Black English. Voice of Freedom.

Black English. Voice of Freedom.

Ekaterina Bolshakova

Nizhnevartovsk

Municipal budget General Educational Establishment «Gymnasia №1»

11A

PLAN OF RESEARCH

Linguists still argue about the exact origin of the African-American English. There are two main points of view:

1. African American language is the language that originated from West Africa in the XVII century, indigenous peoples, inhabitants of Nigeria and the Congo. This language was a means of communication between the natives and the British sailors.

2. African American language is the product of mixing English vocabulary with African accent and partly grammar, which appeared in the United States with the beginning of intensive importation of slaves.

Both views of African Americans support the mixed language, but differ in the definition of the place of origin.

The status of Black English is also uncertain. Some consider it as an independent language, some believe it is a dialect within American English.

Considering that at present there is a lot of music, set to poems in Black English, and it is very popular, I'm interested in the reasons for such popularity of this language. There are almost no books and articles on this subject, so the material for the study are songs, poems, chats on social networks, passages from books written in Black English. Urgency of an issue and novelty of our study is based on the popularity of Black English among young people, and a lack of attention given by linguists to this topic.

So, the object of study is Black English, or so-called Ebonics.

Subject of our research are linguistic and cultural features of Black English, which are the reason for its popularity.

Reading materials, poetry, just a phrases written in Ebonics, listening to its songs, we tried to identify the features that caused such wide popularity of the language, not only among the African-American population. We tried to find out whether there is such a prevalence of the language because of its simplicity and plainness of some grammatical rude, i.e. features that distinguish it from the British English.

Therefore, the hypothesis of our project is as follows. Ebonics is a unique social and cultural phenomenon that cannot be reduced to a dialect, jargon, slang or regional variant of English. To confirm our hypothesis, we used the following research methods:

1. General science: observation method, the method of comparison;

2. Language: the method of contextual analysis, the method of continuous sampling, the method of quantification.

Methodological basis were works of modern linguists and journalists O.V. Turova -Linguistic features of «Black English» based on the novel The Fixer "The Color Purple", Minsk, 2010; B.Rodzhers - How to talk American. Washington. Penguin, 1999; L.Delpit - Language diversity and learning. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1990; and electronic resources of the Internet on the topic (List of Literature).

We undertook a small study among students of 10th form to determine how the language is available for owners of British English at Intermediate level and to identify the reasons for Ebonics popularity among Russian youth. (Appendix I)

100% of respondents find simplified pronunciation very attractive.

42% involves the use of offensive and expressive vocabulary.

21% feel comfortable about simplified times.

63% believe that the simple grammar helps to communicate in that language.

76% of respondents like the absence of strict rules.

So our hypothesis was confirmed. Black English has many attractive features for the modern people that they can be considered as reasons for the popularity of Ebonics now.

Black English. Voice of Freedom.

Ekaterina Bolshakova

Nizhnevartovsk

Municipal budget General Educational Establishment «Gymnasia №1»

11A

INTRODUCTION

Black English has been a source of borrowing a large number of lexical items in American English for many years. A term Ebonics consists of the two words «ebony» (Amer. slang - black, black) and «phonics» (acoustics), and was proposed as an alternative name of this dialect. Due to the influence of African-American culture, American English became the variant of English language, different from the historical English British so that from the late 19th century linguists began to consider it as a separate language.

The origin of this language is directly related to the system of slavery that existed in the U.S. during the 1619-1865 years. Most slaves were Africans who had been abducted from their habitat and their descendants. Black English survived and evolved over the centuries as a result of a group of social isolation. In the past, the language of Black Americans, with their distinctive pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, was regarded as lazy, or grammatically incorrect, or even an attribute of lower culture. Black English entrenched in American English through the civil rights movement of African Americans.

Our basic concern is to study and to describe linguistic and cultural features of Ebonics, which have become a reason for its popularity.

This objective involves the following tasks:

1. to study the available material on the subject;
2. to analyse main linguistic features of Ebonics;
3. to clarify the status of Ebonics in the system of social choices of contemporary English.

CHAPTER I

Theory

There are many types of slang related to the English language. What's so special about Black English? What features does it have, and why does Black English differ from other kinds of slang and of standard English?

We developed a set of criteria that help us to analyse the similarities and differences between Ebonics and British English.

