African-American Vernacular English | |
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Black Vernacular English | |
Region | United States |
Ethnicity | African Americans |
Indo-European
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Early forms | |
Latin (English alphabet) American Braille | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Glottolog | afri1276 |
Part of a series on |
African Americans |
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African-American Vernacular English[a] (AAVE)[b] is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians.[4] 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. However, in formal speaking contexts, speakers tend to switch to more standard English grammar and vocabulary, usually while retaining elements of the non-standard accent.[5][6] AAVE is widespread throughout the United States, but is not the native dialect of all African Americans, nor are all of its speakers African American.[7][8][9]
As with most English varieties spoken by African Americans, African-American Vernacular English shares a large portion of its grammar and phonology with the regional dialects of the Southern United States,[10] and especially older Southern American English,[11] due to the historical enslavement of African Americans primarily in that region.
Mainstream linguists see only minor parallels between AAVE, West African languages, and English-based creole languages,[12][13][14][15] instead most directly tracing back AAVE to diverse non-standard dialects of English[16][17] as spoken by the English-speaking settlers in the Southern Colonies and later the Southern United States.[18] 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 in an English-based creole or semi-creole language, distinct from the English language, before undergoing decreolization.[19][20][21]
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