View source for African-American Vernacular English

{{Short description|Variety of American English}}
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2019}}
{{use mdy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = African-American Vernacular English
| altname          = Black Vernacular English
| region           = [[United States]]
| ethnicity        = [[African Americans]]
| speakers         = 
| date             = 
| ref              = 
| speakers2        = 
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Germanic languages|Germanic]]
| fam3             = [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]]
| fam4             = [[North Sea Germanic]]
| fam5             = [[Anglo-Frisian languages|Anglo-Frisian]]
| fam6             = [[Anglic languages|Anglic]]
| fam7             = [[English language|English]]
| fam8             = [[American English]]
| fam9             = [[Older Southern American English]]
| ancestor         = [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]]
| ancestor2        = [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]]
| ancestor3        = [[Old English]]
| ancestor4        = [[Middle English]]
| ancestor5        = [[Early Modern English]]
| script           = [[Latin script|Latin]] ([[English alphabet]])<br />[[American Braille]]
| isoexception     = dialect
| glotto           = afri1276
| ietf             = 
| notice           = IPA
| image            = 
| dia1             = [[Samaná English]]
| dia2             = [[Jive talk|Jive]]
}}
{{African American topics sidebar|expanded=Dialects and languages}}

'''African-American Vernacular English'''{{efn|Also known as '''Black English''', '''Black Vernacular English''', '''Black English Vernacular''', '''African-American English''', or occasionally '''Ebonics''' (a colloquial, [[Ebonics (word)#Common usage and controversy|controversial]] term).<ref>For the reasons that linguists avoid using the term ''Ebonics'', see for example {{Harvcoltxt|Green|2002|pp=7–8}}.</ref>}} ('''AAVE'''){{efn|''AAVE'' is pronounced as an [[initialism]] ("A-A-V-E"), {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɑː|v|eɪ}}, or {{IPAc-en|æ|v}}.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tamasi|first1=Susan|last2=Antieau|first2=Lamont|year=2015|title=Language and Linguistic Diversity in the US: An Introduction|publisher=Routledge|page=146|isbn=978-0-415-80667-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Matthew J.|year=2013|title=Labov: A Guide for the Perplexed|publisher=Bloomsbury|page=215|isbn=978-1-4411-5852-9}}</ref>}} is the [[variety (linguistics)|variety]] of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most [[American working class|working]]- and [[African-American middle class|middle-class]] [[African Americans]] and some [[Black Canadians]].{{sfnp|Edwards|2004|p=383}} 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 [[codeswitching|switch]] to more [[standard English]] grammar and vocabulary, usually while retaining elements of the [[vernacular]] (non-standard) [[Accent (sociolinguistics)|accent]].{{sfnp|Rickford|2015|pp=302, 310}}{{sfnp|Spears|2015}} AAVE is widespread throughout the United States, but it is not the native dialect of all African Americans, nor are all of its speakers African American.{{sfnp|Wheeler|1999|p=55}}<ref name="pbs.org">{{Cite web |title=Do you speak American?: African American English |website=[[PBS]] |url=https://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/AAVE/hooked/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Benor |first=Sarah Bunin |date=19 April 2010 |title=Ethnolinguistic repertoire: Shifting the analytic focus in language and ethnicity |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227643721 |journal=Journal of Sociolinguistics |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=159–183|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9841.2010.00440.x }}</ref>

Like most varieties of [[African-American English]], African-American Vernacular English shares a large portion of its [[grammar]] and [[phonology]] with the [[Southern American English|regional dialects of the Southern United States]],{{sfnp|McWhorter|2001|p=179}} and especially [[older Southern American English]],{{sfnp|Thomas|2006|pp=16, 19-20}} due to the [[Slavery in the United States|historical enslavement]] of African Americans primarily in that region.

Mainstream linguists see only minor parallels between AAVE, [[Niger-Congo languages|West African languages]], and [[English-based creole languages]],{{sfnp|Wardhaugh|2002|p=341}}{{sfnp|Poplack|2000|p=?}}{{sfnp|Poplack|Tagliamonte|2001|p=?}}<ref>See {{Harvcoltxt|Howe|Walker|2000}} for more information</ref> instead most directly [[Genetic relationship (linguistics)|tracing back]] AAVE to diverse non-standard dialects of English<ref>[[Oakland Ebonics controversy|The Oakland school board's resolution]] "was about a perfectly ordinary variety of English spoken by a large and diverse population of Americans of African descent. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. [E]ssentially all linguists agree that what the Oakland board was dealing with is a dialect of English."{{Harvcoltxt|Pullum|1997}}</ref>{{sfnp|McWhorter|2001|pp=162, 185}} as spoken by the English-speaking settlers in the [[Southern Colonies]] and later the [[Southern United States]].{{sfnp|McWhorter|2001|pp=162, 182}} However, a minority of linguists argue that the vernacular shares so many characteristics with African [[creole language]]s spoken around the world that it could have originated as a creole or semi-creole language, distinct from the English language, before undergoing [[decreolization]].<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Mufwene|2001|p=29}} and {{Harvcoltxt|Bailey|2001|p=55}}, both citing {{Harvcoltxt|Stewart|1964}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Stewart|1969}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Dillard|1972}}, and {{Harvcoltxt|Rickford|1997a}}.</ref>{{sfnp|Smith|Crozier|1998|pp=113–114}}{{efn|Linguists in favor of the "creole hypothesis" of African-American Vernacular English include [[Creolistics|creolists]] [[William Alexander Stewart|William Stewart]], John Dillard, and [[John Rickford]].}}

== Origins ==
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) may be considered a [[dialect]], [[ethnolect]], and [[sociolect]].{{sfnp|Green|2002|pp=1–11|loc='Introduction'}} While it is clear that there is a strong historical relationship between AAVE and [[Older Southern American English|earlier Southern U.S. dialects]], the origins of AAVE are still a matter of debate.

The presiding theory among linguists is that AAVE has always been a dialect of English, meaning that it originated from earlier English dialects rather than from [[English-based creole language]]s that "decreolized" back into English. In the early 2000s, [[Shana Poplack]] provided [[corpus linguistics|corpus]]-based evidence{{sfnp|Poplack|2000|p=?}}{{sfnp|Poplack|Tagliamonte|2001|p=?}} (evidence from a body of writing) from isolated enclaves in [[Samaná Peninsula|Samaná]] and [[African Nova Scotian English|Nova Scotia]] populated by descendants of migrations of early AAVE-speaking groups {{crossreference|(See [[Samaná English]])}} that suggests that the grammar of early AAVE was closer to that of contemporary British dialects than modern urban AAVE is to other current American dialects, suggesting that the modern language is a result of divergence from mainstream varieties, rather than the result of decreolization from a widespread American creole.<ref>William Labov, in the Foreword to {{Harvcoltxt|Poplack|Tagliamonte|2001}}, says "I would like to think that this clear demonstration of the similarities among the three diaspora dialects and the White benchmark dialects, combined with their differences from creole grammars, would close at least one chapter in the history of the creole controversies."</ref>

Linguist [[John McWhorter]] maintains that the contribution of West African languages to AAVE is minimal. McWhorter has characterized AAVE as a "hybrid of regional dialects of Great Britain that slaves in America were exposed to because they often worked alongside the indentured servants who spoke those dialects..." According to McWhorter, virtually all linguists who have carefully studied the origins of AAVE "agree that the West African connection is quite minor."<ref>Ludden, Jennifer (September 6, 2010). [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129682981 "Op-Ed: DEA Call For Ebonics Experts Smart Move"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180108174905/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129682981 |date=2018-01-08 }}. [[NPR]].</ref>

However, a creole theory, less accepted among linguists, posits that AAVE arose from one or more [[creole language]]s used by African captives of the [[Atlantic slave trade]], due to the captives speaking many different native languages and therefore needing a new way to communicate among themselves and with their captors.{{sfnp|Wolfram|1998|p=112}} According to this theory, these captives first developed [[pidgin]]s or simplified mixtures of languages.{{sfnp|Bloomquist|Green|Lanehart|2015}} Because pidgins form from close contact between speakers of different languages, the slave trade would have been exactly such a situation.{{sfnp|Bloomquist|Green|Lanehart|2015}} Creolist John Dillard quotes, for example, [[slave ship]] captain William Smith describing the sheer diversity of mutually unintelligible languages just in [[The Gambia]].{{sfnp|Dillard|1972|p=??}} By 1715, an African pidgin was reproduced in novels by [[Daniel Defoe]], in particular, ''The Life of Colonel Jacque''. In 1721, [[Cotton Mather]] conducted the first attempt at recording the speech of slaves in his interviews regarding the practice of smallpox inoculation.{{sfnp|Read|1939|p=247}} By the time of the American Revolution, varieties among slave creoles were not quite [[mutually intelligible]]. Dillard quotes a recollection of "slave language" toward the latter part of the 18th century:{{sfnp|Dillard|1972|p=??}} "Kay, massa, you just leave me, me sit here, great fish jump up into da canoe, here he be, massa, fine fish, massa; me den very grad; den me sit very still, until another great fish jump into de canoe; but me fall asleep, massa, and no wake 'til you come...." Not until the time of the [[American Civil War]] did the language of the slaves become familiar to a large number of educated Whites. The abolitionist papers before the war form a rich [[text corpus|corpus]] of examples of plantation creole. In ''Army Life in a Black Regiment'' (1870), [[Thomas Wentworth Higginson]] detailed many features of his Black soldiers' language. Opponents of the creole theory suggest that such pidgins or creoles existed but simply died out without directly contributing to modern AAVE.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

== Phonology ==
{{listen|filename=Bobby Womack BBC Radio4 Front Row 26 Dec 2012 b01pg54v.flac
|type=speech|title=Speech example|description=An example of a man from northern [[Ohio]] with an AAVE accent ([[Bobby Womack]]).}}
{{listen|filename=Mayor Eric Adams at Q and A on Mental Health and Police Officers in NYC.flac|type=speech|title=Speech example|description=An example of a man from New York City with an AAVE accent ([[Eric Adams]]).}}
{{listen|filename=On the phone- Russell Gage.ogg|type=speech|title=Speech example|description=An example of two men with AAVE accents, the interviewer from [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] ([[D. J. Shockley]]) and the interviewee from [[Louisiana]] ([[Russell Gage]]).}}
Many pronunciation features set AAVE apart from other forms of [[American English]] (particularly, [[General American]]). McWhorter argues that what truly unites all AAVE accents is a uniquely wide-ranging intonation pattern or "melody", which characterizes even the most "neutral" or light African-American accent.{{sfnp|McWhorter|2001|pp=146–7}} A handful of multisyllabic words in AAVE differ from General American in their stress placement so that, for example, ''police'', ''guitar'', and ''Detroit'' are pronounced with initial stress instead of ultimate stress.{{sfnp|Green|2002|p=131}} The following are phonological differences in AAVE vowel and consonant sounds.

Final consonant groups or clusters in AAVE have been examined as evidence of the systematic nature of this language variety, governed by specific rules. These analyses have been utilized to bolster arguments concerning the historical origins of AAVE.<ref name=":0" /> [[cluster reduction|Consonant cluster reduction]] is a phonological process where a final consonant group or cluster, consisting of two adjacent consonant sounds, is simplified or reduced to a single consonant sound. The analysis of consonant cluster reduction in AAVE assumes that, initially, final clusters are present and intact in the language. For example, the word "tes" in AAVE originates from "test", with the final "t" of the "st" consonant cluster being deleted in word-final position.

