Linguistic Аspects of Black English
Linguistic Аspects of Black English
Theme:
Linguistic Аspects of
Black English.
Contents
Introduction:
………………………………………………………………...3
Chapter I. Historical Review
of Black English……………………………...8
1. The Origin of Black
English………………………………………….…. 8
2. Development of Pidgin and
Creole ……………………………………..12
Chapter II. Development
of the U.S. Black English……………………….17
1. Differences of Black English
and Standard English,
British English and British
Black English…………………………………17
2. African American
Vernacular English and its use in teaching process...24
Chapter III. Linguistic Aspects
of Black English………………………….32
1. Phonetic peculiarities
…………………………………………………..32
2. Grammar
peculiarities………………………………………………....36
3. Lexical
peculiarities……………………………………….……….…..49
Conclusion:
………………………………………………………………54
Bibliography:
………………………………………………………….…56
Introduction.
Topicality.
The topic of Black
English is very actual in terms of sociolinguistics and language interaction
development, in racial relations and ethnic cultures. Through understanding
Linguistic Aspects of Black English we can observe peculiarities of language
development and culture of people.
Aim.
The aim of this work is
to research the linguistic aspects of Black English language.
Objectives of the paper
are:
- to analyze the origin
of Black English.
- to analyze the
development of Pidgin and Creole.
- to consider differences
between Black English, Standard English,
British English, and British
Black English.
- to investigate the African
American Vernacular English and its use in
teaching process.
- to research the
phonetic peculiarities of B.E.
- to investigate the
grammar peculiarities of B.E.
- to consider the lexical
peculiarities of B.E.
Black English is a social
dialect of American English, originated and formed as a result of language
interaction in the process of historical development.
The topic of
the diploma work is to study Black English as a sociolect of American variant
of English language, analyze its linguistics aspects, especially phonetic,
grammatic, lexical formed in the process of historical development. The
historic development and linguistics characteristics make up the core content
of work. Black English is the communicative and social system, originally
created at the intersection of three dimensions – social class, ethnic and
territorial
Black English
is a term going back to 1969. It is used almost exclusively as the name for a
dialect of American English spoken by many black Americans.
Black English
is a variety of English, spoken in America and it is the subject of many controversies,
the problem being that of whether considering it a language, a dialect or
simply a slang talk. This language variety, also known a Ebonics, is nearly as
old as Standard American English, but it has often been misinterpreted as
defective, it has never been standardized and has always had lower status
compared to Standard American English.
From the
1960’s to the present, African American English has increasingly become also
acceptable term for Black English , and the corresponding official name for the
language variety used by Africans Americans is thus African American English or
African American Vernacular English (AAVE).(15,65)
Black English
Vernacular (BEV) as coined by William Labov in 1972 defines the variety
American English spoken by Black People. Its pronunciation is in some respects
common to Southern American English, which is spoken by many African Americans
in the United States and by many non-African American.
Ebonics is a
recent and controversial neologism, coined by Robert L. Williams during a 1973
conference in St. Louis, Missouri, “cognitive and Language Development of the
Black Child”. It is a blend of ebony (a synonym for black that lacks its
pejorative connotations) and phonics (pertaining to speech sounds) and by
definition it refers specifically to an African-language-based Creole (from an
earlier pidgin) that has been relexified by borrowing from English, resulting
in what African Americans now speak in the United States.(34,54)
Black English
is complex, controversial, and only partly understood. Records of the early
speech forms are sparse. It is unclear, how much influence black speech has had
on the pronunciation of southern whites; according to some linguists,
generation of close contact resulted in the families of the slaves owners
picking up some of the speech habits of their servants, which gradually
developed into the distinctive southern ‘drawl’. Slave labor in the south gave
birth to diverse linguistic norms; former indentured servants from all parts of
the British Isles, who often became overseers on plantations, variously
influenced the foundation of Black English. First the industrial revolution
then the Civil War disrupted slavery and promoted African-American migration
within the U.S., s a result of which slave dialects were transplanted from
Southern plantation to the factories of the North and Midwest. There was a
widespread exodus to the industrial cities of the northern states, and black
culture became known throughout the country for its music and dance.
Many
historical events have had an effect on Black English. One of this was the
early use of English-based pidgins and creoles among slave populations, as almost
all Africans originally were brought to the United States as slaves. Pidgin is
a variety of a language which developed for some practical purpose, such as
trading, among groups of people who did not know each other’s language. Creole
is a pidgin which has become the first language of a social community. (17,124)
Black English
was investigated in the USA by D. Crystal (“The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
Language ”,” English Language”), by C. Baugh and T.Cable (“History of the
English Language”) , in Russia by R.V. Reznic, T.S. Sookina, (“A History of The
English Language”), by A.D. Schweitzer (“The Social Differentiation of English
in The USA.”), in Kazakhstan by F.S.Duisebayeva (“ Linguistics Aspects of Black
English”) but there are no monographic research of B.E. in our country. ( 12,8,9,13,1,10)
Theoretical base of research
are comprised by the works of D.Crystal, C.Baugh and T.Cable, A.D.Schweitzer,
F.S. Duisebayeva and etc.
