African-American Vernacular English

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 as a creole or semi-creole language, distinct from the English language, before undergoing decreolization.^[19][20][21]

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