African American English (AAE) Phonology 1  r-deletion (NOT unique to AAE) guardgod norgnaw soresaw poorpa fort fought courtcaught  l-deletion (some speakers) tolltoe allawe helphep Fromkin & Rodman, p /18

 Consonant cluster simplification (NOT unique /OPTIONAL) passedpass meantmen  Neutralization of [I] and [E] before nasals (NOT unique) pin pen binBen tinten  Loss of interdental fricatives (NOT unique) thing fing this, that, these, those  [d] Fromkin & Rodman, p /18 African American English (AAE) Phonology 2

 Double / Multiple negatives (NOT unique to AAE) He don’t know nothing. Fromkin & Rodman, p /18 African American English (AAE) Syntax 1

 Deletion of ‘be’ SAEAAE He is nice /He nice He’s nice They are mine /They mine They’re mine I am going to do it / I gonna do it I’m going to do it Fromkin & Rodman, p /18 African American English (AAE) Syntax 2

 Deletion of ‘be’ Exceptions SAEAAE He is / he’s as nice He as nice as he say he is as he says he is *He’s as nice *He as nice as he say he as he says he’s How beautiful you are *How beautiful you’re *How beautiful you Here I am *Here I’m *Here I Fromkin & Rodman, p /18 African American English (AAE) Syntax 3

 Habitual ‘be’ SAEAAE John be happy.John is always happy. John happy.John is happy now. He be late.He is habitually late. He late.He is late this time. Do you be tired?Are you generally tired? You tired?Are you tired now? Fromkin & Rodman, p /18 African American English (AAE) Syntax 4

Nothing in Fromkin & Rodman 7/18 African American English (AAE) Vocabulary

See p. 186 / 189 8/18 Multiple Negation

 “Ultimately, the survival of the minority language is closely bound up with the preservation or affirmation of a distinct ethnic identity and culture.”  “Maintaining a separate ethnic identity” or “Rediscovery and assertion of a distinctively Afro-Caribbean identity” Why do minority languages survive? Montgomery, pp /18

History of Jamaican Creole Late 17th century British settlers raising sugarcane Slaves imported CONTACT Language—pidgin arose (English vocabulary; simplified syntax; African influences in pronunciation, maybe 10% of the vocabulary, and some syntax) Subsequent generations of slaves learned this language (used with masters and fellow slaves) evolved, “transformed into a much more complex and flexible language called a CREOLE (defined technically as a pidgin which becomes the first language of a group)” Montgomery, pp /18

Standard English and Jamaican Creole 1 Standard EnglishJamaican Creole  Plurals the other girlsdi addah girl dem with those other girlswid dem addah girl  Possession the man’s hatdi man hat the man’s woman di man woman noh didn’t like tis like dis Montgomery, p /18

Standard English and Jamaican Creole 2 Standard EnglishJamaican Creole  Past time I went yesterdaymi go yeside I told you so alreadyme tel yu so aredi I had already walked homemi ben waak huom aredi I have finished sleepingmi don sliip [sic]  Present what are you doing out there?whey [sic] you a dhu out yah? where are you going?whey [sic] you a go? Montgomery, p /18

Jamaican Creole Continuum Broadest Creole Standard English 13/18

Schematic of Hypothetical Repertoires (Six speakers) Based on Montgomery, 85, THOUGH modified and expanded. Broadest Standard Creole English Speaker /18

Linguist’s View of Language Varieties “All language varieties are equal:  there is no significant difference in the complexity of their linguistic structure;  they all have resources for creating new vocabulary as it is needed,  and for developing the grammatical constructions their speakers require.” 15/18 Holmes, Janet An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London: Pearson, p. 202.

But… “Though linguists present this ideal of equality between the languages and dialects used by different ethnic and social groups, it has no social reality.” 16/18 Holmes, Janet An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London: Pearson, p. 202.

A Social Network D C E A B Matthews, P.H. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, see “social network”. Uniplex Multiplex 17/18

Social Network Influence “It is not surprising that people’s speech should indicate the types of networks they belong to. The people we interact with are one important influence on our speech. When the people we mix with regularly belong to a homogeneous group, we tend to speak the way the rest of the group does, provided we want to belong to the group and like the people in it.” 18/18 Holmes, Janet An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 4th edition. London: Pearson, p. 194.