===Vowels===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ class="nowrap" | All AAVE vowels
! colspan="3" | Pure vowels ([[monophthong]]s)
|-
| '''[[Help:IPA for English|English diaphoneme]]'''
| '''AAVE [[phoneme]]'''<ref>{{cite web|title=Accents of English from Around the World|editor=Heggarty, Paul|display-editors=etal|publisher=University of Edinburgh|year=2013|url=http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/research/gsound/|access-date=2018-01-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426131610/http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/research/gsound/|archive-date=2016-04-26|url-status=live}} See pronunciation for "Chicago AAVE" and "N.Carolina AAVE."</ref>
| '''Example words'''
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPAc-en|æ}}
| {{IPA|[æ~ɛː~ɛə]}}
| '''a'''ct, p'''a'''l, tr'''a'''p
|-
| {{IPA|[ɛː~ɛə~eə]}} ([[/æ/ raising]])
| h'''a'''m, l'''a'''nd, y'''eah'''
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ɑː}}
| rowspan="2" |{{IPA|[a~ɑ̈~ɑ]}}
| rowspan="2" | bl'''ah''', b'''o'''ther, f'''a'''ther, <br/>l'''o'''t, t'''o'''p, w'''a'''sp
|-
| rowspan="2" |{{IPAc-en|ɒ}}
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|[ɒ(ɔ)~ɔ(ʊ)]}}
| rowspan="2" |'''a'''ll, d'''o'''g, b'''ough'''t, <br/>l'''o'''ss, s'''aw''', t'''augh'''t
|-
|{{IPAc-en|ɔː}}
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ɛ}}
| {{IPA|[ɛ~eə]}}
| dr'''e'''ss, m'''e'''t, br'''ea'''d
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ə}}
| {{IPA|[ə]}}
| '''a'''bout, syr'''u'''p, '''a'''ren'''a'''
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ɪ}}
| {{IPA|[ɪ~iə]}}
| h'''i'''t, sk'''i'''m, t'''i'''p
|-
| {{IPAc-en|iː}}
| {{IPA|[i]}}
| b'''ea'''m, ch'''i'''c, fl'''ee'''t
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ʌ}}
| {{IPA|[ʌ~ɜ]}}
| b'''u'''s, fl'''oo'''d, wh'''a'''t
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ʊ}}
| {{IPA|[ʊ~ɵ~ø̞]}}
| b'''oo'''k, p'''u'''t, sh'''ou'''ld
|-
| {{IPAc-en|uː}}
| {{IPA|[ʊu~u]}}
| f'''oo'''d, gl'''ue''', n'''ew'''
|-
! colspan="3" | [[Diphthong]]s
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPAc-en|aɪ}}
| {{IPA|[äe~äː~aː]}}
| pr'''i'''ze, sl'''i'''de, t'''ie'''
|-
| {{IPA|[äɪ]}} ([[Canadian raising]]{{Dubious|date=December 2023|reason=Not raising}})
| pr'''i'''ce, sl'''i'''ce, t'''y'''ke
|-
| {{IPAc-en|aʊ}}
| {{IPA|[æɔ~æə]}}
| n'''ow''', '''ou'''ch, sc'''ou'''t
|-
| {{IPAc-en|eɪ}}
| {{IPA|[eɪ~ɛɪ]}}
| l'''a'''ke, p'''ai'''d, r'''ei'''n
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ɔɪ}}
| {{IPA|[oɪ]}}
| b'''oy''', ch'''oi'''ce, m'''oi'''st
|-
| {{IPAc-en|oʊ}}
| {{IPA|[ʌʊ~ɔʊ]}}
| g'''oa'''t, '''oh''', sh'''ow'''
|-
! colspan="3" | [[R-colored vowel]]s
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ɑr}}
| non-rhotic: {{IPA|[ɑ~ɒ]}}<br/>rhotic: {{IPA|[ɑɹ~ɒɹ]}}
| b'''ar'''n, c'''ar''', h'''ear'''t
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ɛər}}
| non-rhotic: {{IPA|[ɛə]}}<br/>rhotic: {{IPA|[ɛɹ]}}
| b'''are''', b'''ear''', th'''ere'''
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ɜr}}
| {{IPA|[ɚ]}}
| b'''ur'''n, f'''ir'''st, h'''er'''d
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ər}}
| non-rhotic: {{IPA|[ə]}}<br/>rhotic: {{IPA|[ɚ]}}
| bett'''er''', mart'''yr''', doct'''or'''
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ɪər}}
| non-rhotic: {{IPA|[iə~iɤ]}}<br/>rhotic: {{IPA|[iɹ]}}
| f'''ear''', p'''eer''', t'''ier'''
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ɔːr}}
| rowspan="2" | non-rhotic: {{IPA|[oə~ɔə~ɔo]}}<br/>rhotic: {{IPA|[oɹ]}}
| rowspan="2" | h'''oar'''se, h'''or'''se, p'''oor''' <br/ > sc'''ore''', t'''our''', w'''ar'''
|-
| {{IPAc-en|ʊər}}
|-
| {{IPAc-en|j|ʊər}}
| non-rhotic: {{IPA|[juə~jʊə]}}<br/>rhotic: {{IPA|[juɹ~jʊɹ]}}
| c'''ure''', '''Eur'''ope, p'''ure'''
|}
*[[Cot-caught merger]]: AAVE accents have traditionally resisted the cot-caught merger spreading nationwide, with {{sc|lot}} pronounced {{IPA|[ɑ̈]}} and {{sc|thought}} traditionally pronounced {{IPA|[ɒɔ]}}, though now often {{IPA|[ɒ]}} or {{IPA|[ɔə]}}, with the latter pronunciation most prominent in the Northeastern U.S.{{sfnp|Jones|2020|p=255}} However, there is evidence of AAVE speakers exhibiting the cot-caught merger in [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|Pittsburgh]], Pennsylvania;{{sfnp|Eberhardt|2008}} [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]], South Carolina;{{sfnp|Baranowski|2013}} Florida and Georgia;{{sfnp|Jones|2020|p=165}} and in parts of California.{{sfnp|Jones|2020|p=165}} 
**African American Vowel Shift: Early 2000s research has shown that the resistance to the cot-caught merger may continue to be reinforced by the fronting of {{sc|lot}}, linked through a [[chain shift]] of vowels to the raising of the {{sc|trap}}, {{sc|dress}}, and perhaps {{sc|kit}} vowels. This chain shift of vowels is called the "African American Shift".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thomas |first1=Erik R. |title=Phonological and Phonetic Characteristics of African American Vernacular English: Phonological and Phonetic Characteristics of AAVE |journal=Language and Linguistics Compass |date=September 2007 |volume=1 |issue=5 |pages=450–475 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-818X.2007.00029.x }}</ref> However, this shift is not universal to all AAVE speakers; it is mostly exhibited by speakers who live in all the states along the [[Mississippi River]] and in [[North Carolina]].{{sfnp|Jones|2020|p=255}}
*Reduction of certain [[diphthong]]{{sfnp|Green|2002|p=123}} forms to [[monophthong]]s, in particular, the {{sc|price}} vowel {{IPA|/aɪ/}} is [[monophthong]]ized to {{IPA|[aː]}} except before [[voiceless consonant]]s (this is also found in most [[Southern American English|White Southern dialects]]). The vowel sound in {{sc|choice}} ({{IPA|/ɔɪ/}} in General American) is also monophthongized, especially before {{IPA|/l/}}, making ''boil'' indistinguishable from ''ball''.{{sfnp|Labov|1972|p=19}}
*[[Pin–pen merger]]: Before nasal consonants ({{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/n/}}, and {{IPA|/ŋ/}}), {{sc|dress}} {{IPA|/ɛ/}} and {{sc|kit}} {{IPA|/ɪ/}} are both pronounced like {{IPA|[ɪ~ɪə]}}, making ''pen'' and ''pin'' [[homophone]]s.{{sfnp|Labov|1972|p=19}} This is also [[Phonological history of English high front vowels#Pin–pen merger|present in other dialects]], particularly of the South. The pin-pen merger is not universal in AAVE, and there is evidence for unmerged speakers in California, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=King |first1=Sharese |title=On Negotiating Racial and Regional Identities: Vocalic Variation Among African Americans in Bakersfield, California |journal=University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics |date=1 December 2016 |volume=22 |issue=2 |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol22/iss2/12/ }}</ref><ref name="Jones et al 2019">{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Taylor |last2=Kalbfeld |first2=Jessica Rose |last3=Hancock |first3=Ryan |last4=Clark |first4=Robin |title=Testifying while black: An experimental study of court reporter accuracy in transcription of African American English |journal=Language |date=2019 |volume=95 |issue=2 |pages=e216–e252 |id={{Project MUSE|727848}} |doi=10.1353/lan.2019.0042 |s2cid=198787228 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Jones|2020}}
* The distinction between the {{sc|kit}} {{IPA|/ɪ/}} and {{sc|fleece}} {{IPA|/i/}} vowels before [[liquid consonant]]s is frequently reduced or absent, making ''feel'' and ''fill'' homophones ([[Fill–feel merger|''fill''–''feel'' merger]]). {{IPAc-en|ʊər}} and {{IPAc-en|ɔːr}} also merge, making ''poor'' and ''pour'' homophones ([[Cure–force merger|''cure''–''force'' merger]]).{{sfnp|Labov|1972|p=19}}

