African American Vernacular English
(Ebonics) 
written by Jack Sidnell


This page includes information on:


background (history, attitudes and use) 
vocabulary 
sounds 
grammar 
 
  
BACKGROUND

African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety formerly 
known as Black English Vernacular or Vernacular Black English among 
sociolinguists, and commonly called Ebonics outside the academic 
community. While some features of AAVE are apparently unique to this 
variety, in its structure it also shows many commonalties with other 
varieties including a number of standard and nonstandard English 
varieties spoken in the US and the Caribbean. AAVE has been at the 
heart of several public debates and the analysis of this variety has 
also sparked and sustained debates among sociolinguists.

It is extremely difficult to say how many people speak AAVE because it 
is not clear what exactly this would mean. Some speakers may use some 
distinctive aspects of phonology (pronunciation) and lexis (vocabulary) 
but none of the grammatical features associated with the variety. Many 
sociolinguists would reserve the term AAVE for varieties which are 
marked by the occurrence of certain distinctive grammatical features 
some of which are discussed below. Even so it may still be difficult to 
say with any exactitude how many AAVE speakers there are since such 
grammatical features occur variably, that is, in alternation with 
standard features. Such variability in the speech both of groups and 
individuals reflects the complex social attitudes surrounding AAVE and 
other nonstandard varieties of English and it was this variability 
which initially attracted the attention of sociolinguists such as 
William Labov. 

The history of AAVE and its genetic affiliation, by which we mean what 
language varieties it is related to, are also a matter of controversy. 
Some scholars contend that AAVE developed out of the contact between 
speakers of West African languages and speakers of vernacular English 
varieties. According to such a view, West Africans learnt English on 
plantations in the southern Coastal States (Georgia, South Carolina, 
etc.) from a very small number of native speakers (the indentured 
laborers). Some suggest that this led to the development of a 
rudimentary pidgin which was later expanded through a process of 
creolization. 

Others who advocate a contact scenario for the development of AAVE 
suggest that the contact language (an early creole-like AAVE) developed 
through processes of second language acquisition. According to such a 
view West Africans newly arrived on plantations would have limited 
access to English grammatical models because the number of native 
speakers was so small (just a few indentured servants on each 
plantation). In such a situation a community of second language 
learners might graft what English vocabulary that could be garnered 
from transient encounters onto the few grammatical patterns which are 
common to the languages of West Africa. What linguists refer to as 
universal grammar (the law-like rules and tendencies which apply to all 
natural human language) would have played a significant role in such 
processes as well. This kind of thing seems to have taken place in the 
Caribbean and may also have happened in some places, at some times in 
the United States. For instance Gullah or Sea Islands Creole spoken in 
the Coastal Islands of South Carolina and Georgia seems to have formed 
in this way. 

A number of scholars do not accept such a scenario. These researchers 
argue that the demographic conditions in the US and the Caribbean 
(where restructured creole languages are widely spoken) were really 
quite different and that the conditions necessary for the emergence of 
a fully fledged creole language were never met in the US. These 
scholars have shown on a number of occasions that what look like 
distinctive features of AAVE today actually have a precedent in various 
varieties of English spoken in Great Britain and the Southern United 
States. It seems reasonable to suggest that both views are partially 
correct and that AAVE developed to some extent through restructuring 
while it also inherited many of its today distinctive features from 
older varieties of English which were once widely spoken.

As mentioned above AAVE is a matter of some public controversy as was 
seen most recently in the debate over the Ebonics ruling by the Oakland 
School Board. More than anything this debate made it clear to 
sociolinguists that they had failed in one of their primary objectives 
-- to educate the public and to disseminate the results of over twenty-
five years of intense research. Unfortunately, many public policy 
makers and sections of the public hold on to mistaken and prejudiced 
understandings of what AAVE is and what it says about the people who 
speak it. This matter is compounded by the fact that, with the AAVE-
speaking community, attitudes towards the language are complex and 
equivocal. Many AAVE speakers contrast the variety with something they 
refer to as "Talking Proper". At the same time these same speakers may 
also express clearly positive attitudes towards AAVE on other occasions 
and may also remark on the inappropriateness of using standard English 
in certain situations. While the situation in this case is made more 
extreme by the context of racial and ethnic conflict, inequality and 
prejudice in the United States, it is not unique. Such ambivalent and 
multivalent attitudes towards nonstandard varieties of a language have 
been documented for a great many communities around the world and in 
the United States.