Morphological features

• In words ending in «d,», it is replaced by «dt» or «oodt.»

English: That's all very fine ...

Ebonics: That all reeeal gooudt ....

• In words ending in «ore», discarded all but the first «o» and added an apostrophe.

English: I won't tell you again, please shut the door.

Ebonics: I ain tellin you no mo ', shet de do'!!

• If the suffix containing two identical consonants, should «er», cast «er. »

English: That Negro was larger and was holding a pistol.

Ebonics: Mah nigga was bigga had his fingah on yo 'trigga.

• Most «er» usually replaced by «ah»

English: Tower of Power

Ebonics: Towah of Powah

However, in the plural «ers» enters «az.»

English: Negroes

Ebonics: niggaz.

Phonetic features

African American phonetics is not homogeneous and has many regional dialect differences. In addition, there are no strict rules in the African-American English phonetics, which makes speech of its native speakers individualised in comparison with standard American English. You can see below the main features:

Freestyle permutation of consonants: graps instead grasp; aks instead ask; crips instead of crisp and so on;

• The letter o tends pronounced as [ɔ] instead of the standard [ʌ] in words such as money, worry, and so on.;

• End -ing is pronounced with [n] and is written as -in ';

• Tendency to the pronunciation of English sounds interdental [ð] as [v] / [d] and [θ] as [f] / [t], especially in the middle and end of words.

Grammatical features

African American grammar as well as pronunciation, has no strict standardising rules. It admits improvising in dependence on the wishes of the speaker. There are the following features:  main verbs in English - to be and to have can be used without modification in all cases.

Example: You be phat. He have a trouble this day an ' they gon' keep bad.

• verb to be may not be used in the following cases:

  Front -in '/-ing participle:

He goin ' to the rivah this evenin'. (Standard English: He is going to the river this evening.)

They lookin 'at my bicycle. (They are looking at my bicycle.)

Before forms gon '/ gonna:

He gonna to the rivah this evenin '.

I gon 'be free this weekend.

Before determining the detailed description, the circumstances of places:

They _ wonderful.

Your brother _ little clevah bad kid!

The policeman standin 'in the square told me the post _ in the main avenue.

Before nouns (usually predicates) and substantivised numerals before ordinal numbers:

He _ the founder.

She _ the one livin 'in the cabin.

That climber _ the first.

• Ending -s to denote the third person is usually not pronounced. In the case of its utterance verb becomes bright emotional coloring:

He like 'coffee. (He likes coffee.)

Oh, he deadly likes my car! (He was terribly fond of my car!)

• Verbs was / were (exactly as is / are, has / have) cannot be distinguished:

You was righta here? (Standard English in this case, always uses were).

• A special system of the times:

• verb at all tenses can be used in the same form. Its belonging to a particular tense is expressed by specifying the elements - the so-called aspect marks: last week, month, hour ...; this year, evenin ', mornin', hour ...; at the moment; back in them days, and so on.

He show the film last month.

• The correct form of the verb in the past tense -ed is used at will, and is sometimes replaced by the verb with a refining element. Irregular past tense forms of verbs are usually used widely as in standard American English.
• To complete the operation, which lasted in the past, the formula is used:

been + verb + in ' : They been workin' an ' cookin' near the house.

The verb have in this case is not used at all.

• for an action is used as a third form of the verb without an auxiliary have:

He been here. You done the work. He shaken our brother hand. (Note: the possessive 's in the African American is used optionally).

• To view the complete process done verb form and the original form of the main verb can be used:

He done eat. (Instead of the standard: He has eaten).

• routine is indicated with the verb be:

He be workin 'as a carpenter.

• Heavy, consistent, persistent action are displayed by the word steady:

She be steady shakin 'my hand.

• The future tense is formed by the verb forms gonna / gon '/ (goin').

Negation

At all tenses, numbers, and the people can be expressed in the form of ain't.

 Haven’t, didn't other verbs and their forms can be used: don '(don't), can't, couldn't, shouldn't and so on.

There is a phenomenon of negative inversion, when the auxiliary or modal verb with the negation comes first in the sentence:

Wasn't no soul in the cabin when I listened the wind.

Can't nobody open the window besides you.

Questions can be used without the auxiliary verbs (including through the use of inversion):

You surely built the house?

Was he at school?

Called they the police?