===Consonants===
* Word-final devoicing of {{IPA|/b/}}, {{IPA|/d/}}, and {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, whereby, for example, ''cub'' sounds similar to ''cup'',{{sfnp|Green|2002|p=116}} though these words may retain the longer vowel pronunciations that typically precede voiced consonants, and devoicing may be realized with [[debuccalization]] (where {{IPA|/d/}} is realized as {{IPA|[.]}}, for instance).<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Bailey|Thomas|1998|p=89}}, citing {{Harvcoltxt|Wolfram|1994}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Farrington |first1=Charlie |title=Incomplete neutralization in African American English: The case of final consonant voicing |journal=Language Variation and Change |date=October 2018 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=361–383 |doi=10.1017/S0954394518000145 |s2cid=149592143 }}</ref>
* AAVE speakers may not use the [[fricative consonant|fricatives]] {{IPAblink|θ}} (the ''th'' in "''th''in") and {{IPAblink|ð}} (the ''th'' of "''th''en") that are present in other varieties of English. The phoneme's position in a word determines its exact sound.{{sfnp|Green|2002|pp=117–119}}
** Word-initially, {{IPAc-en|θ}} is normally the same as in other English dialects (so ''thin'' is {{IPA|[θɪn]}}); in other situations, it may [[th-fronting|move forward in the mouth]] to {{IPAc-en|f}} ([[Th-fronting]]).
** Word-initially, {{IPAc-en|ð}} is {{IPA|[ð~d]}} (so ''this'' may be {{IPA|[dɪs]}}). In other situations, {{IPA|/ð/}} may move forward to {{IPAc-en|v}}.
* Realization of final ''ng'' {{IPA|/ŋ/}}, the [[velar nasal]], as the [[alveolar nasal]] {{IPA|[n]}} ([[assibilation]], alveolarization) in [[function word|function]] [[morpheme]]s and content morphemes with two or more syllables like ''-ing'', e.g. ''tripping'' {{IPA|/ˈtrɪpɪŋ/}} is pronounced as {{IPA|[ˈtɹɪpɨn]}} (''trippin'') instead of the standard {{IPA|[ˈtɹɪpɪŋ]}}. This change does not occur in one-syllable [[content word|content]] morphemes such as ''sing'', which is {{IPA|[sɪŋ]}} and not {{IPA|*[sɪn]}}. However, ''singing'' is {{IPA|[ˈsɪŋɨn]}}. Other examples include ''wedding'' → {{IPA|[ˈwɛɾɨn]}}, ''morning'' → {{IPA|[ˈmo(ɹ)nɨn]}}, ''nothing'' → {{IPA|[ˈnʌfɨn]}}. Realization of {{IPA|/ŋ/}} as {{IPA|[n]}} in these contexts is commonly found in many other English dialects.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Green|2002|pp=121–122}} although her examples are different.</ref>
* A marked feature of AAVE is final consonant cluster reduction.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Green |first=Lisa J. |title=African American English: a linguistic introduction |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-521-81449-2 |oclc=900606048}}</ref> This is a process by which the pronunciations of consonant clusters at the end of certain words are reduced to pronouncing only the first consonant of that cluster.{{sfnp|Green|2002|p=107}} There are several phenomena that are similar but governed by different grammatical rules. This tendency has been used by creolists to compare AAVE to West African languages since such languages do not have final clusters.<ref name="SegmentalPhonology">{{Citation |last1=Bloomquist |first1=Jennifer |title=Segmental Phonology of African American English |date=2015-07-01 |work=The Oxford Handbook of African American Language |publisher=Oxford University Press |last2=Green |first2=Lisa J. |last3=Lanehart |first3=Sonja L. |last4=Thomas |first4=Erik R. |last5=Bailey |first5=Guy|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199795390.013.13 |isbn=978-0-19-979539-0 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Green|2002|p=107}}
** Final consonant clusters that are [[homorganic]] (have the same [[place of articulation]]) and share the same [[voice (phonetics)|voicing]] are reduced.<ref name="SegmentalPhonology"/><ref>{{Citation |last=Green |first=Lisa |title=Aspect and predicate phrases in African-American vernacular English |date=2021-09-23 |work=African-American English |page=109 |place=London |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781003165330-3 |isbn=978-1-003-16533-0 |s2cid=244227668 }}</ref> For instance, ''test'' is pronounced {{IPA|[tɛs]}} since {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/s/}} are both voiceless; ''hand'' is pronounced {{IPA|[hæn]}} (alternatively {{IPA|[hæ̃]}} or {{IPA|[hɛən]}}), since {{IPA|/n/}} and {{IPA|/d/}} are both voiced; but ''pant'' is unchanged, as it contains both a voiced and a voiceless consonant in the cluster.<ref name=":0" />{{sfnp|Rickford|1997b|p=??}} It is the plosive ({{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}}) in these examples that is lost rather than the fricative; the nasal is also either preserved completely or lost with preservation of nasality on the preceding consonant.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Phonological Features of African American Vernacular English|url=https://www.rehabmed.ualberta.ca/spa/phonology/features.htm|access-date=2020-08-30|website=www.rehabmed.ualberta.ca}}</ref> Speakers may carry this declustered pronunciation when pluralizing so that the plural of test is {{IPA|[ˈtɛsɨs]}} rather than {{IPA|[tɛsts]}}.{{sfnp|Green|2002|pp=107–116}} The clusters {{IPA|/ft/}}, {{IPA|/md/}} are also affected.{{sfnp|Labov|1972|p=15}}
** More often, word-final {{IPA|/sp/}}, {{IPA|/st/}}, and {{IPA|/sk/}} are reduced, again with the final element being deleted rather than the former.{{sfnp|Labov|1972|pp=15–16}}
** For younger speakers, {{IPA|/skr/}} also occurs in words where other varieties of English would have {{IPA|/str/}} instead. As a result, for example, ''street'' is pronounced {{IPA|[skɹit]}}.{{sfnp|Green|2002|p=123}}
** Clusters ending in {{IPA|/s/}} or {{IPA|/z/}} exhibit variation in whether the first or second element is deleted.{{sfnp|Labov|1972|pp=17–18}}
* Similarly, final consonants may be deleted, although there is a great deal of variation between speakers in this regard. Most often, {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}} are deleted. As with other dialects of English, final {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/k/}} may reduce to a [[glottal stop]]. Nasal consonants may be lost while nasalization of the vowel is retained (e.g., ''find'' may be pronounced {{IPA|[fãː]}}). More rarely, {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/z/}} may also be deleted.{{sfnp|Labov|1972|pp=18–19}}
* Use of [[Phonological history of English consonant clusters#S-cluster metathesis|metathesized]] forms like ''aks'' for "ask"<ref>See {{Harvcoltxt|Baugh|2000|pp=92–94}} on "aks" and metathesis, on the frequency with which "aks" is brought up by those who ridicule AAVE (e.g. {{Harvcoltxt|Cosby|1997}}), and on the linguistic or cognitive abilities of a speaker of another variety of English who would take "aks" to mean "axe" in a context that in another variety would probably call for "ask".</ref> or ''graps'' for "grasp".
* General [[rhotic and non-rhotic accents|non-rhotic]] behavior, in which the [[rhotic consonant]] {{IPA|/r/}} is typically dropped when not followed by a vowel; it may also manifest as an unstressed {{IPAblink|ə}} or the lengthening of the preceding vowel.{{sfnp|Green|2002|pp=119–121}} Intervocalic {{IPA|/r/}} may also be dropped, e.g., General American ''story'' ({{IPA|[ˈstɔɹi]}}) can be pronounced {{IPA|[ˈstɔ.i]}}, though this doesn't occur across morpheme boundaries.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Green|2002|p=121}}, citing {{Harvcoltxt|Wolfram|Fasold|1974|p=140}}</ref> {{IPA|/r/}} may also be deleted between a consonant and a back rounded vowel, especially in words like ''throw'', ''throat'', and ''through''.{{sfnp|Labov|1972|p=14}}
**The level of AAVE rhoticity is likely somewhat correlated with the rhoticity of White speakers in a given region; in 1960s research, AAVE accents tended to be mostly non-rhotic in Detroit, whose White speakers are rhotic, but completely non-rhotic in New York City, whose White speakers are also often non-rhotic.<ref>Wolfram, Walt; Kohn, Mary E. (forthcoming). "[https://www.academia.edu/20295897/The_Regional_Development_of_African_American_Language The regional development of African American Language] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106200951/http://www.academia.edu/20295897/The_Regional_Development_of_African_American_Language |date=2018-11-06 }}". In [[Sonja Lanehart]], Lisa Green, and Jennifer Bloomquist (eds.), ''The Oxford Handbook on African American Language''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 147.</ref>
* {{IPA|/l/}} is often vocalized in patterns similar to that of {{IPA|/r/}} (though never between vowels){{sfnp|Green|2002|p=121}} and, in combination with cluster simplification (see above), can make homophones of ''toll'' and ''toe'', ''fault'' and ''fought'', and ''tool'' and ''too''. [[Homonym|Homonymy]] may be reduced by vowel lengthening and by an off-glide {{IPAblink|ɤ}}.{{sfnp|Labov|1972|pp=14–15}}

=== "Deep" phonology ===
McWhorter discusses an accent [[Post-creole continuum#Other examples|continuum]] from "a 'deep' Black English through a 'light' Black English to standard English," saying the sounds on this continuum may vary from one African American speaker to the next or even in a single speaker from one situational context to the next.{{sfnp|McWhorter|2001|pp=146}} McWhorter regards the following features as rarer and characteristic of only deep Black English, though speakers of light Black English may occasionally "dip into for humorous or emotive effect":{{sfnp|McWhorter|2001|pp=146–7}}
* [[Lowering]] of {{IPA|/ɪ/}} before {{IPA|/ŋ/}}, causing pronunciations such as {{IPA|[θɛŋ~θæŋ]}} for ''thing'' (sounding something like ''thang'').{{sfnp|Green|2002|p=123}}
* Word-medially and word-finally, pronouncing {{IPA|/θ/}} as {{IPAblink|f}} (so {{IPA|[mʌmf]}} for ''month'' and {{IPA|[mæɔf]}} for ''mouth''), and {{IPA|/ð/}} as {{IPAblink|v}} (so {{IPA|[smuv]}} for ''smooth'' and {{IPA|[ˈɹævə(ɹ)]}} for ''rather''.{{sfnp|McWhorter|2001|pp=148}} This is called [[Th-fronting|''th''-fronting]]. Word-initially, {{IPAc-en|ð}} is {{IPAblink|d}} (so ''those'' and ''doze'' sound nearly identical). This is called [[th-stopping|''th''-stopping]]. In other words, the tongue fully touches the top teeth.
*Glide deletion ([[monophthong]]ization) of all instances of {{IPAc-en|aɪ}}, universally, resulting in {{IPA|[aː~äː]}} (so that, for example, even ''rice'' may sound like ''rahss'').
*Full gliding ([[diphthongization]]) of {{IPAc-en|ɪ}}, resulting in {{IPA|[iə]}} (so that ''win'' may sound like ''wee-un'').
*[[Raising (phonology)|Raising]] and fronting of the vowel {{IPAc-en|ʌ}} of words like ''strut, mud, tough'', etc. to something like {{IPA|[ɜ~ə]}}.

==Grammar==
=== Tense and aspect ===
<!-- The opening of the paragraph feels like it is following up on something previously stated, but this is the first time that this is discussed -- Can it be improved?-->
Although AAVE does not necessarily have the [[preterite|simple past-tense]] marker of other English varieties (that is, the ''-ed'' of "work''ed''"), it does have an optional tense system with at least four aspects of the past tense and two aspects of the future tense.{{sfnp|Fickett|1972|pp=17–18}} The dialect uses several [[tense–aspect–mood]] markers integrated into the predicate phrase,<ref name="DeBose">{{Cite web |last=DeBose |first=Charles E. |date=2015-07-01 |title=The Systematic Marking of Tense, Modality, and Aspect in African American Language |url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199795390.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199795390-e-18 |access-date=2022-06-17 |website=The Oxford Handbook of African American Language |language=en |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199795390.013.18|isbn=978-0-19-979539-0 }}</ref> including ''gon'' or ''gonna'' (future tense), ''done'' (completive aspect), ''be'' (habitual aspect, state of being), and ''been'' (durative aspect). These can function separately or in conjunction.<ref name="DeBose"/>

Linguists consider these markers form part of a broader and systematic tense, modality, and aspect (TMA) grammar in AAVE, in which native speakers distinguish between nuanced temporal categories, such as remote versus recent past, through constructions like BIN (e.g., "He BIN left") to indicate a long-completed action that remains relevant.<ref name="DeBose, Charles E. 2015 pp. 371">DeBose, Charles E. (2015). "The Systematic Marking of Tense, Modality, and Aspect in African American Language." In Lanehart, Sonja L. (ed.). ''The Oxford Handbook of African American Language''. Oxford University Press. pp. 371–373. ISBN 978-0199795390.</ref>
Linguist Charles E. DeBose notes that these markers form part of a broader and systematic tense, modality, and aspect (TMA) grammar in AAVE, in which native speakers distinguish between nuanced temporal categories—such as remote versus recent past—through constructions like BIN (e.g., "He BIN left") to indicate a long-completed action that remains relevant.<ref name="DeBose, Charles E. 2015 pp. 371"/>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+Phases/tenses of AAVE{{sfnp|Fickett|1972|p=19}}
!colspan=2| Phase
! Example
|- align=center
!rowspan=4|Past
!Pre-recent
| ''I been bought it''
|- align=center
!Recent
| ''I done bought it'' {{Ref|dən|a}}
|- align=center
! Pre-present
| ''I did buy it''
|- align=center
! Past inceptive
| ''I do buy it''
|- align=center
! colspan=2|Present
| ''I be buying it''
|- align=center
!rowspan=3|Future
! Immediate
| ''I'ma buy it'' {{Ref|imma|b}}
|- align=center
! Post-immediate
| ''I'ma gonna buy it'' {{Ref|imma|b}}
|- align=center
! Indefinite future
| ''I gonna buy it''
|}
{{note|dən|a}}Syntactically, ''I bought it'' is grammatical, but ''done'' (always unstressed, pronounced as {{IPAc-en|d|ən}}) is used to emphasize the completed nature of the action.{{sfnp|Green|2002|pp=60–62}}

