¶ … African-American Vernacular English
There are a couple of theories as to the origin of African-American Vernacular Englsh (AAVE). Some linguists believe that the language derives from West African languages. This dialect theory is based on the knowledge that most African-Americans who were brought to the United States from Africa had to learn how to speak English by ear. The may have picked up some of the English words incorrectly and incorporated the incorrect words in their language. Another theory is called the Creole Hypothesis. This theory bases its origin on the thought that slaves developed the language themselves. The slaves, who came from many different countries in Africa formulated AAVE so that they may talk amongst themselves. They developed with is called a pidgin by combining words from their own language with new words from America. They used grammar and speech patterns that were known to them from their own language as well. The language was then indirectly taught, or passed on to their children and children's children. Future generations now know the AAVE language (Where Did It Come at (http://www.arches.uga.edu/~bryan/AAVE/).
Some theorists have even gone so far to erroneously believe that AAVEs are the result of a deficient in the brains of black children. It has been said that black children cannot learn Standard English, therefore this theory is called the Deficient Theory. It suggests that black children are trying to speak Standard English but always fall short. As a result system for black children to learn Standard English was developed the system was called, DISTAR Direct Instruction Systems for Teaching Arithmetic and Reading. The program set out to teach children how to write and speak Standard English -- a more acceptable language. (Controversy of Black English (http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Colleges/SCHOLAR/ac/papers97/Gilbert-Manning-Paper.html). It is also necessary to note that before the AAVE name was dubbed, the dialect spoken was called simply Black English. However, it changed partly because black people are not the only race or culture to speak the dialect. The name was also changed because there was a stigmatism attached that labeled Black English as an inferior language. This was most likely due to prejudices at the time.
The name was changed to AAVE around the 1970s. Most speakers of AAVE live in America's urban areas. And because not all African-Americans live in urban areas, it is impossible to say that all blacks speak AAVE. However most African-Americans do have some knowledge of AAVE. They may not speak it, but they understand it. In most cases AAVE is spoken at home or among close friends and Standard English is the language spoken in polite society.
African-Americans feels that they cannot speak AAVE in public because it is viewed as slang, and grammatically incorrect. To speak AAVE in public is almost identical to saying a curse word in a university speech. The difference is that most people would know what the curse word means, but polite society may seem clueless as to the meaning behind words spoken in AAVE. This is incredulous because AAVE sounds very much like English. In fact, the language has been so unaccepted that it has been watered down over the years to the point that it sounds very much like Standard English. A Linguist named William Labov worked to disprove the old deficient theory back in the 1970s. Labov wrote a paper, called Academic Ignorance and Black Intelligence. In his paper, Labov points out a theory that there is no problem with the way children speak, rather there is a problem between the relationship among children, teachers, and other educators.
This position holds that inner-city children do not necessarily have inferior mothers, language, or experience, but that the language, family style, and ways of living of inner-city children are significantly different from the standard culture of the classroom, and that this difference is not always properly understood by teachers and psychologists. Linguists believe that we must begin to adapt our school system to the language and learning styles of the majority in the inner-city schools (Labov (http://www.arches.uga.edu/~bryan/AAVE/).
However the linguists, Labov says, believe that while children have the right to learn to read and/or write in their own culture, they must first have a handle on Standard English. Learning to communicate in your own culture, Labov wrote, should be the end result of an American education, not the beginning. In his paper, Labov along with a mixture of white and black investigators...
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