![]() Since pidgins form from close contact between speakers of different languages, the slave trade would have been exactly such a situation. ![]() According to this theory, these captives first developed what are called pidgins: simplified mixtures of languages. However, a creole theory, less accepted among linguists, posits that AAVE arose from one or more creole languages used by African captives of the Atlantic slave trade, due to the captives speaking many different native languages and therefore needing a new way to communicate among themselves and with their captors. In an interview on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, McWhorter characterized AAVE as a "hybrid of regional dialects of Great Britain that slaves in America were exposed to because they often worked alongside the indentured servants who spoke those dialects." According to McWhorter, virtually all linguists who have carefully studied the origins of AAVE "agree that the West African connection is quite minor." Linguist John McWhorter maintains that the contribution of West African languages to AAVE is minimal. In the early 2000s, Shana Poplack provided corpus-based evidence -evidence from a body of writing-from isolated enclaves in Samaná and Nova Scotia peopled by descendants of migrations of early AAVE-speaking groups (see Samaná English) that suggests that the grammar of early AAVE was closer to that of contemporary British dialects than modern urban AAVE is to other current American dialects, suggesting that the modern language is a result of divergence from mainstream varieties, rather than the result of decreolization from a widespread American creole. The presiding theory among linguists is that AAVE has always been a dialect of English, meaning that it originated from earlier English dialects rather than from English-based creole languages that "decreolized" back into English. dialects, the origins of AAVE are still a matter of debate. While it is clear that there is a strong historical relationship between AAVE and earlier Southern U.S. OriginsĪfrican-American Vernacular English (AAVE) may be considered a dialect, ethnolect or sociolect. However, a minority of linguists argue that the vernacular shares so many characteristics with African creole languages spoken around the world that it could have originated as its own English-based creole or semi-creole language, distinct from the English language, before undergoing a process of decreolization. Mainstream linguists maintain that the parallels between AAVE, West African languages, and English-based creole languages are existent but minor, with African-American Vernacular English genealogically still falling under the English language, demonstrably tracing back to the diverse nonstandard dialects of early English settlers in the Southern United States. Īs with most African-American English, African-American Vernacular English shares a large portion of its grammar and phonology with the rural dialects of the Southern United States, and especially older Southern American English, due to the historical enslavement of African Americans primarily in that region. ![]() Despite being widespread throughout the United States, AAVE is not the native dialect of all African Americans. However, in formal speaking contexts, speakers tend to switch to more standard English grammar and vocabulary, usually while retaining elements of the nonstandard accent. Having its own unique grammatical, vocabulary, and accent features, AAVE is employed by middle-class Black Americans as the more informal and casual end of a sociolinguistic continuum. African-American Vernacular English ( AAVE) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians. ![]()
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