Theoretical significance.
The investigation of Black
English Language and its linguistic aspects contribute for a further
development of sociolinguistics theory, American studies etc.
The practical
significance.
This material can be used
as teaching manual in the process of teaching English Language, Lexicology, History
of the English language, Area studies.
Methods of research.
The following methods are
used in the paper: comparative, descriptive, analytical.
The structure of work.
The diploma work consists
of an introduction, three chapters, conclusion and bibliography.
The introduction covers
topicality, aim, objectives, and theoretical base of research, theoretical
significance, the practical significance, and methods of research and the
structure of work.
Chapter I. Development of
Black English presents historical review of Black English, analyses of the
origin of Black English, the development of Pidgin and Creole.
Chapter II. Development
of the U.S. Black English considers differences of Black English and Standard
English, British English and British Black English, A.A.V.E. and its use in
teaching process.
Chapter III. Linguistic
aspects of B.E analyses the phonetic, grammar, lexical peculiarities of B.E.
Conclusion present the
results of the investigation.
Bibliography covers 39
units of materials, used in the diploma paper.
Chapter I.
Historical review of B.E.
1. The Origin of Black English.
According to
J.L. Dillard some 80% of black Americans speak the Black English, and he and
many commentators stress its African origins. The history of Black English in
the United States is complex, controversial, and only partly understood. Black
English is a term going back only to 1969. It is used almost exclusively as the
name for a dialect for American English spoken by many black Americans. Records
of the early speech forms are sparse. It is unclear, how much influence black
speech has had on the pronunciation of southern whites; according to some
linguists, generation of close contact resulted in the families of the slaves
owners picking up some of the speech habits of their servants, which gradually
developed into the distinctive southern ‘drawl’. (33,23)
From the early 17-th
century, ships from Europe traveled to the West African coast, where they
exchanged cheap good for black slaves. The slaves were shipped in barbarous
conditions to the Caribbean islands and the American coast, where they were in
tern exchanged for such commodities as sugar, rum, and molasses. The ships then
returned to England, completing an ‘Atlantic triangle’ of journeys, and the
process began again. The first 20 African slaves arrived in Virginia on a Dutch
ship in 1619. Britain and the United States had outlawed the slave trade by the
American Revolution (1776) their numbers had grown to half a million, and there
were over 4 million by the time slavery was abolished, at the end of the United
States Civil War (1865).
The policy of the
slave-trades was to bring people of different language backgrounds together in
the ships, to make it difficult for the groups to plot rebellion. The result
was the growth of several pidgin forms of communication, and in particular a
pidgin between the slavers and the sailors, many of whom spoke English.
The black slaves who were
arriving in Jamestown, Va. In 1619. Manhattan Island in 1635 and Massachusetts
in 1638 have used the Afro- European varieties for communication among
themselves. In 1692, justice Hathorne recorded Tituba, an African slave from
the island of Barbados in the British West Indies, speaking in the pidgin of
the slaves. Tituba was quoted as saying “He tell me he God,” The words of the
phrase are English, but the structure and grammar of the phrase are congruous
with that pf the West African languages that Smitherman identifies. (32, 8)
During the early years of
American settlement, a highly distinctive form of English was emerging in the
island of the West Indies and the Southern part of the mainland, spoken by the
incoming black population. The emergence of slave trade was a consequence of
the important of African slaves to work on the sugar plantations, a practice
started by the Spanish in 1517.
First the
industrial revolution then the Civil War disrupted slavery and promoted
African-American migration within the U.S., s a result of which slave dialects
were transplanted from Southern plantation to the factories of the North and
Midwest. Slave labor in the south gave birth to diverse linguistic norms;
former indentured servants from all parts of the British Isles, who often
became overseers on plantations, variously influenced the foundation of Black
English. There was a widespread exodus to the industrial cities of the northern
states, and black culture became known throughout the country for its music and
dance. (15, 36). Black English was born of slavery between the late XVI c.-
early XVII c. and middle XIX c. and followed black migration from the southern
states to racially isolated ghettos throughout the United States.
Slave labor in the south
gave birth to diverse linguistic norms; former indentured servants from all
parts of the British Isles, who often became overseers on plantations,
variously influenced the foundation of B.E.V. first the industrial revolution
the Civil War disrupted slavery and promoted African American migration within
the United States, as a result of which slave dialects were transplanted from
Southern plantation to the factories of the North and Midwest. An artifact not
of race but of a speech community, Black English originated as a pidgin (a
simplified language used in a commercial context to facilitate communication
among speakers of different languages) that the slaves coming from a variety of
language backgrounds used to communicate among themselves.