The use of words in the indirect meanings:

Reasons for borrowings in Black English from standard English are:

• social prestige of speaking standard English;

• unfavorable associations deriving from the history of African-American appearance and existence of the diaspora;

• the heat of passion.

Examples of borrowings:

•  blood; (soul) brother; crew; deep; dog; homey (home); niggar (negro); peeps; ponder (partner); posse; sidekick; (soul) sister; squeeze; young-black, friend;
• cracker; devil; peckerwood; pig; silk; vanilla –European American, white;
• folks; laws; mallet; (the) man; scull-buster - the police;
• black; bud; chronic; grass; gunny; prescriptions; refer; soul; toothpick - drugs;
• gusto; juice; pluck; smash; squeeze - alcohol drinks;
• bank; bread; cheese; cheddar; cream; green; snaps – money.

CHAPTER II

Practical part

American reality permeates with all areas of life: movie, music, TV, etc. «Black English» or Ebonics is one of the major components of modern culture. African-American Slang is not taught in the school curriculum. Meanwhile, slang sounds in movies, spoken language, songs. African-American dialect differs from British English phonetics, vocabulary and grammar, and requires self-study for the correct translation. American English is more flexible and easy to understand unlike the British. So it spread all over the world.

African American English is not only a language for not educated and more exalted stratum of society. Black English as a language which contributed to the world literature. Famous books are written in Black English. This is «Color Purple" Alice Walker (1988 Pulitzer Prize), "Beloved" T.Morrison (1983 - Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature), "Roots. The Saga of an American Family "Alex Haley (1977, Pulitzer Prize). All of these books were filmed. Grammar, morphological and phonetic features of Black English are quite evident in these works.

In this passage of "Color Purple" are grammar “irregularities” of  Black English widely represented.

1. An excerpt from the novel "The Color Purple." In this fragment widely represented grammar «irregularities» of Black English.

Shug agrees: “Ain’t no way to read the bible and not think God white. . . . When I find out I thought God was white, and a man, I lost interest. You mad cause he don’t seem to listen to your prayers.

Humph! Do the mayor listen to anything colored say?”

Ain’t – use of ain't as a general negative indicator.

Ain’t no- double negation

Not think-absence of the auxiliary verb.

God white - the absence of the verb to be

You mad - verb to be missed

Cause - because

He don't-misuse of the auxiliary verb

Do the mayor - the misuse of the auxiliary verb

2.  Poem Heart-Shape in the Dust (1940) by Robert Hayden (He was appointed Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1976.)

  It also has both grammatical both and morphological departure from standards of

 British English.

Heart-Shape in the Dust (1940)

Ford ain’t hirin’

Shine ‘em up,

Shine, mister?

Briggs is firin’.

Man at Cadillac

Said: Gwan back home.

Went and played me a number

But it wouldn’t come.

Asked for a shovel On the W.P.A.,

Man said: Uncle Sam

Ain’t handin’ out today.

Shine ‘em up,

Shine, mister, shine?

Got in a crap game,

Luck was ridin’ high

oh, rent-money, eatin’-money!

When the cops come by.

They throw me in jail,

Put me on the show-up line,

Slap me in the mouth

And make me pay a fine.

Standing on the corner

With these no-job blues;

Leave this hard-luck town

if I had some walkin’-shoes.

Standing on the corner

Tryin’ to make a dime

Lawd, a po workin’ man

Has a helluva time.

Shine ‘em up, mister, Shine?

Ain’t – use of ain't as a general negative indicator.

Hirin ', firin', handin ', ridin', eatin'-money, walkin'-shoes, tryin ', workin' - the short form of ending

Helluva - amer. accel. devilish, infernal

Po - the short form of poor

Got- the short form of construction have got

'em-typical short form from them

3. Fragment from the song Glamorous (original Fergie) also has bright characteristics of Black English.

If you aint got no money take yo'broke ass home (If you don’t have any money make yourself scarce)

You say: « If you aint got no money take yo'broke ass home»

Ain’t – use of ain't as a general negative indicator

Aint got no- double negation

Yo'- typical short form from your

Take yo'broke ass home- use of profanity

4. Fragment from the song Fergalicious (original Fergie) confirms the presence of features of Black English in the song.

I ain't easy, I ain't sleazy (I’m a woman of character, but I’m not cheap whore)

I got reasons why I tease 'em (I have got reasons why I tease them)

Boys just come and go like seasons

Ain’t – use of ain't as a general negative indicator

Ain't sleazy- use of words in an indirect sense.

