Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T21:33:18.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Some African-American perspectives on Black English vernacular1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Barbara L. Speicher  and
Seane M. McMahon
Barbara L. Speicher
Affiliation:
Communication Department, DePaul University, 2323 N. Seminary, Chicago, IL 60614
Seane M. McMahon
Affiliation:
2632 Mapleton Avenue, Boulder CO 80304
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sixteen African Americans affiliated with a university participated in open-ended interviews exploring their experiential, attitudinal, and descriptive responses to Black English Vernacular (BEV). The fields of sociolinguistics and education report complex and contradictory attitudes and research findings regarding this code. In addition, media representations of BEV have been misleading. This article investigates how these sources have influenced the attitudes of these African Americans over the last 20 years. We found few trends and little unanimity among our respondents. This finding is neither problematic nor surprising. African Americans do not comprise a monolithic group, acting, speaking, and thinking as one. The results are summarized, and three issues that emerged from the interviews are discussed: problems with the label, Black English Vernacular; the possibility that BEV was socially constructed; and the perception that BEV is a limited linguistic system. (Sociolinguistics, education, attitudes toward language varieties, Black English Vernacular)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , September 1992 , pp. 383 - 407
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bailey, G. (1987). Are black and white vernaculars diverging? A panel discussion. American Speech 62(1): 3–80.Google Scholar
Baldwin, J. (1981a). Black English: A dishonest argument. In Smitherman, G. (ed.), Black English and the education of black children and youth. Detroit: Wayne State University Center for Black Studies Press. 54–60.Google Scholar
Baldwin, J. (1981b). If Black English isn't a language, then tell me, what is? In Smitherman, G. (ed.), Black English and the education of black children and youth. Detroit: Wayne State University Center for Black Studies Press. 390–92.Google Scholar
Baratz, J., & Baratz, S. (1972). In Kochman, T. (ed.), Rappin’ and stylin’ out: Communication in urban black America. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. 3–16.Google Scholar
Baugh, J. (1983). Black street speech: Its history, structure, and survival. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Baugh, J. (1987). Research currents: The situational dimension of linguistic power in social context. Language Arts 64(2): 234–40.Google Scholar
Bokamba, E. (1981). Language and national development: Black English in America. In Smitherman, G. (ed.), Black English and the education of black children and youth. Detroit: Wayne State University Center for Black Studies Press. 278–88.Google Scholar
Cecil, N. L. (1988). Black dialect and academic success: A study of teacher expectations. Reading Improvement 25(1): 34–38.Google Scholar
Dillard, J. L. (1972). Black English. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Fanon, F. (1967). The Negro and language. Black skin, white masks. New York: Grove. 17–40.Google Scholar
Fasold, R. W. (1987). Are black and white vernaculars diverging? A panel discussion. American Speech 62(1): 3–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finegan, E. (1980). Attitudes toward English usage: The history of a war of words. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Folb, E. (1980). Runnin down some lines. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, M., & Perry, L. R. (1982). Self-valuation among blacks. Social Work 27(1): 60–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gates, H. L. Jr., (1990). Talking black. In Ricks, C. & Michaels, L. (eds.), The state of the language. Berkeley: University of California Press. 42–50.Google Scholar
Green, G. C. (1963). Section B: Negro dialect, the last barrier to integration. The Journal of Negro Education 32(4): 81–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grubb, H. J. (1986). The black prole and whitespeak: Black English from an Orwellian perspective. Race and Class 27(3): 67–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilliard, A. G. (1983). Psychological factors associated with language in the education of the African-American child. Journal of Negro Education 52(1): 24–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kochman, T. (ed.). (1972). Rappin’ and stylin’ out: Communication in urban Black America. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Kochman, T. (ed.). (1981). Black and white styles in conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramarae, C., Schulz, M., & O'Barr, W. M. (eds.). (1984). Language & power. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1967). Some sources of reading problems for Negro speakers of nonstandard English. In Frazier, A. (ed.), New directions in elementary English. Champaign, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1969). The logic of nonstandard English. In Alatis, J. (ed.), Bilingualism and language contact: Anthropological, linguistic, psychological, and sociological aspects. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1982). Objectivity and commitment in linguistic science: The case of the black English trial in Ann Arbor. Language in Society 11(2): 165–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, W. (1987). Are black and white vernaculars diverging? A panel discussion. American Speech 62(1): 3–80.Google Scholar
Patterson, O. (1991). Race, gender and liberal fallacies. The New York Times 10 20: E-15.Google Scholar
Rickford, J. (1987a). Are black and white vernaculars diverging? A panel discussion. American Speech 62(1): 3–80.Google Scholar
Rickford, J. (1987b). The haves and have nots: Sociolinguistic surveys and the assessment of speaker competence. Language in Society 16(2): 149–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowan, C. (1979). “Black English” would doom blacks to fail. Detroit News 07 11: 19A.Google Scholar
Smitherman, G. (1977). Talkin and testifyin: The language of black America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Smitherman, G. (ed.). (1981a). Black English and the education of black children and youth. Detroit: Wayne State University Center for Black Studies Press.Google Scholar
Smitherman, G. (1981b). What go round come round: King in perspective. Harvard Educational Review 51:40–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smitherman, G. (1983). Language and liberation. The Journal of Negro Education 52(1): 15–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smitherman, G. (1984). Black language as power. In Kramarae, C., Schulz, M., & O'Barr, W. M. (eds.), Language & power. Beverly Hills: Sage. 101–15.Google Scholar
Smitherman-Donaldson, G. (1988). Discriminatory discourse on Afro-American speech. In Smitherman-Donaldson, G. & van Dijk, T. A. (eds.), Discourse and discrimination. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 144–75.Google Scholar
Spears, A. K. (1987). Are black and white vernaculars diverging? A panel discussion. American Speech 62(1): 3–80.Google Scholar
Taylor, H. U. (1989). Standard English, black English, and bidialectalism: A controversy. (American University Studies Series, XIII, Linguistics, vol. 9.) New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Tucker, G. R., & Lambert, W. E. (1969). White and Negro listeners' reactions to various American-English dialects. Social Forces 47(4): 463–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, L. D. (1949). Africanisms in the Gullah dialect. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Vaughn-Cooke, F. B. (1987). Are black and white vernaculars diverging? A panel discussion. American Speech 62(1): 3–80.Google Scholar
Weber, S. (1991). The need to be: The socio-cultural significance of black language. In Samovar, L. A. & Porter, R. E. (eds.), Intercultural communication: A reader. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. 277–82.Google Scholar
Wilkins, R. (1971). Black nonsense. Crisis 78(3):78. Later editorials in the Crisis: 78(6):174–75; 78(8):269–70; 78(9):303–04.Google Scholar
Wilks, M. (1981). Black English and the media. In Smitherman, G. (ed.), Black English and the education of black children and youth. Detroit: Wayne State University Center for Black Studies Press. 190–211.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. V. (1971). A look at black English. Crisis 78:169–85.Google Scholar
Wolfram, W. (1987). Are black and white vernaculars diverging? A panel discussion. American Speech 62(1): 3–80.Google Scholar