{{note|imma|b}}''I'ma'', also commonly spelled ''Imma'', is pronounced as {{IPAc-en|ˈ|aɪ|m|ə}}.<ref>Scott, Candice L. (2016). "Tense & Aspect Markers in African American English". University of Michigan Dissertation Papers. p. 94.</ref> Harvard professor Sunn m'Cheaux claims ''I'ma'' originated in the [[Gullah language|Gullah]] language (an English creole), which uses "a-" instead of "-ing" for this type of verb inflection.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2023/02/17/black-american-english-evolution |title=The evolution of Black American English |author=Ciku Theuri |date=17 February 2023 |publisher=[[WBUR]]}}</ref> Alternatively, other sources suggest it is a further shortening of ''I'm gonna''.<ref>Scott, 2016, pp. 86, 94.</ref>

As phase auxiliary verbs, ''been'' and ''done'' must occur as the first auxiliary; when they occur as the second, they carry additional [[grammatical aspect|aspects]]:{{sfnp|Fickett|1972|p=19}}
: ''He been done working'' means "he finished work a long time ago".
: ''He done been working'' means "until recently, he worked over a long period of time".

The latter example shows one of the most distinctive features of AAVE: the use of ''be'' to indicate that performance of the verb is of a habitual nature. In most other American English dialects, this can only be expressed unambiguously by using adverbs such as ''usually''.<ref>Aspectual ''be'': {{Harvcoltxt|Green|2002|pp=47–54}}</ref>

This aspect-marking form of ''been'' or BIN<ref>In order to distinguish the stressed and unstressed forms, which carry different meaning, linguists often write the stressed version as BIN</ref> is stressed and semantically distinct from the unstressed form: ''She BIN running'' ('She has been running for a long time') and ''She been running'' ('She has been running').{{sfnp|Green|2002|pp=54–55}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stressed BIN (been) {{!}} Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America |url=https://ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/stressed-bin-been |access-date=2022-06-14 |website=ygdp.yale.edu}}</ref> This aspect has been given several names, including ''perfect phase'', ''remote past'', and ''remote phase'' (this article uses the third).{{sfnp|Rickford|1999|p=??}} As shown above, ''been'' places action in the distant past.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Debose |first=Charles |title=Oxford Handbook of African American Language |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-19-979539-0 |edition=1st |location=Oxford, England |pages=371–386 |language=en}}</ref> However, when ''been'' is used with [[stative verb]]s or [[gerund]] forms, ''been'' shows that the action began in the distant past and that it is continuing now. {{Harvcoltxt|Rickford|1999}} suggests that a better translation when used with stative verbs is "for a long time". For instance, in response to "I like your new dress", one might hear ''Oh, I been had this dress'', meaning that the speaker has had the dress for a long time and that it isn't new.{{sfnp|Rickford|1999|p=??}}

To see the difference between the simple past and the gerund when used with ''been'', consider the following expressions:
: ''I been bought her clothes'' means "I bought her clothes a long time ago".
: ''I been buying her clothes'' means "I've been buying her clothes for a long time".

Auxiliaries in African American Vernacular English are related in a typical pattern. They can be grouped into negative forms and affirmative forms for each of the words. For example, "had" is an affirmative form, while "hatn" is the corresponding negative form. These same auxiliaries can be used to mark sentences for the anterior aspect. As another example, ''was'' marks type 1 sentences, which by default are present tense, and transforms them to a time before the present. Take, for instance, "She at home": the word ''was'' can be inserted to mark this sentence, making the marked equivalent "She was at home". Auxiliaries such as these also have opposing negative and affirmative forms. In its negative form the auxiliary verb "wadn" is used to convey the opposing affirmative form.<ref name="DeBose" />

{| class="wikitable"
|+AAVE grammatical aspects
!Aspect
!Example
![[Standard English]] meaning
|-
| Habitual/continuative aspect<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Fickett|1972|p=17}} refers to this as a combination of "punctuative" and "imperfect" aspects.</ref>
| He be working Tuesdays.
| He frequently (or habitually) works on Tuesdays.
|-
| Intensified continuative (habitual)
| He stay working.
| He is always working.
|-
| Intensified continuative (not habitual){{sfnp|Green|2002|pp=71–72}}
| He steady working.
| He keeps on working.
|-
| Perfect progressive
| He been working.
| He has been working.
|-
|[[Irrealis mood|Irrealis]] (Mood)<!-- Would referring to it as "optative" be original? -->
| He finna go to work.
| He is about to go to work.{{Ref|Finna|a}}
|}
* {{note|Finna|a}} ''Finna'' corresponds to "fixing to" in other varieties.{{sfnp|Green|2002|p=71}} It is also written ''fixina'', ''fixna'', ''fitna'', and ''finta''.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Green|2002|pp=70–71}}, citing {{Harvcoltxt|DeBose|Faraclas|1993}}.</ref>
In addition to these, ''come'' (which may or may not be an auxiliary<ref>See {{Harvcoltxt|Spears|1982|p=850}}</ref>) may be used to indicate speaker indignation, such as in ''Don't come acting like you don't know what happened and you started the whole thing'' ("Don't try to act as if you don't know what happened, because you started the whole thing").{{sfnp|Green|2002|pp=73–74}}

The irrealis<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Labov |first=William |date=2013 |title=Co-existent Systems In African-American English |journal=The Structure of African American English |pages=110–153 |via=Research Gate}}</ref> mood marker ''be'', having no intrinsic tense refers to a current or future event that may be less than real.

'''Modals'''

The dialect uses double modals, such as ''might could'', which can function in various ways, including as adverbs.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Coats, S. (2024). Naturalistic double modals in North America. American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage, 99(1), 47–77. https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-9766889</ref>

=== Negation ===
Negatives are formed differently from most other varieties of English:{{sfnp|Howe|Walker|2000|p=110}}

* Use of ''[[ain't]]'' as a general negative marker. As in other English dialects, it can be used instead of ''am not'', ''isn't'', ''aren't'', ''haven't'', and ''hasn't.'' However, some speakers of AAVE distinctively use ''ain't'' instead of ''don't'', ''doesn't'', or ''didn't'' (e.g., ''I ain't know that'').{{sfnp|Labov|1972|p=284}} ''Ain't'' had its origins in common English but became increasingly stigmatized since the 19th century {{crossreference|(see also: {{slink|English auxiliary verbs|Amn't}})}}.
* [[Double negative|Double negation]], as in ''I didn't go nowhere''. If the sentence is negative, all negatable forms are negated. This contrasts with [[standard written English]] convention, which interprets a double negative to mean a positive (although this was not always so; see [[double negative]]).{{sfn|Green|2002}} There is no limit to how many negators can be used.<ref name=":0" />
* In a negative construction, an indefinite pronoun such as ''nobody'' or ''nothing'' can be inverted with the negative verb particle for emphasis (e.g., ''Don't nobody know the answer'', ''Ain't nothing going on''.)

While AAVE shares these with Creole languages,{{sfnp|Winford|1992|p=350}} early recordings of African Nova Scotian English, Samaná English, and  recordings of former slaves indicate that negation was likely inherited from nonstandard colonial English.{{sfnp|Howe|Walker|2000|p=110}}

=== Other grammatical characteristics ===
* The [[copula (linguistics)|copula]] ''be'' in the present tense is often [[zero copula|dropped]], as in [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]], and other languages. For example: ''You crazy'' ("You're crazy") or ''She my sister'' ("She's my sister"). This extends to questions: ''Who you?'' ("Who're you?") and ''Where you at?'' ("Where are you (at)?"). This has been sometimes considered a Southern U.S. regionalism, though it is most frequent in Black speech.{{sfnp|Labov|1972|p=8}} On the other hand, ''is'' can be included for emphasis: ''Yes, she ''is'' my sister''. The general rules are:
** Only the forms ''is'' and ''are'' (often replaced by ''is'') can be omitted; ''am'', ''was'', and ''were'' are not deleted.
** These forms cannot be omitted when they would be pronounced with stress in Standard American (whether or not the stress serves specifically to impart an emphatic sense to the verb's meaning).
** These forms can be omitted only when the corresponding form in standard English can be contracted. For example, ''I don't know where he is'' cannot be reduced to <!-- The asterisk is standard linguistics notation for "unacceptable"; please don't remove it. -->*''I don't know where he,'' and correspondingly Standard English forbids the contraction <!-- See the note on the preceding asterisk. -->*''I don't know where he's''. Compare the acceptable forms ''I don't know where he at'' in AAVE, paralleling ''I don't know where he's at'' in Standard English.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/linguafranca/why-ebonics-is-no-joke/3521084
|title=Why Ebonics Is No Joke.
|work=Lingua Franca
|type=transcript
|author=[[Geoffrey Pullum|Geoff Pullum]]
|date=17 October 1998
|access-date=1 May 2014
|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100209091550/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/ling/stories/lf981017.htm |archive-date=9 February 2010 |url-status= live}}</ref>
<!--This next bullet's middle sentence is hard to read. Can someone help clarify it? -->
* Verbs are uninflected for number and person: there is no ''-s'' ending in the present-tense third-person singular. Example: ''She write poetry'' ("She writes poetry"). AAVE ''don't'' for standard English ''doesn't'' comes from this, unlike in some other dialects which use ''don't'' for standard English ''doesn't'' but ''does'' when not in the negative. Similarly, AAVE ''was'' is used for standard English ''was'' and ''were.''{{sfnp|Green|2002|p=38}}
* The genitive -'s ending indicating possession may or may not be used.{{sfnp|Green|2002|pp=102–103}} Instead, genitive case is inferrable from adjacency. This feature is similar to many [[Caribbean]] creoles. Many language forms throughout the world use an unmarked possessive; it may here result from a simplification of grammatical structures. Example: ''my momma sister'' ("my mother's sister").
* The words ''it'' and ''they'' denote existence of something, equivalent to standard English's ''there is'' or ''there are''.{{sfnp|Green|2002|p=80}}
* Word order in questions: ''Why they ain't growing?'' ("Why aren't they growing?") and ''Who the hell she think she is?'' ("Who the hell does she think she is?") lack the inversion of most other forms of English. Because of this, there is also no need for the [[Do-support|auxiliary ''do'']].{{sfnp|Green|2002|pp=84–89}}
*[[Relative clause]]s do not require a [[relative pronoun]] when they modify a noun in the object or in the predicate nominative position.{{sfnp|Green|2002|pp=89-91}}

