African American Vernacular English

1. African American Vernacular English Phonology Grammar

2. Phonological Differences from SAE • In order of frequency • Reduction of similarly voiced final consonant clusters • [hæn] for [hænd]: /n/ and /d/ are voiced • [dεs] for [dεsk]: /s/ and /k/ are voiceless • except in high frequency negative constructions like can’t, won’t, didn’t • Deletion of word-final consonants • [mæ] for [mæn]

3. Devoicing of final stop consonants • [pɪk] for [pɪg], sometimes followed by a glottal stop [pɪkʔ] • -ing endings with alveolar [n] rather than velar [ŋ] ‘walkin’ • Realization of voiceless interdental fricative [θ] with [t] or [f] ‘mouf’ • Realization of voiced interdental fricative [ð] with [d] or [v] ‘den’ • Simplification of interdental/retroflex combinations as interdental: [θo] for [θro] • Deletion or vocalization of [l] after vowel: [hεp] or [hεəp] for [hεlp]

4. Deletion of retroflex after unstressed vowel: [fo] for [for] • Deletion of voiced stops [d] and [g] in some tense-aspect markers: ‘I’m a do it’ for ‘I’m gonna do it.’ • Ain’t for didn’t • Deletion of unstressed initial and medial syllables: [sεktri] • Metathesis of adjacent consonants: [aks] for [ask] • Realization of SE [v] with [b] and [z] with [d] in medial position before nasals: [sεbn̩] for [sεvn̩] and [ɪdn̩t] for [ɪzn̩t]

5. Realization of syllable-initial [str] as [skr], especially before high front vowels [skrit] for [strit] • Monophthongal pronunciation of [aɪ] as [a] ‘I’ and [ɔɪ] as [ɔ] ‘boy’ • Merger of [ɪ] and [ε] before nasals: [pɪn] • Lowering of [ɪ] to [æ] before velar nasal. • Primary stress in many words borrowed with secondary stress: ['polis] for [pə'lis] • More varied intonation than other American varieties

6. Grammatical Differences • Pre-verbal tense, mood, aspect markers • Absence of copula in present tense: He mad. • Invariant ‘be’ for habitual aspect: He be workin. • Invariant ‘be’ for future (due to loss of will through phonological processes): He be here tomorrow. • Use of steady as an intensified continuative marker: He be steady steppin in them nines. • Unstressed been for present perfect: He been sick. • Stressed been [noted BIN in linguistic scholarship] to mark remote phase (suggesting continuation): She been married. • Done as completive aspect: He done did it. • Be done for resultatives or future/conditional perfect: She be done had her baby. • Fitna or fixin to to mark immediate future • Come to express indignation about action or event: He come walkin in here like he owned the place. • Had to mark simple past: then we had went outside. • Double modals (might could, may can, might can) to indicate possibility • Quasi modals like likta and poseta. • Last two common in southern vernaculars

7. Additional Verbal Tense Markers • Absence of third person –s: He walk. • Generalization of is and was to plural and second person subjects: They is crazy; We was there. • Use of past tense or preterite form as past participle: He had bit; she has ran. • Use of past participle form as past tense or preterite: She seen him yesterday. • Use of verb stem as past tense: He come down here yesterday.

8. Nominal and Pronominal Grammar • Absense of possessive –s: “John house” • Absense of plural –s (less frequent) as in “two boy” • Use of and them to mark associative plurals: Felicia and them…(Felicia and family and friends; Felicia and other faculty) • Appositive or pleonastic pronounce: That teacher, she cool. • Use of y’all and they to mark second person plural and third plural possessive (respectively): It’s y’all ball; It’s they house. • Use of object pronouns after a verb as personal datives: Get me a gig. • Absence of relative pronouns: That the man come here.

9. Negation • Use of ain’t as a general preverbal negator. • Multiple negation or negative concord: He don’t do nothing for nobody. • Negative inversion in intensive statements: Ain’t nobody here. • Use of ain’t but and don’t but for ‘only’.

10. Questions • Direct questions without inversion of subject and auxiliary (maintaining rising intonation): Why I can’t play? • Auxiliary verb inversion in embedded questions (without the whether or if found in SAE): I asked him could he go with me.