African American *

Edit: I screwed up the post, i thought spelling and speaking is the same thing. I meant to ask why some *pronounce* words differently instead of spell.

6 comments

  1. Sorry if it sounds weird but I’m curious and not trying to be offensive to somebody.

  2. Well, for a lot of Africans, English may not be their first language. You may want to check on an African sub, though, not an American one.

  3. African-American Vernacular English is a common dialect in the United States, with its own pronunciations and quirks, just like any regional/cultural dialect.

    If you want a more detailed answer than you’re likeoy to get here, it might be a good idea to ask one of the various linguistics subreddits.

  4. You’re going to have to provide examples to know what you’re talking about. Keep in mind that the English language itself is already full of cases where the common pronunciation doesn’t match the spelling: knight, ballet, through, would all have silent letters. The T in mountain and R in arm might be barely pronounced depending on which dialect is being spoken.

  5. I don’t recall ever seeing African Americans largely *spelling* words differently. However, there is a distinct accent/dialect that is unique to black Americans (and those who spend a long time in black communities).

    Dialects develop in communities separated from others. We basically all live in communities separated from others, to some degree, usually geographically. When the ancestors of black Americans were brought here as slaves, obviously none of them spoke English. Over the course of generations, they began to speak English. But because their ancestors obviously never received formal training in “proper” English, their English remained influenced by the African linguistic patterns of their ancestors. That’s why you see different grammatical patterns, which have some overlap with the various west African languages (Africa is by far the most linguistically diverse place in the world)

    Examples:

    * Non-conjugation of irregular verbs (“My back ***be*** hurting” vs. “My back is hurting.”)
    * Double negatives (“I don’t have none” vs. “I don’t have any”)
    * The occasional omission of the copula *is* (“He smart” vs. “He is smart”)

    In terms of pronunciation, AAVE was influenced by the old (white) southern dialect from the 19th century. And since black communities never fully integrated with white communities, large bits and pieces of that dialect were preserved and persist today. It’s heaviest in the south, where there’s historically been less intermingling. But you can run into it anywhere.

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like