== Vocabulary ==
AAVE shares most of its [[lexicon]] with other varieties of English, particularly that of informal and [[Southern American English|Southern]] dialects, such as, the relatively recent use of ''[[y'all]]''. The main sources for new words are combining, shifting, shortening, blending, borrowing, and creating.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cassidy |first1=Frederic G. |last2=Algeo |first2=John |date=June 1993 |title=Fifty Years among the New Words: A Dictionary of Neologisms, 1941-1991 |journal=Language |volume=69 |issue=2 |page=397 |doi=10.2307/416548 |jstor=416548 |issn=0097-8507}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite book |last=Widawski |first=Maciej |title=African American slang: a linguistic description |year=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-42440-1 |oclc=1090422253}}</ref> It has also been suggested that some of the vocabulary unique to AAVE has its origin in West African languages. However, etymology is often difficult to trace and, without a trail of recorded usage, these proposed origins cannot be considered proven.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Widawski |first=Maciej |title=African American Slang: A Linguistic Description |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-107-07417-0 |edition=1st |location=Cambridge, England |pages=19–64 |language=en}}</ref>

Early AAVE and Gullah contributed a number of words of African origin to the American English mainstream, including ''gumbo'',<ref>''Shorter OED,'' 5th edition, cf [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] ''kingumbo''</ref> ''goober'',<ref>''Shorter OED,'' 5th edition, [[Kikongo]] ''nguba''</ref> ''yam'', and ''banjo''.<ref>Nagle, S., & Sanders, S. (Eds.). (2003). English in the Southern United States (Studies in English Language). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 12.</ref>

Compounding in AAVE is a very common method in creating new vocabulary. The most common type of compounding is the noun–noun combination<ref>{{Cite book |last=Widawski |first=Maciej |title=African American Slang - A Linguistic Description |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-316-24061-8 |page=20 |language=en}}</ref>, followed by adjective–noun combination.<ref name="Widawski">{{Cite book |last=Widawski |first=Maciej |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fJzlBgAAQBAJ |title=African American Slang: A Linguistic Description |date=2015-03-05 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-24061-8 |language=en}}</ref> AAVE also combines adjectives with other adjectives less frequently, but more often than in standard American English.<ref name="Widawski ix–xii">{{Citation |last=Widawski |first=Maciej |title=Introduction |work=African American Slang |year=2015 |pages=ix–xii |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9781139696562.001 |isbn=978-1-139-69656-2 }}</ref>

AAVE has also contributed slang expressions such as ''cool'' and ''hip''.{{sfnp|Guralnik|1984|p=?}} In many cases, the proposed etymologies are not recognized by linguists or the [[Oxford English Dictionary]], such as ''to dig'',<ref>This is from [[Wolof language|Wolof]] ''dëgg'' or ''dëgga'', meaning "to understand/appreciate" according to Smitherman 2000 s.v. "Dig"; or, it may instead come from [[Irish language|Irish]] ''[[wikt:tuig|tuig]]'', according to Random House Unabridged, 2001</ref> ''jazz'',{{sfnp|Rickford|Rickford|2000|p=146}}<!--citing one or more of "David Dalby, Joseph Holloway, and Winifred Vass, among others"; this should be checked--> ''tote'',{{sfnp|Rickford|Rickford|2000|p=146}} and ''bad-mouth'', a [[calque]] from [[Mandinka language|Mandinka]].<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Smitherman|1977|}} cited in {{Harvcoltxt|Rickford|Rickford|2000|p=240}}.<!-- who unfortunately don't give a page number for Smitherman or more detail of the allegedly Mandingo origin; must check for details. --></ref> African American slang is formed by combining, shifting, shortening, blending, borrowing words and phrases that are regarded as informal.<ref name="Widawski ix–xii"/>

AAVE also has words that either are not found in other American English dialects or that have strikingly different meanings. For example, there are several words in AAVE referring to White people that are not part of mainstream American English; these include ''gray'' as an adjective for Whites (as in ''gray dude''),<ref name="Widawski"/> possibly from the color of [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] uniforms; and ''paddy'', an extension of the slang use for "Irish".<ref>''Gray'': Smitherman, ''Black Talk, s.v.'' "Gray". ''Paddy'': ''Dictionary of American Regional English, s.v.'' "Paddy".</ref> "Red bone" is another example of this, usually referring to light-skinned African Americans.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Widawski |first=Maciej |title=African American slang: a linguistic description |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-107-07417-0 |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |oclc=885547585}}</ref>

"[[Ofay]]", which is [[pejorative]], is another general term for a [[White people|White person]]; it might derive from the [[Ibibio language|Ibibio]] word ''afia'', which means "light-colored", from the [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]] word ''ofe'', spoken in hopes of disappearing from danger. However, most dictionaries simply say its etymology is unknown.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Smitherman|2000}} suggests either a general West African or the Pig Latin origin. ''Black Talk'', s.v. "Ofay".</ref>

''Kitchen'' refers to the particularly curly or kinky hair at the nape of the neck, and ''siditty'' or ''seddity'' means "snobbish" or "bourgeois".<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Smitherman|2000}}, s.v.'' "Kitchen". ''Kitchen, siditty'': ''Dictionary of American Regional English'', s.vv. "Kitchen", "Siditty".</ref>

AAVE has also contributed many words and phrases to other varieties of English, including ''chill out'', ''main squeeze'', ''soul'', ''funky'', and ''threads''.{{sfnp|Lee|1999|pp=381–386}}

==Influence on other dialects==
African-American Vernacular English has influenced the development of other dialects of English. The AAVE accent, [[New York accent]], and Spanish-language accents have together yielded the sound of [[New York Latino English]], some of whose speakers use an accent indistinguishable from an AAVE one.{{sfnp|Blake|Shousterman|Newlin-Łukowicz|2015|pp=284-285}} AAVE has also influenced certain [[Chicano English|Chicano accents]] and [[Liberian English|Liberian Settler English]], directly derived from the AAVE of the original 16,000 African Americans who migrated to [[Liberia]] in the 1800s.<ref>Singler, John Victor (2004). ''Liberian Settler English: phonology''. In Edgar W. Schneider, Kate Burridge, Bernd Kortmann, Rajend Mesthrie & Clive Upton (eds.), A Handbook of Varieties of English: Phonology. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 875-876.</ref> In the United States, urban youth participating in [[hip-hop culture]] or marginalized as ethnic minorities may also adopt AAVE, or prominent elements of it: for example, Southeast-Asian Americans embracing hip-hop identities.<ref>Reyes, Angela (2007). ''Language, Identity, and Stereotype Among Southeast Asian American Youth: The Other Asian''. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Reyes |first1=Angela |title=Appropriation of African American slang by Asian American youth |journal=Journal of Sociolinguistics |date=November 2005 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=509–532 |doi=10.1111/j.1360-6441.2005.00304.x }}</ref>

[[Internet slang]] has borrowed heavily from AAVE, which has often been characterized as [[cultural appropriation]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Thompson |first=Sydnee |date=2021-09-07 |title=So Much Modern Slang Is AAVE. Here's How Language Appropriation Erases The Influence Of Black Culture. |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sydneethompson/aave-language-appropriation |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=BuzzFeed News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-05-17 |title=Is It Gen Z Slang Or AAVE? |url=https://axis.org/blog/is-it-gen-z-slang-or-aave/ |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=Axis |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Shammet |first=Tagwa |date=2021-02-18 |title=AAVE is not your internet slang. It is Black culture. |url=https://commonwealthtimes.org/2021/02/18/aave-is-not-your-internet-slang-it-is-black-culture/ |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=The Commonwealth Times |language=en-US}}</ref> The term ''[[blaccent]]'' broadly refers to the accent associated with AAVE, but more often refers to the use of AAVE by non-black speakers.<ref>{{Cite episode |title=What Is Blaccent And Why Do People Keep Using It? |episode-link= |url=https://www.pbs.org/video/what-is-blaccent-and-why-do-people-keep-using-it-iud1o5/ |access-date=August 5, 2025 |series=Historian's Take |series-link= |first=Danielle |last=Bainbridge |network=[[PBS]] |station= |date=April 11, 2022 |season= |series-no= |number=1 |minutes= |time= |transcript= |transcript-url= |quote= |trans-quote= |via= |language=}}</ref>

== Variation ==
===Urban versus rural variations===
Early research on African-American Vernacular English took place in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.{{sfnp|Bloomquist|Green|Lanehart|2015|pp=140–159}} These studies concluded that AAVE was linguistically homogenous, or spoken roughly the same way everywhere around the country.{{sfnp|Bloomquist|Green|Lanehart|2015|pp=140–159}} Later sociolinguists found that these cities lacked the influence of the rural South and that earlier studies had not considered the representation of the Southern United States.{{sfnp|Bloomquist|Green|Lanehart|2015|pp=140–159}}

While AAVE began as mostly rural and Southern, today it is mostly urban and nationally widespread. Its more recent urban features are now diffusing back into rural areas.<ref name=":1">Wolfram, Walt (2004). "The Grammar of Urban African American Vernacular English". In ''Handbook of Varieties of English'', edited by Bernd Kortmann and Edgar Schneider. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 334.</ref> Urban AAVE alone is intensifying with the grammatical features exemplified in these sentences: "He be the best" (intensified equative ''be''), "She be done had her baby" (resultative ''be done''), and "They come hollerin" (indignant ''come''). On the other hand, rural AAVE alone shows certain features too, such as: "I was a-huntin" (''a''-prefixing); "It riz above us" (different irregular forms); and "I want for to eat it" (''for to'' complement).<ref>Wolfram, Walt (2004). "Urban African American Vernacular English: morphology and syntax". In ''Handbook of Varieties of English'', edited by Bernd Kortmann and Edgar Schneider. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 335-336.</ref> Use of the word ''bees'' in place of ''be'' to mean ''is'' or ''are'' in standard English, as in the sentence "That's the way it bees", is one of the rarest of all deep AAVE features today. Most middle-class AAVE speakers would recognize the verb ''bees'' as part of only a deep "Southern" or "country" speaker's vocabulary.{{sfnp|McWhorter|2001|pp=146–147}}

===Local variations===
There are at least 10 distinct regional accents in AAVE.{{sfnp|Jones|2020|p=263}}. Regional variation in AAVE does not pattern with other regional variation in North American English,{{sfnp|Jones|2020|p=225}} which broadly follows East-to-West migration patterns,{{sfnp|Jones|2020|p=35}} but instead patterns with the population movements during the Great Migration,{{sfnp|Jones|2020|p=253}} resulting in a broadly South-to-North pattern, albeit with [[founder effects]] in cities that already had existing African American populations at the beginning of the Great Migration.{{sfnp|Jones|2020|p=264}}<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Farrington |first1=Charles |title=Language Variation and the Great Migration: Regionality and African American Language |date=18 September 2019 |hdl=1794/24866 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

