AAVE Flashcards
Give examples of situations which would have given rise to pidginisation during the early history of slavery in the Caribbean and in North America.
Linguistic isolation on the West coast of Africa
Linguistic Isolation on slave ships
Enslaved Africans quarantined on Sullivan island and then on to Charleston where they were sold
Denial of education
Plantations in the Caribbean, Southern US, and Southern US small farms
How big a role did plantation size have to do with pidginisation?
A big one. When slaves were moved to smaller plots in the southern US, contact between slaves and white settlers was greater than in the big Caribbean plantations
Explain the creolist hypothesis
AAVE has creolist origins, is not Southern US English
What is Gullah and why is it presented as evidence to back up the creolist hypothesis?
Gullah is the result of West African contact with English. It has many similarities with AAVE and so is said to be the basis of AAVE. This is widely disputed across the field.
What are some features of Gullah that are in line with use in AAVE?
We is used in both nominative and accusative cases ‘give we our daily bread’
Copula deletion ‘He happy’ vs ‘He is/be happy’
What is the evidence to back up claims that AAVE is Southern American English, and not a creole?
Descendants of slaves recorded in the early 20th century do not sound like creole speakers and do not sound like present day AAVE speakers
Sound more southern
Early 20th century South was very rural
90% of African Americans lived in the south
Segregation
Explain the Neo-Anglicist hypothesis.
The Neo-Anglicist hypothesis places emphasis on the development of AAVE after migration from the south. Segregation continued, and core set of features were retained across these locations in the north.