In the XVIII century,
more records of the speech of slaves and the representations of their speech
were produced. In fact, J.L. Dillard claims that “By 1715 there clearly was an
African Pidgin English known on a worldwide scale. In 1744, an ad in The New
York Evening Post read: “Ran away … a new African Fellow named Prince, he can’t
scarce speak a Word of English.” In 1760, an ad in the North Carolina Gazette
read: “Ran away from the Subscriber, African Born, speaks bad English. In 1734,
the Philadelphia American Weekly Mercury read: “Ran away …; he’s Pennsylvanian
born and speaks good English.” (33, 16)
Quotations from Black
English speakers became abundant in the records of Northern states by about
1750, nearly half a century before the earliest records in the Southern
colonies were found in Charleston, S.C. (10, 1)
Black characters made
their way into show business in 1777 with the comical Trial of Atticus before
Justice Beau, for Rape. In this farcical production, "one of our
neighbor's," says "Yes, Maser, he tell me that Atticus he went to bus
'em one day, and a shilde cry, and so he let 'em alon". Much like Tituba's
statement, the statements above use English vocabulary, yet the structure and
grammar of the statements well in keeping with that of the West African
Languages.
Other informative
evidence in tracing the development of Black English lies in newspaper ads
reporting runaway slaves. In locating and identifying a runaway slave, the
slaves' speech played an instrumental role. It is important to remember that
the slave trade was not outlawed until 1808, and even then it was not strictly
adhered to. Smitherman reports that "As late as 1858, over 400 slaves were
brought direct from Africa to Georgia". Consequently, there was a constant
influx of Africans who spoke no English at all. This produced a community of
people with a broad array of mastery of Black English and even Standard English.
(32, 84)
This is made clear when
we see the newspaper ads that reported runaway slaves. This stratification of
language is vital in the development and the development of the perception of
Black English, if it is remembered that not all Blacks were slaves in Early
America. Successful runaways were likely to be those who attained a relative
mastery of Standard English. The mastery of Standard English would prove
invaluable to a slave who had to travel a long distance across American soil to
win his freedom. Further more, early Black writers, such as Frederick Douglass,
wrote in the Standard English of his time. A mastery of Standard English was
also beneficial in passing as a free Black. In a very real and disturbing way,
Black English became the language of slavery and servitude. (35, 212)
During the Civil war
period, abolitionists made the speech of slaves know to all serious readers of
that era. Writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Thomas Halliburton produced
many works that indicated their knowledge of the existence of Black English.
While the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves were significant historical
events, their impact was mitigated severely by the Jim Crow era. Although
everyone labeled "Negro" by the Jim Crow laws did not speak Black English,
it is safe to assume that those Blacks who did speak Black English far
outnumbered those who spoke Standard English.
2.
Development of Pidgin and Creole.
In this part we introduce
pidgin languages and their characteristics. A pidgin is a system of
communication which has grown up among people who do not share a common
language, but who want to talk to it other, for treading or other reasons. The
characteristic of a pidgin is that it is no one’s native language: it is a
second language for all its speakers. This is true of a pidgin whether it is
still in the process of formation or it has been around in a stable form for
hundreds of years as West African Pidgin English has. However, it is possible
for a pidgin to become a native language for some or all of its speakers.
Pidgins have been
variously called ‘makeshift’, ‘marginal’, or ‘mixed’ language. They have a
limited vocabulary, a reduced grammatical structure, and a much narrower range
of functions, compared to the language which gave rise to them. They are the
native language of no-one, but they are nonetheless a main means of
communication for millions of people, and a major focus of interest those who
study the way languages change.
In many parts of the
world pidgin languages are used routinely in such daily matters as news
broadcasts, safety instructions, newspapers, and commercial advertising. And
the more developed pidgin languages have been used for translations of
Shakespeare and the bible. Pidgin grew up along the trade routes of the world-
especially in those parts where the British, French and Dutch built up their
empires. (8, 36)
Pidgin English’s are
mainly to be found in to big families- one in the Atlantic, one in the Pacific.
The Atlantic varieties developed in West Africa, and were transported to the
West Indies and America during the years of the slave trade. In Africa they are
still widely used in the Gambia, Sierra Lione, Liberia, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria,
and Cameroon. The Pacific varieties are found in wide sweep across the south-
western part of the ocean, from the coast of chine to the northern part of
Australia, in such part as Hawaii, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea. In the
Americas, they are found, in a developed form, in most of its islands and on
the mainland, spoken largely by the black populations. Estimates very, but
probably about sixty million people speak or understand one or other of these
forms of English.
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