New York City AAVE incorporates some local features of the [[New York accent]], including its high {{Sc|thought}} vowel; meanwhile, conversely, Pittsburgh AAVE may merge this same vowel with the {{sc|lot}} vowel, matching the [[cot-caught merger]] of [[Western Pennsylvania English|White Pittsburgh accents]], though AAVE accents traditionally do not have the cot-caught merger. [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]], [[Atlanta]], and [[Research Triangle]] AAVE incorporates the {{sc|dress}} vowel raising and {{sc|face}} vowel lowering associated with [[Southern American English|White Southern accents]]. Memphis and St. Louis AAVE are developing, since the mid-twentieth century, an iconic [[Square-nurse merger|merger of the vowels in {{sc|square}} and {{sc|nurse}}]], making ''there'' sound like ''thurr''.<ref>Wolfram, Walt; Kohn, Mary E. (forthcoming). "[https://www.academia.edu/20295897/The_Regional_Development_of_African_American_Language The regional development of African American Language] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106200951/http://www.academia.edu/20295897/The_Regional_Development_of_African_American_Language |date=2018-11-06 }}". In [[Sonja Lanehart]], [[Lisa Green (linguist)|Lisa Green]], and Jennifer Bloomquist (eds.), ''The Oxford Handbook on African American Language''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 149-151.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hinton |first1=Linette N. |last2=Pollock |first2=Karen E. |date=2003 |title=Regional Variations in the Phonological Characteristics of African American Vernacular English |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-971X.00155 |journal=World Englishes |language=en |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=59–71 |doi=10.1111/1467-971X.00155 |issn=0883-2919|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thomas |first=Erik R. |date=2007 |title=Phonological and Phonetic Characteristics of African American Vernacular English: Phonological and Phonetic Characteristics of AAVE |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2007.00029.x |journal=Language and Linguistics Compass |language=en |volume=1 |issue=5 |pages=450–475 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-818X.2007.00029.x|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Californian AAVE often lacks a [[cot-caught merger]], especially before nasals.{{sfnp|Jones|2020|p=225}} Regional patterns of pronunciation and word choice are also apparent on social media.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Taylor |title=Toward a Description of African American Vernacular English Dialect Regions Using 'Black Twitter' |journal=American Speech |date=November 2015 |volume=90 |issue=4 |pages=403–440 |doi=10.1215/00031283-3442117 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1515/9783110490817-004 |chapter=Tweets as graffiti: What the reconstruction of Vulgar Latin can tell us about Black Twitter |title=English in Computer-Mediated Communication |year=2016 |editor1-last=Squires |editor1-first=Lauren |last1=Jones |first1=Taylor |pages=43–68 |isbn=978-3-11-049081-7 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Austen |first1=Martha |title=Put the Groceries Up |journal=American Speech |date=1 August 2017 |volume=92 |issue=3 |pages=298–320 |doi=10.1215/00031283-4312064 }}</ref>

There is general uniformity of AAVE grammar, despite its vast geographic spread across the whole country.{{sfnp|Labov|2001|pp=506–508}} This may be due in part to relatively recent migrations of some African Americans out of the [[Southern United States|American South]] (see [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] and [[Second Great Migration (African American)|Second Great Migration]]) as well as to long-term racial segregation that kept these speakers living together in largely homogeneous communities.{{sfnp|Wardhaugh|2002|p=339}}

== Social perception and context ==
{{main|African-American Vernacular English and social context}}

African-American Vernacular suffers from persistent stigma and negative social evaluation in American culture. By definition, as a [[nonstandard dialect|vernacular dialect]] of English, AAVE has not received the social prestige of a [[standard dialect]], leading to widespread and long-standing misconceptions that it is a grammatically inferior form of English, which linguistics research of the twentieth century has debunked.<!-- No citation is needed here for this claim of refutation. Evidence is amply provided below: see the names Pinker, Radford et al, Schilling-Estes, and Crystal. --> However, educators and social commentators traditionally have advocated for eliminating AAVE usage through the public education system for a variety of reasons, ranging from a continued belief that AAVE is intrinsically deficient to arguments that its use, by being stigmatized in certain social contexts, is socially limiting.{{sfnp|Wardhaugh|2002|pp=343–348}} Some of the harshest criticism of AAVE or its use has come from African Americans themselves.{{sfnp|Lippi-Green|1997|p=200}}{{sfnp|Lanehart|2001|p=6}}<ref>"Black critics [of Black English] use all the different arguments of the White critics, and spare us the more or less open embarrassment that all White Americans feel when publicly criticizing anything or anyone Black. So, of course, they can be even more wrong-headed and self-righteously wrong-headed than anyone else ..." {{Harvcoltxt|Quinn|1982|pp=150–51}}.</ref> A conspicuous example was the "[[Pound Cake speech]]", in which [[Bill Cosby]] criticized some African Americans for various social behaviors, including the way they talked.

