AAVE is as complex as Standard American English

[David_TheMan]

don't properly interpret articles brehs

Its funny and sad, how mad he is.

 

[315]

Don't know WHY people are hating on this when this in fact debunk long lasting racists myths.

Hasn't been officially approved by cacs yet

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

When you speak to your Mom or older relatives which version of American English do you speak?

Black people are brought up speaking 2 (or more) 'dialects' for lack of a better term. We speak in colloquialisms/vernacular when among our peers/family/etc., but in 'professional' settings we utilize more 'standardized' verbiage.

We've existed in dual societies for over 400 years and have become quite adept at being social chameleons.​

 

[Kings County]

really is complex as fukk

theres terms used by the entire population
then u have terms different by city
then u have terms that mean different things city by city we really got our own shyt

gets spooky when u let white people in
random white girl: DO U KNOW WHAT THOT MEANS

 

[Citi Trends]

It actually occurred to me the other day while listening to a song that bruh said a whole line no one would understand if they weren’t familiar with aave







It was beautiful

 

[Pit Bull]

When you speak to your Mom or older relatives which version of American English do you speak?

Most likely an even harder to decipher version of AAVE

 

[Cadillac]

fukk this wack ass language

nikkas is way too proud to know some damn English

Y’all da same negroes be giddy den a bytch to be wearing your slave daddy last name too

Ol “I’m a proud Williams!”, ass nikkas.

Smh

 

[get these nets]

Both. AAVE in regular speech, SAE for emphasis or clarity (or sometimes just cuz it's funny in a given context ).

My house growing up was 'bi-dialetical', so I mix and match as an adult. A white guy I knew from college asked me, knowing my education, why I chose to use AAVE and I looked at him stupid and said, ' Cuz I'm AA. " Wtf kinda question is that?

Thanks
I'm diglossic also.,,,in two languages.

White people are a lot more bold than I thought.

 

[you're NOT "n!ggas"]

Black people are brought up speaking 2 (or more) 'dialects' for lack of a better term. We speak in colloquialisms/vernacular when among our peers/family/etc., but in 'professional' settings we utilize more 'standardized' verbiage.

We've existed in dual societies for over 400 years and have become quite adept at being social chameleons.​

What are you talking about here??? It IS a dialect, it's our own.

I don't like the premise of "proving" our dialect is as complex as American English, which isn't "proper" itself in comparison to British/the Queen's English. fukk both of them

 

[96Blue]

Salute, breh.



We aren't "talking wrong" or being "ghetto", IT'S A DIALECT AND PART OF OUR CULTURE!!!

I enjoy the fact that white/non-Black people don't know what I'm talking about all the time... But then again, I don't really use it around them like that to begin with.

 

[T'krm]

It actually occurred to me the other day while listening to a song that bruh said a whole line no one would understand if they weren’t familiar with aave







It was beautiful

It is something when you literally have to translate words/phrases to others, even today.

 

[David_TheMan]

What are you talking about here??? It IS a dialect, it's our own.

I don't like the premise of "proving" our dialect is as complex as American English, which isn't "proper" itself in comparison to British/the Queen's English. fukk both of them

There is a question of if Ebonics is a dialect or a seperate language academically.

You don't like the scientific study of common ebonics, and how it is more complex than standard english. Why?

McWhorter has a pretty good break down in the Language Hoax of the technical sophistication, its pretty interesting if it is your thing.

And how our particular adolescent used try on one particular morning is especially
interesting. Note he said Dey try to cook it too fast, I’m-a be eatin’ some pink meat! If you
think about it, that usage of try is somewhat off in the logical sense if we take try as
intended in its core meaning. It would be one thing if he said, If they try to cook it too fast,
I’m going to tell them to turn down the heat or If they try to cook it too fast, I just won’t
have any chicken. Overall, if he says, If they try to cook it too fast, we expect that he will
follow this up with something about him either stopping them from doing so or turning
away from what they cook.

Instead, though, his sentence has him eating the meat that the people “tried to” cook too
fast—that is, they would appear to have not tried to, but succeeded in, cooking the meat
too fast, which makes you wonder why the guy put it as “try to” when, after all, they quite
simply did. One feels as if the sentence should have been simply If they cook it too fast, I’ll
be eating pink meat—the try to seems extra.

And it is, but not in a random way. This usage of try to is actually an example of how the
dialect of English that most black Americans switch in and out of all day, so often thought
of as “bad” grammar, a deformation of “correct” English, is in many ways more complex
than standard English. Our adolescent’s usage of try to is, of all things, a subjunctive mood
a-borning in Black English.

Its air of extraness is analogous to how the subjunctive in languages like Spanish feels to
English speakers. In Spanish, for I doubt you will go is Dudo que él vaya , where the
subjunctive form vaya conveys the hypotheticality of the going instead of the plain-vanilla
indicative va. To an English speaker learning Spanish this seems a finicky add-on. One
wonders why a language has to actually have a separate verb form to mark such a nuance.
In the same way, the try to in Dey try to cook it too fast, I’m-a be eatin’ some pink meat is
marking the hypothetical.

Indeed, taken literally the try to seems like clutter, “messy” grammar. However, black people
use try to in precisely this way quite often. It is a regularity, a logical pattern of, of all things,grammar.
That is, try to has broken the bonds of the literal and now signifies “In the case that they
cook it too fast.” This kind of thing happens to words in all languages all the time, such as
English, where going to now means future—I’m going to think about that—even though in
terms of the original meaning of go, that doesn’t make sense: how do you “go” toward
thinking? Going to has only been used that way since the 1600s. To a speaker of Old
English, using going to to express the future would sound as odd as our teen’s use of try to
does to many of us now.

“Us” would include the very people who are using it that way, if we were to tell them they
were doing so. To be sure, black Americans are no more consciously aware that they are
wielding a nascent subjunctive than standard English speakers know that when they say
That must be the Indian food they are using what is termed the evidential mood by
linguists. Sources such as the online Urban Dictionary note a black “expression” tryna. This,
however, is not the subjunctive try to but a mere matter of colloquial pronunciation, namely
of the ordinary try-ing to, used just as all English speakers use try in its default meaning.
Our teen’s try to usage is something different—and just as cool as the aural “flava” of tryna
for trying to.

And this try to as in try to cook it too fast is a grammatical feature more elaborate than in
schoolbook English, where the subjunctive has been on the ropes for centuries. One can
slip it in. If there be persons in opposition is the subjunctive version of If there are persons
in opposition, but it’s decidedly hoity-toity. If I were the one versus If I was the one: the fact
that grammar hounds must lecture us on how the were version, the subjunctive one, is
better is a sign that it’s dying. Yet our teen pops off with his try to cook it too fast intending
nothing remotely formal, and certainly with no one having told him to express himself that
way. He was just talking—using a subjunctive as effortlessly as someone speaking French
or Spanish.

 

[HarlemHottie]

But then again, I don't really use it around them like that to begin with.

I do, but only bc it amuses me to exclude them. I present like the kind of bw they assume doesn't speak it, and then I start talking to the cashier or something and they get confused.

 

[Shadow]

In some ways I don't like that this article is out there. It's 'teaching' too much. We know already. In contrast, we know who this article was written for. It's like trying to prove our language is worthy, too much telling, specifically the breakdowns.

 

[HarlemHottie]

White people are a lot more bold than I thought.

He was dating my friend (biracial African/ Indian). I think he felt comfortable. He was quickly disabused of that notion.