AAVE is as complex as Standard American English

[im_sleep]

I reads somewhere it was docemented being used amoung blacks in the same manner today in the 1930s.
So I wouldn't put stock into older blacks who claim they never used it that way or it wasn't used that way. They are lying to save face.

It’s defintely saving face. They didn’t let shyt get oversaturated like folks do nowadays, but they most defintely used it.

My grandma, great-aunts, great-uncles, etc. all said it regularly. All grew up in 1930’s/40’s Mississippi.

 

[get these nets]

That's part of it but it involves social strata and location as well. My grannies would have slapped me in my mouth for saying what his granny said not the way I said it.

He's being honest in a way that's contrary to how 90% of the members here operate,though.
He related personal stories about a loved one that adds context to this topic.

We've seen people here reluctant to criticize a complete stranger who they follow on youtube,even when they say something wrong. We've seen people who have strong vocal opinions about other Blacks who duck/dodge threads and questions about their own culture.

If you read everything, he's not copping pleas for her either. In fact, having heard similar sentiments expressed by older Black folks....I am the one who is putting her comments in time/generation context. Older generations did the best they could, the way they knew. My father was super hard on us. I resented him for years for it. As a grown man understanding who he was, where we grew up and his intentions....I fully get it.

 

[HarlemHottie]

Anybody else notice that some of your old black boomer relatives use 'nikka'.
The media makes it like rappers like NWA started this.

My grandfather called ppl nikkas REGULAR. And he was considered classy, well known at the Savoy and the Cotton Club, owned several tudexos.

 

[get these nets]

Fluency in SAE was seen as a 'cert'.

It still is. Immigrants from non-English speaking countries can attest to this.

 

[Shadow]

Shout out to @Shadow with his willfull and extreme ignorance derailing thread. Moron on ignore.

 

[HarlemHottie]

Your are willfully ignoring the complexity of what it took for black americans survive and become upwardly mobile in a majority white controlled society just son you can make fake woke statement.

.

I think we should all speak both. One, for professional purposes, the other, to signify in-group status.

 

[Asicz]

I do wonder when the N Word actually was perceived as a slur by blacks.
Is it possible that for a while it was not perceived as a slur but just a noun?
Maybe that is a reason blacks from prior generations used it?

 

[invalid]

I’m not equating them to c00ns because of them preferring SAE. I’m equating them to c00ns for saying shyt like your Grandma did when she equated things uniquely Black such as AAVE as ignorant and n166erish. You think their ideology stopped at just language? This Black American subculture was rejecting everything Black to blend in and be accepted by Whites. They felt they were better than other Blacks which is why they get the Boule moniker.

I'm not going to argue with you on this point because there was a prevailing attitude that there was a difference between Blacks vs. N*ggas, a la Chris Rock.
I still think that that sentiment is still prevalent and not just among what you call the boule crowd.

 

[Asicz]

I think we should all speak both. One, for professional purposes, the other, to signify in-group status.

I also wonder how much of black American culture like language, food and customs are derived from or influenced by Southern white American Culture or 'Red neck culture ', and vice versa.

 

[invalid]

Anybody else notice that some of your old black boomer relatives use 'nikka'.
The media makes it like rappers like NWA started this.

This is true. And it doesn't matter the level of education.
I'll give you one example, Henry Louis Gates.
I have been in a few informal and intimate settings with him and he curses like a sailor and uses n*gga liberally.

 

[Asicz]

I come from upper echelon servants. My grandmother was high up in the maid hierarchy, I guess, and my grandfather was a fancy chef. He cooked for all kinda old Harlem gangsters (including the Jewish ones- he cooked kosher when necc.), etc. So their children present as 'classier'. People be thinking I was born to money- no, we're just money-adjacent, but it does effect language usage.

I think the vast majority of black Americans descend from black female domestic workers in some capactity.

 

[Asicz]

This is true. And it doesn't matter the level of education.
I'll give you one example, Henry Louis Gates.
I have been in a few informal and intimate settings with him and he curses like a sailor and uses n*gga liberally.

Yup or like when Jesse Jackson was caught on camera saying it.

 

[HarlemHottie]

I also wonder how much of black American culture like language, food and customs are derived from or influenced by Southern white American Culture or 'Red neck culture ', and vice versa.

We should see ourselves as an amalgamation of Scots-Irish and W. African cultures of the 1600's- 1700's. Imo, as a historian and almost-linguist.

Jamaicans are similar.

 

[Asicz]

Anybody else have black American parent that policed your speech at home?
It was annoying to me back when I was younger but I'm grateful for it now.

 

[Lifejennings]

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

What was the song?