Educators traditionally have attempted to eliminate AAVE usage through the public education system, perceiving the dialect as grammatically defective.{{sfnp|Wardhaugh|2002|pp=343–348}} In 1974, the teacher-led [[Conference on College Composition and Communication]] issued a position statement affirming students' rights to their own dialects and the validity of all dialects.{{sfnp|Smitherman|1999|p=357}} Mainstream linguistics has long agreed with this view about dialects.{{sfnp|McWhorter|2001}} In 1979, a judge ordered the Ann Arbor School District to find a way to identify AAVE speakers in the schools and to "use that knowledge in teaching such students how to read standard English."<ref>Flood, J., Jensen, J., Lapp, D., Squire, J. (1991). ''Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts''. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company.</ref> In 1996, [[Oakland Unified School District]] made a [[Oakland Ebonics resolution|controversial resolution]] for AAVE, which was later called "Ebonics". The Oakland School board approved that Ebonics be recognized as a language independent from English (though this particular view is not endorsed by linguists), that teachers would participate in recognizing this language, and that it would be used in theory to support the transition from Ebonics to Standard American English in schools. This program lasted three years and then died off.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lippi-Green |first1=Rosina |title=English with an Accent |publisher=[[Routledge]] |pages=304–321 |edition=Second }}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|United States|Languages|English language|Africa}}
* [[Africanisms]]
* [[African American English]]
* [[Glossary of jive talk]]
* [[Gullah language]]
* [[Morphological leveling#to be leveling|''Is''-leveling]]
* [[Languages of the United States]]
* [[North American English regional phonology]]
* [[Northern Subject Rule]]
* [[Brittonicisms in English]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{Refbegin|colwidth=30em}}
* {{citation
|last1=Artiles
|first1=Alfredo J.
|last2=Trent
|first2=Stanley C.
|year=1994
|title=Overrepresentation of minority students in special education: a continuing debate
|journal=The Journal of Special Education
|volume=24
|pages=410–437
|doi=10.1177/002246699402700404
|s2cid=146535428
}}
*{{citation
|last=Bailey
|first=Guy
|chapter= The relationship between African American Vernacular English and White Vernaculars in the American South: A sociocultural history and some phonological evidence
|editor-last=Lanehart
|editor-first=Sonja
|year=2001
|title=Sociocultural and Historical Contexts of African American English
|series=Varieties of English Around the World
|place=Amsterdam
|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company
|pages=53–92
|doi=10.1075/veaw.g27.08bai
|isbn=978-90-272-4885-5
}}
*{{citation
|last1=Bailey
|first1=Guy
|last2=Thomas
|first2=Erik
|chapter= Some aspects of African-American Vernacular English phonology
|editor-last=Mufwene
|editor-first=Salikoko
|editor2-last=Rickford
|editor2-first=John R.
|editor3-last=Bailey
|editor3-first=Guy
|editor4-last=Baugh
|editor4-first=John
|year=1998
|title=African-American English: Structure, History, and Use
|place=London
|publisher=Routledge
|pages=85–109
|doi=10.4324/9780203355596-13 
|isbn=978-0-203-35559-6
}}
* {{citation
|last=Baker
|first=Houston A. Jr.
|year=1984
|title=Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature: a Vernacular Theory
|publisher=University of Chicago Press
|doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226160849.001.0001
|isbn=978-0-226-03538-3
}}
*{{citation
|last=Baranowski
|first=Maciej
|s2cid=2034660
|year=2013
|title=Ethnicity and Sound Change: African American English in Charleston, SC
|journal=University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics
|volume=19
|issue=2
|pages=1–10
}}
* {{Citation
|editor-last=Baratz
|editor-first=Joan C.
|editor2-last=Shuy
|editor2-first=Roger
|year=1969
|title=Teaching Black Children to Read
|place=Washington, DC
|publisher=Center for Applied Linguistics
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Baugh
|first=John
|year=2000
|title=Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic Pride and Racial Prejudice
|place=New York
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|isbn=0-19-515289-1
}}
* {{citation
|last1=Blake
|first1=René
|last2=Shousterman
|first2=Cara
|last3=Newlin-Łukowicz
|first3=Luiza
|editor-last=Lanehart
|editor-first=Sonja
|year=2015
|chapter=African American Language in New York City
|title=The Oxford Handbook of African American Language
|place=Oxford
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|pages=280–298
}}
* {{Cite book |url=http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199795390.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199795390 |title=The Oxford Handbook of African American Language |date=2015-07-01 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-979539-0 |editor-last=Bloomquist |editor-first=Jennifer |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199795390.001.0001 |editor-last2=Green |editor-first2=Lisa J. |editor-last3=Lanehart |editor-first3=Sonja L.
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Brasch
|first=Walter
|year=1981
|title=Black English in the Mass Media
|place=Amherst
|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Burling
|first=Robbins
|year=1973
|title=English in Black and White
|place=New York
|publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
}}
* {{cite journal
 |last=Chesley
 |first=Paula
 |title=You Know What It Is: Learning Words through Listening to Hip-Hop
 |journal=PLOS ONE
 |volume=6
 |issue=12
 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0028248
 |date=December 2011
|bibcode = 2011PLoSO...628248C
 |pages=e28248
 |pmid=22205942
 |pmc=3244393
 |doi-access=free
 }}
* {{Citation
|last=Cosby
|first=William
|title=Elements of Igno-Ebonics Style
|newspaper=Wall Street Journal
|date=10 January 1997
|pages=P.A11
|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB85284081628517500
|url-access=subscription
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Coulmas
|first=Florian
|year=2005
|title=Sociolinguistics: The Study of Speakers' Choices
|publisher=Cambridge
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Crystal
|first=David
|author-link=David Crystal
|year=2003
|title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.
|edition=2nd
|place=Cambridge
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|isbn=0-521-82348-X
}}
* {{cite journal
| last=Cutler
| first=Cecelia
| title=The Co-Construction of Whiteness in an MC Battle
| journal=Pragmatics
|volume=17
|issue=1
|pages=9–22
|year=2007
| doi=10.1075/prag.17.1.01cut
| doi-access=free
}}
* {{cite journal|last=DeBose
|first=Charles
|editor-last=Eastman
|editor-first=Carol M.
|year=1992
|title=Codeswitching: Black English and Standard English in the African-American linguistic repertoire
|journal=Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
|volume=13
|issue=1–2
|publisher=Multilingual Matters LTD
|isbn=978-1-85359-167-9
|pages=157–167
|doi=10.1080/01434632.1992.9994489
|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.1992.9994489
|url-access=subscription
}}
* {{citation
|last1=DeBose
|first1=Charles
|last2=Faraclas
|first2=Nicholas
|editor-last=Mufwene
|editor-first=Salikoko S.
|year=1993
|chapter=An Africanist approach to the linguistic study of black English: getting to the roots of tense-aspect-modality and copula systems in Afro-American
|title=Africanisms in Afro-American Language Varieties
|place=Athens, GA
|publisher=University of Georgia press
|pages=364–387
|editor-link=Salikoko Mufwene
}}
* ''Dictionary of American Regional English.'' 5 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985–. <!-- The last volume has yet [2007] to be published. -->
* {{Citation
|last=Dillard
|first=John L.
|year=1972
|title=Black English: Its History and Usage in the United States
|publisher=Random House
|isbn=0-394-71872-0
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Dillard
|first=J.L
|year=1992
|title=A History of American English
|place=New York
|publisher=Longman
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Downing
|first=John
|year=1978
|journal=International Review of Education
|title=Strategies of Bilingual Teaching
|volume=24
|issue=3
|pages=329–346
|doi=10.1007/BF00598048
|bibcode=1978IREdu..24..329D
|s2cid=145456540
}}
*{{citation
|last=Eberhardt
|first=Maeve
|year=2008
|title=The Low-Back Merger in the Steel City: African American English in Pittsburgh
|journal=American Speech
|volume=83
|issue=3
|pages=284–311
|doi=10.1215/00031283-2008-021
}}
*{{citation
|last=Edwards
|first=Walter
|year=2004
|chapter=African American Vernacular English: Phonology
|editor-last=Kortmann
|editor-first=Bernd
|editor-link=Bernd Kortmann
|title=A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool
|publisher=Walter de Gruyter
|volume=2
|pages=366–382
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dptsvykgk3IC
|isbn=978-3-11-017532-5
}}
*{{citation
|last=Edwards
|first=Walter
|year=2020
|chapter=African American Vernacular English: phonology
|editor1-last=Kortmann
|editor1-first=Bernd
|editor-link1=:de:Bernd Kortmann
|editor2-last=Schneider
|editor2-first=Edgar W.
|editor-link2=Edgar W. Schneider
|title=A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool
|publisher=Walter de Gruyter
|volume=1
|pages=383–392
|doi=10.1515/9783110197181-027
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dptsvykgk3IC
|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110197181-027/html
|isbn=978-3-11-017532-5
|s2cid=240729342
|access-date=2018-01-07
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819002716/https://books.google.com/books?id=Dptsvykgk3IC
|archive-date=2018-08-19
|url-status=live
|url-access=subscription
}}
* {{citation
|last=Farrison
|first=W. Edward
|year=1970
|title=Dialectology versus Negro dialect
|journal=CLA Journal
|volume=13
|pages=21–27
}}
* {{citation
|last=Fickett
|first=Joan G.
|year=1972
|title=Tense and aspect in Black English
|journal=Journal of English Linguistics
|volume=6
|issue=1
|pages=17–19
|doi=10.1177/007542427200600102
|s2cid=145716303
}}
* {{citation
|last=Florini
|first=Sarah
|year=2014
|title=Tweets, Tweeps, and Signifyin': Communication and Cultural Performance on "Black Twitter"
|journal=Television & New Media
|volume=15
|issue=3
|pages=223–237
|doi= 10.1177/1527476413480247
|s2cid=145278111
}}
* {{citation
|last=Gates
|first=Henry Louis Jr.
|year=1988
|title=The Signifying Monkey: a Theory of Afro-American literary Criticism
|place=New York
|publisher=Oxford University Press
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Golden
|first=Tim
|title=Oakland Scratches plan to teach black English.
|newspaper=New York Times
|date=January 14, 1997
|pages=A10
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Green
|first=Lisa J.
|author-link=Lisa Green (linguist)
|year=2002
|title=African American English: A Linguistic Introduction
|place=Cambridge
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|isbn=0-521-89138-8
|url-access=registration
|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780521891387
|access-date=2019-12-17
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204002226/https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780521891387/
|archive-date=2019-12-04
|url-status=live
}}
*{{citation
|last=Guralnik
|first=David Bernard
|year=1984
|title=Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language
|publisher=Simon and Schuster
|isbn=0-671-41814-9
}}
* {{citation
|last1=Harry
|first1=Beth
|last2=Anderson
|first2=Mary G.
|year=1995
|title=The disproportionate placement of African-American males in special education programs: a critique of the process
|journal=Journal of Negro Education
|volume=63
|issue=4
|pages=602–619
|jstor=2967298
|doi=10.2307/2967298
}}
* {{cite thesis |id={{ProQuest|302879378}} |last=Holloway |first=Karla |year=1978 |title=A critical investigation of literary and linguistic structures in the fiction of Zora Neale Hurston }}
* {{Citation
|last=Holloway
|first=Karla
|year=1987
|title=The Character of the Word: The Texts of Zora Neale Hurston
|place=West Port, CT
|publisher=Greenwood Press
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Holton
|first=Sylvia Wallace
|year=1984
|title= Down Home and Up Town: the Representation of Black Speech in American Fiction
|place=London
|publisher=Associated University Press
}}
* {{Citation
|last1=Howe
|first1=Darin M.
|last2=Walker
|first2=James A.
|editor-last=Poplack
|editor-first=Shana
|year=2000
|chapter=Negation and the Creole-Origins Hypothesis: Evidence from Early African American English
|title=The English History of African American English
|pages=109–139
}}
* {{cite thesis |id={{ProQuest|2423437304}} |last1=Jones |first1=Taylor |title=Variation in African American English: The Great Migration and Regional Differentiation |date=1 January 2020 |url=https://www.languagejones.com/s/TaylorWJonesDissertation.pdf }}
* {{citation
|last1=Kendall
|first1=Tyler
|last2=Wolfram
|first2=Walt
|year=2009
|title=Local and external language standards in African American English
|journal=Journal of English Linguistics
|volume=37
|issue=4
|pages=305–330
|doi=10.1177/0075424209339281
|s2cid=145527700
}}
* {{Citation
|last1=van Keulen
|first1=Jean E.
|last2=Weddington
|first2=Gloria Toliver
|last3=DeBose
|first3=Charles E.
|year=1998
|title=Speech, Language, Learning, and the African American Child
|place=Boston
|publisher=Allyn and Bacon
}}
* {{citation
|last=Labov
|first=William
|author-link=William Labov
|year=1969
|chapter=The logic of non-standard English
|editor-last=Alatis
|editor-first=J.
|title=Georgetown Monograph on Language and Linguistics
|volume=22
|pages=1–44
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Labov
|first=William
|year=1972
|title=Language in the Inner City: Studies in Black English Vernacular
|place=Philadelphia
|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Labov
|first=William
|year=2001
|title=Principles of Linguistic Change, II: Social factors
|place=Oxford
|publisher=Blackwell
|isbn=0-631-17915-1
}}
* {{citation
|editor-last=Lanehart
|editor-first=Sonja
|year=2001
|chapter=State of the art in African American English research: Multi-disciplinary perspectives and directions
|title=Sociocultural and Historical Contexts of African American English
|series=Varieties of English Around the World
|place=Amsterdam
|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company
|pages=1–20
|doi=10.1075/veaw.g27.05lan
|isbn=978-90-272-4885-5
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Lee
|first=Margaret
|title=Out of the Hood and into the News: Borrowed Black Verbal Expressions in a Mainstream Newspaper
|journal=American Speech
|volume=74
|issue=4
|year=1999
|pages=369–388
|jstor=455663
}}
* {{citation
|last=Linnes
|first=Kathleen
|year=1998
|title=Middle-class AAVE versus middle-class bilingualism: Contrasting speech communities
|journal=American Speech
|volume=73
|issue=4
|pages=339–367
|doi=10.2307/455582
|jstor=455582
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Lippi-Green
|first=Rosina
|year=1997
|title=English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States
|place=London
|publisher=Blackwell
|page=200
}}
*{{citation
|last=McWhorter
|first=John H.
|author-link=John McWhorter
|year=2001
|title=Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of a "Pure" Standard English
|publisher=Basic Books
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Edt7yUD6PkMC
|isbn=978-0-7382-0446-8
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Morgan
|first=Marcyliena
|editor-last=Davis
|editor-first=Kathryn Anne
|year=1999
|title=Sociopolitical perspectives on language policy and planning in the USA.
|publisher=John Benjamins
|isbn=1-55619-735-7
|editor2-last=Huebner
|editor2-first=Thom
|chapter=US Language Planning and Policies for Social Dialect Speakers
}}
*{{citation
|last=Mufwene
|first=Salikoko
|chapter= What is African American English?
|editor-last=Lanehart
|editor-first=Sonja
|year=2001
|title=Sociocultural and Historical Contexts of African American English
|series=Varieties of English Around the World
|place=Amsterdam
|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company
|pages=21–52
|doi=10.1075/veaw.g27.06muf
|isbn=978-90-272-4885-5
}}
* {{citation
|last=Ogbu
|first=John U.
|author-link=John Ogbu
|year=1999
|title=Beyond Language: Ebonics, Proper English, and Identity in a Black-American Speech Community
|journal= American Educational Research Journal
|volume=36
|issue=2
|pages=147–184
|doi=10.3102/00028312036002147
|s2cid=220339794
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Pinker
|first=Steven
|author-link=Steven Pinker
|title=The Language Instinct
|place=New York
|publisher=Morrow
|year=1994
|isbn=0-688-12141-1
|title-link=The Language Instinct
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Poplack
|first=Shana
|author-link=Shana Poplack
|title=The English History of African American English
|publisher=Blackwell
|year=2000
}}
* {{Citation
|last1=Poplack
|first1=Shana
|last2=Tagliamonte
|first2=Sali
|title=African American English in the Diaspora
|publisher=Blackwell
|year=2001
}}
* {{Citation
 |last        = Pullum
 |first       = Geoffrey K.
 |author-link  = Geoffrey K. Pullum
 |title       = Language that dare not speak its name
 |journal     = Nature
 |date        = March 27, 1997
 |url         = http://www.ucsc.edu/oncampus/currents/97-03-31/ebonics.htm
 |access-date  = August 27, 2010
 |doi         = 10.1038/386321a0
 |volume      = 386
 |issue       = 6623
 |bibcode     = 1997Natur.386..321P
 |pages       = 321–322
 |s2cid = 4255646
 
