School. Over the last years numerous Afrocentric schools have been set up all over the United States. There are many advocates of this idea. But there are also a lot of critical voices. A major concern concerning the Afrocentric idea is the separation that results from it. There are opponents of the idea that claim that Afrocentric schools promote a wrong sense of pride and racism among young Blacks. The Afrocentric school system is discussed in the last chapter of this paper.

A recent topic that won’t be touched in this paper is that of the divergence of AAVE and SE. Many linguists think that AAVE diverges; that means that is becoming more and more different from white English vernaculars. According to experts a reason for this development is the increasing residential segregation in American cities. Also approaches like Afrocentric schools are often blamed for further divergence of AAVE and SE. It is feared that they will even worsen the situation of black students. William Labov for example says that there is “the need for a cross-cultural, cross-linguistic program, […] this means an integration of black lower class youth with black middle class youth as well as integration of black and white youth”. (Labov 1995)

2. The origins of AAVE

An important question to ask is where the language of black Americans comes from and how it developed. Robbins Burling gives an answer to this in his book English in Black and White. According to him there are two major views on that topic that have been in competition. The first one is called the dialectal hypothesis; also known as the Anglicist hypothesis. It is based upon the observation that the dialects of divided social groups tend to diverge. Since language is not a static system the speakers of a speech community have to keep in touch with each other. Otherwise their dialects draw apart. The most prominent example is the difference between British English and American English. This is only one of many examples where dialectal divergence resulted from geographical separation. In fact it is geographical variation we think of first when we talk about dialects states Burling.

But there are other reasons that can be responsible for divergence. Burling is sure that the social isolation of Blacks in the United States is of great importance. The dialectal hypothesis he says “nicely accounts […] for some facts of non-standard English” (Burling 1973). Multiple negation and double modals for example come directly from ancient traditions, the Elizabethan times in this case. On the one hand AAVE inherited forms from those ancient traditions; on the other hand it departed from them by being very innovative. This is a typical development when two dialects diverge. They keep some old characteristics and introduce some new. In the case of AAVE one example is the losing of the third person singular –s. according to the dialectal hypothesis one should look upon AAVE as a dialect of English like any other. So did many dialectologists of the mid-twentieth century and claimed that AAVE can be traced back to the same origins as earlier American dialects of English, namely the English of Great Britain. That’s where the name Anglicist hypothesis comes from. Its supporters assumed that the slaves simply learned the different varieties of English spoken by their white masters. However, in the mid 70s even those who were quite approved of the dialectal view recognized that there may be more to it. Burling puts it that way:

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