 

BACK TO TOP              SOUNDS              GRAMMAR 

 

VOCABULARY

AAVE does not have a vocabulary separate from other varieties of 
English. However AAVE speakers do use some words which are not found in 
other varieties and furthermore use some English words in ways that 
differ from the standard dialects. 

A number of words used in standard English may also have their origin 
in AAVE or at least in the West African languages that contributed to 
AAVE's development. These include:

banana  (Mandingo)
yam  (Mandingo)
okra  (Akan)
gumbo  (Western Bantu)
A discussion of AAVE vocabulary might proceed by noting that words can 
be seen to be composed of a form (a sound signal) and a meaning. In 
some cases both the form and the meaning are taken from West African 
sources. In other case the form is from English but the meaning appears 
to be derived from West African sources. Some cases are ambiguous and 
seem to involve what the late Fredric Cassidy called a multiple 
etymology (the form can be traced to more than one language -- e.g. 
"cat" below).

West African Form + West African Meaning:

bogus  'fake/fraudulent' cf. Hausa boko, or boko-boko 'deceit, 
fraud'. 
hep, hip  'well informed, up-to-date' cf. Wolof hepi, hipi 'to open 
one's eyes, be aware of what is going on'.

English Form + West African Meaning:

cat  'a friend, a fellow, etc.' cf. Wolof -kat (a suffix denoting a 
person) 
cool  'calm, controlled' cf. Mandingo suma 'slow' (literally 'cool')

dig  'to understand, appreciate, pay attention' cf. Wolof deg, dega 
'to understand, appreciate'

bad  'really good' 

In West African languages and Caribbean creoles a word meaning 'bad' 
is often used to mean 'good' or 'alot/intense'. For instance, in 
Guyanese Creole mi laik am bad, yu noo means 'I like him alot'. Dalby 
mentions Mandingo (Bambara) a nyinata jaw-ke 'She's very pretty.' 
(literally 'She is beautiful bad.'); cf. also Krio ( a creole language 
spoken in West Africa) mi gud baad. 

Loan Translations:

Another interesting set of vocabulary items are called loan 
translations or "calques". In such cases a complex idea is expressed in 
some West African language by a combination of two words. In AAVE these 
African words appear to have been directly translated and the same 
concept is expressed by the combination of the equivalent English items

bad-eye  'nasty look', cf. Mandingo, nyE-jugu 'hateful glance' (lit. 
'bad-eye') 
big-eye  'greedy', cf. Ibo. anya uku 'covetous' (literally 'big-eye').

Any discussion of AAVE vocabulary must take note of the many recent 
innovations which occur in this variety and which tend to spread 
rapidly to other varieties of English. Most recent innovations are not 
enduring. These lexical items give regionally and generationally 
restricted varieties of AAVE their particular texture.

 

BACK TO TOP           BACKGROUND               GRAMMAR 


 

SOUNDS

AAVE and standard English pronunciation are sometimes quite different. 
People frequently attach significance to such differences in 
pronunciation or accent and as such the study of phonology (the 
systematic a patterning of sounds in language) is an important part of 
sociolinguistics. It should be noted that phonology has nothing to do 
with spelling. The way something is spelt is often not a good 
indication of the way it "should be", or much less is, pronounced. 

Consonants

Clusters at the ends of words:

When two consonants appear at the end of a word (for instance the st 
in test), they are often reduced: the final t is deleted. This happens, 
to some extent, in every variety of English including standard ones. In 
AAVE the consonant cluster is reduced variably (i.e. it does not happen 
every time) and systematically.

Sociolinguists have shown that the frequency of reduction can be 
expressed by a rule which takes account of a number of interacting 
facts. Crucially, the frequency of reduction depends on the environment 
in which the sound occurs. The following two factors, among others, 
have been found to affect the frequency of reduction in consonant 
clusters

If the next word starts with a consonant, it is more likely to reduce 
than if the next word starts with a vowel. For example, reduction is 
more likely to occur in west side (becoming wes side) than in west end.