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100527153422/http://www.ucsc.edu/oncampus/currents/97-03-31/ebonics.htm
 |archive-date = May 27, 2010
|url-access= subscription
 }}
* {{Citation
|last=Quinn
|first=Jim
|year=1982
|title=American Tongue and Cheek: A Populist Guide to Our Language
|place=New York
|publisher=Penguin
|isbn=0-14-006084-7
|postscript=<!--none-->
|url=https://archive.org/details/americantonguech00quin
}}
* {{Citation
|last1=Radford
|first1=Andrew
|last2=Atkinson
|first2=Martin
|last3=Britain
|first3=David
|last4=Clahsen
|first4=Harald
|title=Linguistics: An Introduction
|place=Cambridge
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|year=1999
|isbn=0-521-47854-5
}}
* {{citation
|last=Read
|first=Allen Walker
|author-link=Allen Walker Read
|year=1939
|title=The speech of Negroes in colonial America
|journal=The Journal of Negro History
|volume=24
|issue=3
|pages=247–258
|jstor=2714378
|doi=10.2307/2714378
|s2cid=150204787
}}
*{{citation
|last=Rickford
|first=John
|author-link=John Rickford
|year=1997a
|title=Prior Creolization of African-American Vernacular English? Sociohistorical and Textual Evidence from the 17th and 18th Centuries
|journal=Journal of Sociolinguistics
|volume=1
|issue=3
|pages=315–336
|doi=10.1111/1467-9481.00019
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Rickford
|first=John
|year=1997b
|title=Suite for Ebony and Phonics
|journal=Discover Magazine
|volume=18
|issue=2
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Rickford
|first=John
|year=1999
|title=African American Vernacular English
|publisher=Blackwell
|isbn=0-631-21245-0
}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Rickford |first1=John R. |last2=King |first2=Sharese |title=Language and linguistics on trial: Hearing Rachel Jeantel (and other vernacular speakers) in the courtroom and beyond |journal=Language |date=2016 |volume=92 |issue=4 |pages=948–988 |doi=10.1353/lan.2016.0078 |s2cid=152062713 }}
* {{citation
|last=Rickford
|first=John
|editor-last=Lanehart
|editor-first=Sonja
|year=2015
|chapter=African American Language in California:Over Four Decades of Vibrant Variationist Research
|title=The Oxford Handbook of African American Language
|place=Oxford
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|pages=299–315
|chapter-url=http://www.johnrickford.com/portals/45/documents/papers/Rickford%202015b%20AAVE%20in%20California-Over%20Four%20Decades%20of%20Vibrant%20Variationist%20Research.pdf
}}
* {{Citation
|last1=Rickford
|first1=John
|last2=Rickford
|first2=Russell
|author-link2=Russell J. Rickford
|year=2000
|title=Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English.
|place=New York
|publisher=John Wiley & Sons
|isbn=0-471-39957-4
|url-access=registration
|url=https://archive.org/details/spokensoulstoryo00john
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Sampson
|first=Geoffrey
|author-link=Geoffrey Sampson
|title=Educating Eve: The "Language Instinct" Debate
|place=London
|publisher=Cassell
|year=1997
|isbn=0-304-33908-3
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Schilling-Estes
|first=Natalie
|editor-last=Fasold
|editor-first=Ralph
|editor2-last=Connor-Linton
|editor2-first=Jeff
|year=2006
|chapter=Dialect Variation
|place=Cambridge
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|pages=311–42
|title=An Introduction to Language and Linguistics ed
|isbn=0-521-84768-0
}}
* {{Citation
|last1=Simpkins
|first1=Gary A.
|last2=Holt
|first2=Grace
|last3=Simpkins
|first3=Charlesetta
|year=1977
|title=Bridge: A Cross-Cultural Reading Program
|publisher=Houghton-Mifflin
}}
* {{Citation
|last1=Smith
|first1=Ernie
|last2=Crozier
|first2=Karen
|title=Ebonics Is Not Black English
|journal=The Western Journal of Black Studies
|year=1998
|volume=22
|pages=109–116
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Smitherman
|first=Geneva
|year=1977
|title=Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America
|place=Boston
|publisher=Houghton Mifflin
}}<!-- No, there's neither a "g" nor an apostrophe for the words in the main title -->
* {{Citation
|last=Smitherman
|first=Geneva
|year=1999
|title=CCCC's Role in the Struggle for Language Rights
|journal=College Composition and Communication
|volume=50
|issue=3
|pages=349–376
|jstor=358856
|doi=10.2307/358856
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Smitherman
|first=Geneva
|year=2000
|title=Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner
|place=Boston
|publisher=Houghton Mifflin
|isbn=0-395-96919-0
|edition=revised
|url=https://archive.org/details/blacktalkwordsph00smit_0
}}
* {{citation
|last=Spears
|first=Arthur K.
|year=1982
|title=The black English semi-auxiliary ''come''
|journal=Language
|volume=58
|issue=4
|pages=850–872
|jstor=413960
|doi=10.2307/413960
}}
* {{citation
|last=Spears
|first=Arthur K.
|editor-last=Lanehart
|editor-first=Sonja
|year=2015
|chapter=African American Standard English
|title=The Oxford Handbook of African American Language
|place=Oxford
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|pages=786–799
}}
*{{citation
|last=Stewart
|first=William A.
|year=1964
|title=Non-standard Speech and the Teaching of English
|place=Washington, D.C.
|publisher=Center for Applied Linguistics
}}
*{{citation
|last=Stewart
|first=William A.
|year=1969
|chapter=On the use of Negro dialect in the teaching of reading
|editor-last=Baratz
|editor-first=Joan
|editor2-last=Shuy
|editor2-first=Roger
|title=Teaching Black Children to Read
|place=Washington, D.C.
|publisher=Center for Applied Linguistics
|pages=156–219
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Stewart
|first=William
|editor-last=Luelsdorff
|editor-first=P.A.
|chapter=Teaching Blacks to Read Against Their Will
|year=1975
|title=Linguistic Perspectives on Black English.
|place=Regensburg, Germany
|publisher=Hans Carl
}}
* {{citation
|last=Sweetland
|first=Julie
|title=Unexpected but Authentic Use of an Ethnically-Marked Dialect
|journal=Journal of Sociolinguistics
|volume=6
|issue=4
|year=2002
|pages=514–536
|doi=10.1111/1467-9481.00199
}}
*{{citation
|last=Thomas
|first=Erik R.
|title=Rural White Southern Accents
|publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]]
|work=Atlas of North American English (online)
|year=2006
|url=http://www.atlas.mouton-content.com/secure/generalmodules/varieties/unit0000/virtualsession/vslessons/thomas.pdf
|access-date=2018-01-07
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222004531/http://www.atlas.mouton-content.com/secure/generalmodules/varieties/unit0000/virtualsession/vslessons/thomas.pdf
|archive-date=2014-12-22

}}
*{{citation
|last1=Trotta
|first1=Joe
|last2=Blyahher
|first2=Oleg
|year=2011
|title=''Game done changed'' A look at selected AAVE features in the TV series ''the Wire''
|journal=Moderna Språk
|volume=1
|pages=15–42
|doi=10.58221/mosp.v105i1.8284
|s2cid=143111483
|url=http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/modernasprak/article/viewFile/677/629
|access-date=2018-01-07
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215221755/http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/modernasprak/article/viewFile/677/629
|archive-date=2017-12-15
|url-status=live
|doi-access=free
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Trudgill
|first=Peter
|year=1983
|title=On Dialect
|place=New York
|publisher=New York University Press
}}
* {{citation
|last=Walser
|first=Richard
|year=1955
|title=Negro dialect in eighteenth-century drama
|journal=American Speech
|volume=30
|issue=4
|pages=269–276
|jstor=453562
|doi=10.2307/453562
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Wardhaugh
|first=Ronald
|year=2002
|title=An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
|publisher=Blackwell
}}
*{{citation
|editor-last=Wheeler
|editor-first=Rebecca S.
|year=1999
|title=The Workings of Language: From Prescriptions to Perspectives
|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRFIsGWZ5O4C
|isbn=978-0-275-96245-6
|access-date=2018-01-07
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160518130544/https://books.google.com/books?id=QRFIsGWZ5O4C
|archive-date=2016-05-18
|url-status=live
}}
* {{Citation
|last1=Wheeler
|first1=Rebecca
|last2=Swords
|first2=Rachel
|year=2006
|title=Code-switching: Teaching Standard English in Urban Classrooms
|place=Urbana, IL
|publisher=National Council of Teachers of English
}}
* {{citation
|last=Williamson
|first=Juanita
|year=1970
|title=Selected features of speech: black and white
|journal=CLA Journal
|volume=13
|pages=420–433
}}
* {{Citation
|last=Winford
|first=Donald
|title=Back to the past: The BEV/creole connection revisited
|year=1992
|journal=Language Variation and Change
|volume=4
|issue=3
|pages=311–357
|doi=10.1017/S0954394500000831
|s2cid=143664421
}}
* {{citation
|last=Wolfram
|first=Walter A.
|chapter= The phonology of a sociocultural variety: The case of African American Vernacular English
|editor-last=Bernthal
|editor-first=John E. 
|editor2-last=Bankson
|editor2-first=Nicholas W.
|year=1994
|title=Child Phonology: Characteristics, Assessment, and Intervention with Special Populations
|place=New York
|publisher=Thieme
}}
* {{citation
|last=Wolfram
|first=Walter A.
|year=1998
|title=Language ideology and dialect: understanding the Oakland Ebonics controversy
|journal=Journal of English Linguistics
|volume=26
|issue=2
|pages=108–121
|doi=10.1177/007542429802600203
|s2cid=144554543
}}
* {{Citation
|last1=Wolfram
|first1=Walter A.
|last2=Fasold
|first2=Ralph W.
|year=1974
|title=Social Dialects in American English
|place=Englewood Cliffs, NJ
|publisher=Prentice-Hall
}}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{citation
|last1=Bailey
|first1=Guy
|last2=Baugh
|first2=John
|last3=Mufwene
|first3=Salikoko S.
|first4=John R.
|last4=Rickford
|title=African-American English: Structure, History and Use
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbJ6rOwuRQgC
|year=2013
|publisher=Routledge
|isbn=978-1-135-09756-1
}}
* {{Citation
|last1=Delpit
|first1=Lisa
|last2=Dowdy
|first2=Joanne Kilgour
|year=2002
|title=The Skin that We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom.
|place=New York
|publisher=New Press
|isbn=1-56584-544-7
}}
* {{cite web
|last=McDorman
|first=Richard E.
|year=2012
|title=Understanding African-American English: A Course in Language Comprehension and Cross-Cultural Understanding for Advanced English Language Learners in the United States
|url=http://www.richardmcdorman.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Understanding-African-American-English_Richard-E-McDorman.pdf
|access-date=8 October 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304042618/http://www.richardmcdorman.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Understanding-African-American-English_Richard-E-McDorman.pdf
|archive-date=4 March 2016
|url-status=live
}}
* {{citation
|last=Nunberg
|first=Geoffrey
|author-link=Geoffrey Nunberg
|year=1997
|title=Double Standards
|journal=Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
|volume=15
|url=http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/wow/nunberg.html
|issue=3
|pages=667–675
|access-date=4 March 2010
|doi=10.1023/A:1005815614064
|s2cid=169316918
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923213155/http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/wow/nunberg.html
|archive-date=23 September 2009
|url-status=live
|url-access=subscription
}}
* {{cite web
|last=Oubré
|first=Alondra
|year=1997
|title=Black English Vernacular (Ebonics) and Educability: A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Language, Cognition, and Schooling
|url=http://www.aawc.com/ebonicsarticle.html
|work=[[African American Web Connection]]
|access-date=4 March 2010
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614060848/http://www.aawc.com/ebonicsarticle.html
|archive-date=14 June 2007

}}
* {{cite web|last=Patrick|first=Peter L.|year=2007|title=A bibliography of works on African American English|publisher=University of Essex|url=http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/aavesem/Biblio.html|access-date=4 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100216040445/http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp/aavesem/Biblio.html|archive-date=2010-02-16}}
* {{cite web
|last1=Pollock
|first1=K.
|last2=Bailey
|first2=G.
|last3=Berni
|last4=Fletcher
|last5=Hinton
|first5=L.N.
|last6=Johnson
|last7=Roberts
|last8=Weaver
|year=1998
|title=Phonological Features of African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
|url=http://www.rehabmed.ualberta.ca/spa/phonology/features.htm
|work=[[Child Phonology Laboratory]]
|publisher=University of Alberta
|access-date=4 March 2010
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100529175647/http://www.rehabmed.ualberta.ca/spa/phonology/features.htm
|archive-date=29 May 2010
|url-status=live
}}
* {{cite web
|last=Rickford
|first=John R.
|author-link=John Rickford
|title=Ebonics Notes and Discussion
|url=http://www.stanford.edu/~rickford/ebonics/EbonicsExamples.html
|date=December 1996
|access-date=4 March 2010
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090301212704/http://www.stanford.edu/~rickford/ebonics/EbonicsExamples.html
|archive-date=1 March 2009
|url-status=live
}}
* {{citation
|last1=Rickford
|first1=John R.
|author-link=John Rickford
|last2=Rickford
|first2=Angela E.
|year=1995
|title=Dialect readers revisited
|journal=Linguistics and Education
|volume=7
|issue=2
|pages=107–128
|url=http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/DIALECT_READERS_REVISITED.html
|doi=10.1016/0898-5898(95)90003-9
|doi-access=free
}}
* {{cite web
 |last        = Sidnell
 |first       = Jack
 |access-date  = 4 March 2010
 |title       = African American Vernacular English (Ebonics)
 |url         = http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/definitions/aave.html
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100210040048/http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/definitions/aave.html
 |archive-date = 10 February 2010
 
}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{sister project links||d=Q8002|c=Category:African-American English|n=no|b=African-American Vernacular English|v=no|q=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|s=no|wikt=no|species=no}}
{{African American topics}}
{{English dialects by continent}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:African-American English| ]]
[[Category:Dialects of English]]
[[Category:Sociolects]]