BLACK ENGLISH: AN ENGLISH DIALECT OR A CREOLE?? Important questions to be answered thru research: -how is BE different from white English? -to what extent is popular BE/BE vernacular/non-standard Negro English distinct from non-standard popular English (of white Northerners-Southerners)?

DIFFERENT VIEWS ON WHETHER BE IS AN E DIALECT OR A CREOLE Most Americans think it’s easy to identify a black person by its voice but: a test conducted to middle class white Chicagoans: they interpret speech of south college professors, all urban reared, as rural, uneducated Negroes’ speech (McDavid, 1967). Davis, 1970: “there simply were no systematic differences between the speech of Negro and that of Whites’

Any conclusions drawn about the debate whether BE is a creole or just another E dialect? The range of phonological variation is the same bwn Black and Whites even though the distribution of speech variants is made by Whites. Still, In Tucker’s & Lambert’s experiment (1969): white judges COULD distinguish White from Negro speakers If BE is quite unique, do its characteristics derive from popular local accents of English or from an African L??

Views about BE being another E dialect or an African L Past/older view: African influence was denied Recent views: there ARE African linguistic survivals culturally-rather than racially-transmitted among American Blacks. Similar linguistic remnants: Scandinavian in Minnesota, Dutch in Hudson Valley, etc… ‘Gullah’: an English -based creole, Black L spoken in South Carolina, Sea Islands Are other BE varieties creoles or English dialects??

Views on BE as creole or English dialects The linguistic assimilation of Afro-Americans: slow, incomplete; a true creole L spoken by black slaves in the plantations of North America (Steward, 1968) Structural differences in American Negro speech proving its creole origin The most convincing creole argument: syntax (Steward, 1967, 1968; Labov, 1969, 1972): there are important syntactic differences bwn BE and Standard English attributable to creole influence

BE: rather a creole L than an English dialect but: Reciprocal influence bwn Black and White (southern American E) speech Vocabulary of General English from BE: ‘goober’: peanut, ‘okra’, ‘juke’(box), ‘okay’ (Dalby, 1972) In grunts: ‘uh-huh’ [əˏhə](rising tone: yes), ‘Uh-uh’ [ˋʌhə]=[ʔʌʔʔʌ]:no! (BE)

THE MOST STRIKING FEATURES OF BE PHONETICS-PHONOLOGY NOT ALL BE AMERIACNS TALK ‘LIKE THE MOST IGNORANT TEEN-AGED DELIQUENTS’ (Sledd, 1973) Urban-ghetto dwellers of low socio-economic substratum

The vowel system of BE 1) CURE+FORCE merger=GOAT ‘poor’=‘door’ [poə-doə], ‘poor’=‘Poe’ [poʊ], ‘door’=‘dough’ [doʊ] 2)FORCE#NORTH ‘hoarse’- ‘horse’ but 3)NEAR+SQUARE ‘fear’=‘fair’→[feə] 4) /ɪ/+/æ/ before /ŋ/ ‘drink’=‘drank’, ‘ring’, ‘rang’ 5) /ɪ/+/ɛ/ before [+ nasal C] ‘pin’=‘pen’, ‘Jim’=‘jem’

The phonetic realisation the BE vowels 6) PRICE →[a] particularly /- { [+C, +voice], #} ‘Price’, ‘pride’→[pras], [prad] but also: 7) Before [+C, +voice]+LOT ‘ride’=[rad]=‘find’[fond] or: the V may retain its contrast: ‘ride’[rad] vs ‘rod’[rɑd] 8)MOUTH, PRICE: monophthongs ‘proud’=‘pride’→[prad] /aʊ/+/aɪ/ → [a] ‘dine’, ‘down’, ‘find’, ‘found’:[a]

The phonetic realisation of BE vowels In some speakers: a 3-way neutralisation ‘pride’=‘proud’=‘prod’ 9) [ɜ:]+[ɜɪ] NURSE (as in White NY) 10)FOOT : lack of lip roundness [ʊ] 11)DRESS: an open [ɛ]

The BE consonants 1)Non-rhoticity →potential homophony ‘guard’=‘god’, ‘farther’=‘father’, ‘lord’=‘laud’, ‘shore’=‘’sure’=‘show’: [∫oʊ], ‘their’=‘there’=‘they’, ‘you’re’=‘your’=‘you’] ‘Paris’=‘pass’, ‘terrace’=‘Tess’ 2)Absence of /r/→ᴓ /-/ө/ ‘throw’, =‘threw[өoʊ], [өu]

Main features of BE consonants 3)vocalisation or deletion of final /l/ →homophony ‘tool’=‘too’, ‘goal’-’go’, ‘pole=poor=pour=Poe Deletion of /l/→/-[+C] ‘help’=‘hep’[hɛəp]] or /l/ may be retained but realised as: [L] (velar lateral) /or[ʊ] 4) /ө, ð/:TH-Fronting in medial/final position ‘mouth’ [maʊf], ‘tooth’ [tuf], ‘nothing’ [ˈnəfɪn], ‘smooth’ [smuv], ‘brother’ [ˈbrəvə]

Some phonetic realisations of BE consonants ‘with’, ‘nothing’→[t] or ᴓ ‘with ʼem’ [witəm] (voiced t), ‘with me’ [wɪmɪ], ‘nothing’ [nətʔṇ]=[nəʔṇ]=[nən]=[naɪn] 5)TH-Stopping of non-initial /ө/ (preceded by a nasal or plosive) ‘keep your mouth closed’ [maʊt] (Wolfram, 1969) Word initially BE does have a /ө/ ‘thought’ [өɔ(ʊ)t]

Phonetic features of BE consonants 6) stopping of initial /ð/ ‘then’: [dɛn] 7)final cluster reduction: no final /t/: ‘list’, ‘mist’, ‘left’, ‘act’ no final /p, t, k/: ‘wasp’, ‘’desk’ No final /d/ ‘find’, ‘cold’, ‘loved’, ‘named’ ‘Desk’, ‘list’ may also receive syllabic plural ending proving the underlying non-final plosive: [ ̍lɪsɪz], [̍ ̍dɛsɪz]

Some phonetic realisations of BE consonants 8) final /b,d,g/→[ʔ] or [p˥, t˥, k˥]: ( ˥ =inaudibly released plosives) word finally ‘rob’, ‘bed’, ‘big’→[rɔʔ], [bɛʔ], [bɪk˥] 9) Final plosives/or other voiced Cs→ᴓ so, BE :CV syllable structure, homophones ‘road’=‘row’, ‘bid’=‘big’=‘bit’, ‘poke’=‘pope’=poor’, ‘seed’=‘see’=‘seat’ 10)Morpheme final Cs→ᴓ/ -suffix ‘kids’:[ki:z] 11)Initial C cluster ‘street’ [skrit], ‘stream’=‘scream’ 12)Oddities of lexical incidence: [̍bidnɪs]’business’, [idṇt] ‘isn’t’ Stress oddities: [ ̍police], [ ̍defence], [̍̍ ̍Detroit], ‘gonna’→[go], ‘I’m gonna’→ [amo], ‘ I don’t know’→[ ̍aono]