A final t or d is more likely to be deleted if it is not part of the 
past tense -ed than if it is. (The past tense -ed suffix is pronounced 
as t or d or Id in English depending on the preceding sound.) For 
example, reduction is more likely to occur in John ran fast (becoming 
John ran fas) than in John passed the teacher in his car.

The th sounds: 

The written symbol th can represent two different sounds in English: 
both an "unvoiced" sound as in thought, thin and think, and a "voiced" 
sound as in the, they and that. In AAVE the pronunciation of this sound 
depends on where in a word it is found.

At the beginning of a word, the voiced sound (e.g. in that) is 
regularly pronounced as d so 'the', 'they' and 'that' are pronounced as 
de, dey and dat. AAVE shares this feature with many other nonstandard 
dialects, including those of the East Coast of United States and 
Canada. Less common in AAVE is the pronunciation of the unvoiced sound 
as t. Thus 'thin' can become tin but rarely does. This however is a 
very common feature of Caribbean creoles in which 'think' is regularly 
pronounced as tink, etc. When the th sound is followed by r, it is 
possible in AAVE to pronounce the th as f as in froat for 'throat'.

Within a word, the unvoiced sound as in nothing, author or ether is 
often pronounced as f. Thus AAVE speakers will sometimes say nufn 
'nothing' and ahfuh 'author'. The voiced sound, within a word, may be 
pronounced v. So 'brother' becomes bruvah, etc. 

At the end of a word, th is often pronounced f in AAVE. For instance 
'Ruth' is pronounced Ruf; 'south' is pronounced souf. When the 
preceding sound is a nasal (e.g. n or m) the th is often pronounced as 
t as in tent for 'tenth'; mont for 'month'. 

The sounds l and r:

When they do not occur at the beginning of a word l and r often 
undergo a process known as "vocalization" and are pronounced as uh. 
This is most apparent in a post-vocalic position (after a vowel). For 
instance 'steal', 'sister', 'nickel' become steauh, sistuh, nickuh. In 
some varieties of AAVE (e.g. in the Southern US), r is not pronounced 
after the vowels o and u. The words door and doe, four and foe, and 
sure and show can be pronounced alike.

Vowels

Nasalized vowels:

When a nasal (n or m) follows a vowel, AAVE speakers sometimes delete 
the nasal consonant and nasalize the vowel. This nasalization is 
written with a tilde ( ~ ) above the vowel. So 'man' becomes mã.

Nasals consonants and front vowels:

In many varieties of English, including standard varieties, the vowels 
i in pin and e in pen sound different in all words. In AAVE, these 
sounds are merged before a nasal (like n or m). So in AAVE pin and pen 
are pronounced with the same vowel. Most Southern US varieties of 
English merge these vowels too, so this is only a distinctive feature 
of AAVE in the northern United States.

Diphthongs:

Some vowels like those in night and my or about and cow are called 
"diphthongs". This means that when the vowel is pronounced, the tongue 
starts at one place in the mouth and moves as the vowel is being 
pronounced. In AAVE the vowel in 'night' or in 'my' is often not a 
diphthong. So when pronouncing the words with this diphthong, AAVE 
speakers (and speakers of Southern varieties as well) do not move the 
tongue to the front top position. So 'my' is pronounced ma as in he's 
over at ma sister's house.

Stress:

AAVE s from some other varieties in the placement of stress in a word. 
So, where words like police, hotel and July are pronounced with stress 
on the last syllable in standard English, in AAVE they may have stress 
placed on the first syllable so that you get po-lice, ho-tel and Ju-ly.

 

BACK TO TOP            BACKGROUND               VOCABULARY

 

 
 

GRAMMAR 
 

The verb "be" 
Standard English uses a conjugated be verb (called a copula) in a 
number of different sentences. (This may occur as is, 's, are, 're, 
etc.) In AAVE this verb is often not included. The frequency of 
inclusion has been shown to depend on a variety of factors. Here are 
some examples:

  In future sentences with gonna or gon (see below):

I don't care what he say, you __ gon laugh. 
...as long as i's kids around he's gon play rough or however they're 
playing. 

  Before verbs with the -ing or -in ending(progressive):

I tell him to be quiet because he don't know what he __ talking 
about. 
I mean, he may say something's out of place but he __ cleaning up 
behind it and you can't get mad at him.

