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Notes for LG449
by Prof. Peter L. Patrick, Univ. of Essex
List of AAVE features contrasting with MUSE/SAE
This page is
intended to contrast features of African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
with features of MUSE (Mainstream US English, also called
Standard American English or SAE). The bulk of this list
is drawn from Jack Sidnell’s short grammar, conveniently online
from the coursepage, but some from other sources too. Most of these features
are discussed by any standard source on the distinctive grammar of AAVE. Below
I have indicated where features are shared with other non-standard English
dialects (superscript D) and shared with Caribbean English Creoles
(superscript C). This is shorthand, as the details may be more
complex. E.g., the similarities in copula absence are too complex to be
adequately indicated in this way; and while negative concord is shared with
other dialects, its obligatoriness is a unique feature of AAVE; etc. See also
the brief page identifying types of
features often identified as “being AAVE”.
Note also that this list is intended to be typical of contemporary urban AAVE. There are different features found, and some of those below are not found, in the speech of older rural African Americans, and of the Ex-Slave Elders. (See Wolfram & Thomas 2002, Bailey et al 1991, Poplack 2000, Poplack & Tagliamonte 2001.)
·
Perfect
with have- (or had-) deletion
·
Past
participle = preterite form (regularised)D
·
Completive
done + VerbC
·
Stressed
been + Verb
o with dynamic V Þ remote,
o with stative V Þ remote and still relevant
·
Possessive
–s variably absentC
·
Plural
–s variably absentC
·
3rd
singular present –s variably absentC, D
·
3rd
singular don’t for doesn’t, have for has, do
for does D
·
Contraction
of gonna Þ gon (also 1st
singular forms)
·
Deletion
of future will (incl. before be; also occurs as full, contracted, and L-vocalized)
·
Invariant
habitual be
o Common environments: __Loc, __Adj,
__V+ing (progressive)
o Negative with (3sg) don’t be
o Qs and tags with do be, negative
don’t be
o Changes in distribution, esp for
V+ing
·
Future
perfect be done + Past Verb
·
Immediate
future with finna/fitna + V
·
Emphatic
steady + V for continuous or habitual
o Combines with habitual be
o Semantic restrictions on subject
·
Invariant
modal semi-auxiliary come + V(-ing)
·
Preterite
had, ie had + Past Verb (with non-perfect meaning)
·
Copula
contraction and deletion (forms of inflected be)
o Deletion happens only where
contraction may occur
o Deletion ruled out for am, was
and were
o Deletion more frequent for are
than is
o Environmental constraints: preceding
segment (C, V)
o Environmental constraints: preceding
grammatical categories (Subject pronoun, NP)
o Environmental constraints: following
grammatical categoriesC
(gonnaÞ
Verb+ingÞ
AdjÞ
LocÞ
NP)
o Similarity
to Caribbean English Creoles
·
Regularised
is/was/’s (with 2s, or plural persons) =verb generalisation D
·
Negative concord D
(agreement b/w subject NP, auxiliary verb, and indefinite object NP) is
obligatory Unique
·
Negation
with ain’t in wider range of contexts than other dialects, and
tense-neutrally (not only isn’t/aren’t, hasn’t/haven’t,
but also hadn’t, don’t, didn’t, wasn’t, weren’t)
·
Negative
inversion (fronting of negative auxiliary) D
·
Non-inversion
in embedded questionsC
·
Dative
or benefactive pronoun constructions (redundant post-V pronoun agreeing with
subject) D
·
Pleonastic
pronouns D
·
Double
modals D
·
Existential
It is/It’s/I’s for There is/are
These include the ten listed on the class handout “A Selection of
Features...”
o Fortition of initial voiced
(post-)dental fricative /ð/ à
[d]. Ex: "then, them" à
/dɛn/, /dɛm/
{"den, dem"}
o Labialization of final unvoiced
(post-)dental fricative /ɵ/ à
[f]. Ex: "south, mouth" à
/sæʊf/, /mæʊf/ {"souf, mouf"}
o R-deletion of intervocalic VrV and
final Vr# à Æ. Ex: "during, Paris" à
/dʊ:ɪn/,
/pæ:ɪs/ and "more,
star" à
/mɔə/,
/staə/ {"duh’in’,
Pah’is"; "moah, stah"} (This
is also variably true of VrC, as in "park, card")
o L-vocalization of postvocalic VlC and
final Vl# à Æ. Ex:
"help, will" --> /hɛp/, /wɪə/ {" he'p,
wi'uh"} (This is NOT true of VlV, apparently, as in “killer”)
o Final stop deletion in clusters and
in -VC# position. Ex: "mist, missed" à
/mɪs/ for both; and also in
"test, wasp" à /tɛs/, /was/; and also in
"hood, bed" à /hʊʔ/, /bɛʔ/. (Deletion in -CC# clusters is true of all English dialects, in -VC# only AAVE. Smitherman notes pluralization
evidence shows no underlying /-st#/ clusters in the “tesses, wasses” lexical
items)
o /ɪŋ/ à /æŋ/. Ex:
“thing” = /ɵæŋ/, “ring” =
/ræŋ/, “sing” = /sæŋ/
o Reduction of auxiliary “gonna” à /gɔn/,
/gɔ̃/ (Only for
Auxiliaries; not in non-Aux uses such as “going, going, gone”-- syntactic constraint)
o Stress shifts from 2nd
syllable to 1st in some words: “De-TROIT àDE-troit”, also “PO-lice”
o Monophthongization of /ay/ à
/aa/ in “nice” /nays/ -->
/na:s/, and similar words
o In-gliding of /ɔy/ à /ɔə/
in “boy”: /bɔy/ à /bɔə/
o TD-deletion before a following vowel
D but rare, C
o T-deletion with copula in i’s,
tha’s, wha’s
o Pin/Pen merger: /ɛ/ ⇒ /ɪ/ before
nasals D
o [ɑʊ] nucleus of /aw/
diphthong(“house”) is backer than for White speakers
o Wider pitch and tone range than MUSE
speakers
o Deletion of unstressed initial and
medial syllablesC: (be)cause, (a)fraid, (a)bout,
sec(re)t(a)ry
o Consonant replacementC:
/str-/ with /skr-/, intervocalic /-v-/ with /-b-/
o Deletion of initial voiced stops /b-,
d-, g-/ in tense-aspect markers or auxiliariesC (I ‘on’
know for don’t; I’m’a go for gonna)
Last updated 16 May 2003