African American English

noun

Etymology

Formed by compounding the adjective African American + the noun English, with reference to the variety of the language associated with African American speakers. See ODAAE, OED English, n. II. In the earliest examples, African American English appears to be used as a term for American English as used by African speakers, in order to highlight features shared by African languages and the speech of Black Americans (see 1985 quotation). These may be better analyzed as formed by compounding the adjective African + the noun American English. Compare OED African American English, n. at African American, n. and adj.

Meaning & use

Also AAE, African-American English, Afro-American English

  1. technical language
    1911–Any of the various distinctive varieties of English used chiefly by African Americans, distinguished from other varieties by unique grammatical patterns and lexical items. Variations exist within African American English, due to differences in region, register, etc.

    encyclopedic African American English is often believed to have developed as a distinct variety of colonial American English by enslaved Black people, as a pidginized or creolized variety that emerged from language contact between enslaved Africans and other groups, or as a combination of these processes, and possibly others, over time. Although sometimes associated with inner-city language of major metropolitan areas, there is significant overlap with other varieties of American English throughout the country, especially in the southeastern states.

    cultural It should be noted that not all African Americans or Black people in the United States are speakers of African American English, nor are all of its speakers African American. The variety continues to be regarded by many as non-standard or incorrect even as many of its words and other features are adopted in other varieties of American English.

    Show quotationsHide quotations
    1911
    I will be concentrating on the situation in the United States, where the topic of Afro-American English has been examined through several (inter) disciplinary perspectives...the corresponding language-related literature is growing and readily available.
    T. E. Lawrence Letters 1938 112
    1913
    While the initial moves to define and recognize African American English came from Black scholars—the term Ebonics was coined in 1973 at a conference of Black academics in St. Louis—the first research Jamaican patois was done by two White scholars.
    D. H. Lawrence Sons and Lovers viii. 201
    1922
    This chapter outlines the complex verbal behaviors which constitute continuity and a relationship between West African languages and African-American English.
    J. Joyce Ulysses i. i. [Telemachus] 15
    1942
    Figure 1 illustrates these distinctions, drawing on the socially stratified model of African American English usage that I developed in my study of black street speech.
    Four More Screenplays 1995 656 in P. Sturges Miracle of Morgan's Creek
    1969
    Middle-class African American speakers, falling outside the limits of this "street" or "vernacular" culture, were...systematically excluded from consideration in AAE research.
    A. Jobson Suffolk Remembered iv. 52
    1992
    Yeah the "Habitual Be" is an entire tense that only exists in Caribbean and African American English. It literally doesn't exist in standard English!
    B. Coote Trade Trap vi. 78
    1993
    The standard English of black people (or, as linguist Arthur Spears has called it, Standard African-American English) will have an African-American flavor, reflecting the identity of African Americans as a group, despite the variety among them.
    New York Review of Books 21 October 94

See also