AfricanAmerican Vernacular English

1
African-American Vernacular English

• Black English
• Ebonics

2
A language within a language The creole
situation

• dialects, pidgins, and creoles
• creole a pidgin becomes a native language
• a cradle of language grammar evolves
• substrate and superstrate
• a language apart counterlanguages
• language attitudes
• proper English and proper Black English

3
Language attitudes

• hearing Standard English from within AAVE
• monitoring and vigilance
• Uncle Toming
• prohibition on use of educated speech
• reading dialect
• signifying

4
Cool face
The ability to act on symbolic incidents and
subtle varieties of cultural practice with
eloquence, skill, wit, patience, and precise
timing (Morgan)
5
Language games/speech acts

• definitions
• pointed indirectness
• baited indirectness
• reading
• reading dialect
• loud talking, marking
• signifying, playing the dozens
• Yo mama