Although many people refer to this variety as "Ebonics", most linguists prefer the term African American English (AAE) or or African American Vernacular English (AAVE). This term serves to place AAVE in the context of the many regional, national, and sociocultural forms of English such as Southern English, British English, Cajun English, and so forth; it also avoids the strong emotions and ... From: Karen Chung <karchung ntu.edu.tw> Subject: NYT: Op-ed Piece on AAVE There's an op-ed piece in the issue of the New York Times online, entitled: Changing Places by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Understanding the Context

Some excerpts: The black vernacular seems to be everywhere these days, from Dave Chappelle's show to Boost Mobile's ''Where you at?'' ad ... This book focuses on one of the most persistent and controversial questions in modern sociolinguistics: the past and present development of African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Despite intense scrutiny of the historical and current development of AAVE, a number of issues remain unresolved. Most prominent among these is the development of African American English during the antebellum ...

Key Insights

Specialists in AAVE agree that current African Americans who use /aks/ have inherited this as the base form of the verb. Some further comments came from Raj Mesthrie at the University of Cape Town: Aks is I believe alive and well in parts of Britain and elsewhere in the world (e.g. my native dialect of South African Indian English, where it co ... It has been of interest to linguists and sociolinguists that AAVE throughout the United States shares a common set of features and Wolfram and Thomas end with a discussion of the ''norming of AAVE.'' They cite mobility, de facto segregation, cultural identity, and oppositional identity as contributing to the maintenance of a supraregional AAVE ... Then the author discusses the issue of African American vernacular English (AAVE).

Final Thoughts

In the final section of this chapter Wardhaugh discusses the implications and consequences for education in view of the social disadvantage connected with the restricted code and AAVE.