Got- the short form of construction have got

'em-typical short form from them

5. And one more confirmation of the presence of grammatical and lexical "irregularities " is a song Good People (original Jack Johnson)

Now whatcha gonna do? (what are you going to do?)

Bad news, misused,

Got too much to lose,

Gimmie some truth now,  (give me)

Who's side are we on?

Whatcha - the short form of "what are you"

Gonna -formation of the future tense with verb forms arose from going to

Got -From the short form of construction have got

Gimmie - the short form of "give me"

CONCLUSION

The purpose of the project - to determine the place and role of Black English in the modern world - was achieved. In the course of the project we solved some problems.

We established the criteria for comparison with Ebonics British English.

We found that African-American English has a peculiar phonetics, vocabulary, grammar and morphology. To do this, we analysed literary texts and lyrics. We found out, why Black English is so popular nowadays. This is certainly a simple grammatical, phonetic, morphological features and vivid imagery that attracts today's youth.

Black English is both spoken and literary language of African Americans, who had been winning the right to exist from the 17th century. Literary works are written in Black English, which are marked by world prizes. Black English is the language of descendants of slaves and old migrants who generated music styles, starting from blues and jazz, finishing with rap and hip-hop, which were accepted by all people, regardless of race.

Now we can hear many songs in Black English by popular artists and in various movies. At the moment, anyone when facing contemporary American culture, one way or another, meets Ebonics, so for successful communication it is necessary to know and explore its features.

We undertook a small study among students of 10th form to determine how the language is available for owners of British English at Intermediate level and to identify the reasons for Ebonics popularity among Russian youth. (Appendix I)

100% of respondents find simplified pronunciation very attractive.

42% involves the use of offensive and expressive vocabulary.

21% feel comfortable about simplified times.

63% believe that the simple grammar helps to communicate in that language.

76% of respondents like the absence of strict rules.

So our hypothesis has been confirmed. Black English has many attractive features for the modern people that they can be considered as reasons for the popularity of Ebonics now. Ebonics is a complex communicative unit which linguistic and cultural features contribute to its popularity in the English linguistic culture and to the rapid expansion of its sphere of influence as a means of international communication.

Black English is easy to communicate; it is popular among ordinary Americans. Books, poetry and songs are written and published in Black English. This is not just a language; it is the voice of the people, the voice of freedom.

LIST OF LITERATURE

1. African American English blog about issues relating to African American English http://africanamericanenglish.com/
2. Baldwin J.  If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? (Текст)
3. Delpit L. Language diversity and learning.-Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1990;

http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html

4. Koushnaryova E.S. Black English и американский английский язык – пример двустороннего лексического заимствования (Текст).-http://www.moluch.ru/archive/28/3161/
5. Rodzhers B. How to talk American.- Washington: Penguin, 1999;
6. Turova O.V. Linguistic features of «Black English» based on the novel The Fixer "The Color Purple", Minsk, 2010;

Appendix I

Анкета

Даны отрывки песен американских рэп-исполнителей. Как бы вы перевели подчёркнутые слова, исходя из контекста данных песен, сначала на стандартный английский язык, а затем на русский?  Ответы занесите в таблицу.

If you aint got no money take yo'broke ass home

You say: « If you aint got no money take yo'broke ass home»

Glamorous (оригинал Fergie)

I ain't easy, I ain't sleazy

I got reasons why I tease 'em

Boys just come and go like seasons

Fergalicious (оригинал Fergie)

Now whatcha gonna do?

Bad news, misused,

Got too much to lose,

Gimmie some truth now,

Who's side are we on?

Good People (оригинал Jack Johnson)

Wuz de nite befo Crimmus ((De Ebonics Crimmus Pome)

An' all ober de hood

ereybody wuz sleepin'

Dey wuz sleepin' real good.

We hunged up our stockings

And hoped like de heck

That ol' Sanna Claus

Be bringin' our chek!

Проанализировав первое  задание, ответьте на вопрос: что стало причиной массового распространения Black English в культуре?

1. упрощенная система времен
2. грамматическая незамысловатость
3. использование ненормативной лексики
4. упрощенное произношение
5. отсутствие строгих стандартизирующих правил