1. features of AAVE as features of PPE: a study of adolescents in philadelphia paper by: tonya wolford keelan evanini presentation by: anthony so

2. background  puerto ricans found to adopt aspects of AAE  effects of direct contact with AAE  grammatical - uninflected be  phonological - (th) pronounced as [f]

3. research project  determine if puerto ricans still pick up AAE through contact or if aspects have already become integrated into PRE  studies conducted in north philadelphia  local grade school - 4th grade class  interviews, reading passages and word lists  results based on 18 subjects, aged 10- 17

4. uninflected be (habitual be)  well documented grammatical aspect of AAE  used to indicate habitual nature of a predicate  grammaticalization - less common among older AA adults  usage in AAE governed by 5 properties

5. results - habitual be  each recorded instance agreed with the 5 properties  be + verb_ing was most common  be + adverb/ prepositional phrase, adjective, past participle and noun phrase also observed  distribution and use of uninflected be in young puerto ricans comparable to those in AAE

6. pronunciation of (th) as [f]  well documented phonological aspect of AAE  positioning - initial (never), medial (seldom), final (variably)  style-shifting - situational use of [f] and [θ] [θ] for word list, both for reading passage, [f] for spontaneous speech

7. results - positioning  initial - [t], [θ]  medial - [t], [θ], others  final - [f], null, [θ], others

8. results - style-shifting  significant difference in use of [θ] and [f] between groups  style shifters likely to use less [θ] in speech  no observable relationship between level of [f] use and amount of aa contact  possible internal PRE development

9. sociolinguistic setting  few african american families living in studied area (70% pr, 25% aa)  elementary school children surveyed to determine level of aa contact  majority have casual contact - enough to support phonological variables but not grammatical ones

10. final conclusions  uninflected be transferred to young pr by older siblings and adults - becoming integral part of PRE  style-shifting of [f] for (th) attributed to internal PRE constraints  pr with limited aa contact might be adopting speech from pr that do have extensive aa contact - high prestige of AAE in the inner city