  Before adjectives and expressions of location:

He __ all right. 
And Alvin, he __ kind of big, you know?

She __ at home. The club __ on one corner, the Bock is on the other. 

  Before nouns (or phrases with nouns)

He __ the one who had to go try to pick up the peacock. 
I say, you __ the one jumping up to leave, not me.

Agreement

Standard English varieties mark grammatical agreement between the 
subject and predicate in the present tense. If the subject is third 
person singular (he, she, it or the name of a person or object), an -s 
appears at the end of a regular verb. (e.g. John walks to the store). 
In AAVE the verb is rarely marked in this way. When regular verbs occur 
with such -s marking, they often carry special emphasis. Standard 
English also has agreement in a number of irregular and frequently used 
verbs such as has vs have and is vs are and was vs were. In AAVE these 
distinctions are not always made. 

Tense and aspect

The verb in AAVE is often used without any ending. As is the case with 
the English creoles, there are some separate words that come before the 
verb which show when or how something happens. These are called 
"tense/aspect markers".

Past tense: 

Past tense may be conveyed by the surrounding discourse (with the help 
of adverbials such as, for example, "last night", "three years ago", 
"back in them days", etc., or by the use of conjunctions which convey a 
sequence of actions (e.g. "then"), or by the use of an ending as in 
standard English. The frequency with which the -ed ending occurs 
depends on a number of factors including the sounds which follow it. 

Some past events are conveyed by placing been before the verb. 
Speakers of standard English may mistake this for the standard English 
"present perfect" with the "have" or "has" deleted. However the AAVE 
sentence with been is in fact quite different from the standard English 
present perfect. This can be seen by comparing two sentences such as 
the following:

Standard English present perfect: He has been married. 
AAVE been: He been married.

In the standard English sentence the implication is that he is now no 
longer married. However, in the AAVE sentence the implication is quite 
the opposite: he is still married. 

Sentences equivalent to standard English perfects such as discussed 
above may be conveyed by the use of done in AAVE. For example the 
standard sentence "He has eaten his dinner" can be expressed as He done 
eat his dinner. 

Future:

Future events and those that have not yet occurred are marked by gon 
or gonna (see above).

Events in progress: 

Besides using the verb with the ending -ing or -in to convey that an 
event is in progress, AAVE has a number of other words which add 
particular nuances. For instance, if the activity is vigorous and 
intentional, the sentence may include the word steady. The item steady 
can be used to mark actions that occur consistently or persistently, as 
in Ricky Bell be steady steppin in them number nines.

Events that occur habitually or repeatedly are often marked by be in 
AAVE as in She be working all the time.

Negatives

AAVE has a number of ways of marking negation. Like a number of other 
varieties of English, AAVE uses ain't to negate the verb in a simple 
sentence. In common with other nonstandard dialects of English, AAVE 
uses ain't in standard English sentences which use "haven't". For 
example standard "I haven't seen him." is equivalent to AAVE I ain't 
seen him. Unlike most other nonstandard varieties of English, AAVE 
speakers also sometimes use ain't for standard "didn't" as in the 
following examples

I ain't step on no line. 
I said, "I ain't run the stop sign," and he said, "you ran it!"

I ain't believe you that day, man.

As the first sentence above shows, AAVE also allows negation to be 
marked in more that one position in the sentence (so called double or 
multiple negation). In this respect, AAVE resembles French and a number 
of other Romance languages and also a number of English creoles. 
Certain kinds of nouns actually require negative marking in negative 
sentences. In so far as the negation must be expressed with indefinite 
nouns (e.g. "anything", "anyone" etc.), this is a form of agreement 
marking. (e.g. I ain't see nothing). 

AAVE also has a special negative construction which linguists call 
"negative inversion". An example from Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon 
follows:

Pilate they remembered as a pretty woods-wild girl "that couldn't 
nobody put shoes on."
In this example (in the part in italics), a negative auxiliary 
(couldn't) is moved in front of the subject (nobody). Some other 
examples illustrate this:

Ain't no white cop gonna put his hands on me. 
Can't nobody beat 'em

Can't nobody say nothin' to dem peoples!

Don' nobody say nothing after that. (Ledbetter, born 1861)

Wasn't nobody in there but me an' him. (Isom Moseley, born 1856)

 

 

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