The historical evolution of earlier african american english

The Historical Evolution of Earlier African American English W DE G Topics in English Linguistics 38 Editors Elizabeth Closs Traugott Bernd Kortmann Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York The Historical Evolution of Earlier African American English An Empirical Comparison of Early Sources by Alexander Kautzsch Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York 2002 Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter G m b H & Co KG, Berlin A doctoral thesis accepted by the University of Regensburg, printed with the financial support of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) © Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability Die Deutsche Bibliothek — CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Kautzsch, Alexander: The historical evolution of earlier African American English : an empirical comparison of early sources / by Alexander Kautzsch — Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 2002 (Topics in English linguistics ; 38) Zugl.: Regensburg, Univ., Diss., 2000 ISBN 3-11-017301-8 © Copyright 2002 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 10785 Berlin All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Berlin Printed in Germany Dedicated to the memory of my Aunt Irmgard Karl (*1941 f2001) Acknowledgments I was motivated for this project, which in its original version was a Ph.D thesis handed in at the University of Regensburg, German, by Prof Edgar W Schneider's expertise in the diachronic and synchronic study of African American English I would like to thank him for his invaluable advice in the earlier stages of my research and his insightful comments on later drafts of this dissertation Moreover, he encouraged me to present preliminary results at two NWAVE (New Ways of Analyzing Variation in English and other Languages) conferences, which has also provided very valuable input to my work Further I would like to express my gratitude to Prof Michael Montgomery, professor emeritus of the University of South Carolina at Columbia He revised an earlier version of chapter 6, which I handed in to American Speech for publication His motivating remarks are actually responsible for a considerable reorganization of this project in connection with the use of letters as linguistic data He also informed me about the whereabouts of the original manuscripts of the letters I am using I am also very grateful to Prof Elizabeth Traugott and Prof Bernd Kortmann, the two editors of this series, who have rated this book worthy for being published here Prof Traugott's critical remarks on possible or necessary revisions have contributed a lot to the quality of this final version Many thanks also go to the Mouton de Gruyter crew around Birgit Sievert, who have patiently shared their expertise in layouting matters In addition, I owe a special debt to some people who have given their practical help I wish to thank Holger Saurenbach, one of Edgar W Schneider's student assistants, who meticulously identified zero forms of the copula and of relative markers in all of my sources Gisela Wagner of the University of Regensburg's computer center taught me how to use OCR software, which ultimately enabled me to work on electronic versions of my texts Susan Pintzuk of the University of York, England, provided me with last minute information about how to handle her VARBRUL software package Last but not least, Jamie Kohen, Lektorin of English at the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Regensburg, proofread the manuscript in no time and suggested stylistic improvements Needless to say, I am responsible for any remaining shortcomings Of course, little could have been achieved without the sources I am using and my thanks also go to the people who have contributed to preserve earlier stages of AAE These are first and foremost the nineteenth century writers of the letters and the people who told their life stories during interviews But also viii Acknowledgements the interviewers and publishers of these written and oral conversations deserve to be credited Finally, I am indebted to my wife Katja, who was pregnant with our first child in the final stage of the dissertation early in 2000, and now has turned out to be the best of all mothers to our son Simon Both of them kept me in a cheerful mood throughout this project and managed to remind me that there was a world outside of my PC Regensburg, March 2002 Contents Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Chapter Introduction 1.1 Education: where it all started 1.2 The synchronic description of AAE and its comparison to other varieties of English 1.3 The debate about the origins of AAE 1.4 The sociohistorical background for the evolution of AAE 1.5 The divergence of AAE from other varieties of English 1.6 Sources for the historical reconstruction of AAE 1.7 The aims of the present project 1.8 A final note on terms Chapter Data and methods 2.1 Mississippi samples from the ex-slave narratives Rawick (1977 / 1979) [WPA MS] 2.2 The Virginia WPA project [WPA VA] 2.3 The ex-slave recordings [ESR] 2.4 Samples from Hyatt's hoodoo interviews [HOODOO and H00D002] 2.5 Linguistic evaluation of the subcorpora 2.6 Methodological possibilities of a combined corpus of Earlier AAE 2.6.1 Comparison of subcorpora 2.6.2 Studying change in progress - apparent time analyses 2.6.3 Analysis by state 2.6.4 Gender differences 2.7 Summary Chapter Negation patterns in Earlier AAE 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Verbal negation 3.2.1 The distribution of ain and its standard counterparts 3.2.1.1 Verbal negation by subcorpus 3.2.1.2 Verbal negation in apparent time 3.2.1.3 Verbal negation by state 3.2.1.4 Verbal negation by gender 3.2.2 The functions of ain't 3.2.2.1 The functions of ain't by subcorpus vii xiv 10 11 12 12 20 22 24 28 32 32 33 35 38 39 40 40 41 41 41 47 51 53 54 55 References 321 Poplack, Shana and Sali Tagliamonte 1989 There's no tense like the present: Verbal -s inflection in early Black English Language Variation and Change 1: 47-89 [Reprinted in Bailey, Maynor, and Cukor-Avila (eds.) 1991: 275-324.] 1991 African-American English in the diaspora: Evidence from old-line Nova Scotians Language Variation and Change 3: 301-339 1994 -S or nothing: Marking the plural in the African American diaspora American Speech 69: 227-259 Poplack, Shana, Sali Tagliamonte and Ejike Eze 1999 Reconstructing the source of Early African American English plural marking: A comparative study of English and Creole In: Poplack (ed.) 1999:73-105 Quirk, Randolph 1957 Relative clauses in educated spoken English English Studies 38: 97109 Rawick, George P (ed.) 1972 The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography 19 vols Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Rawick, George P (ed.) 1977/79 The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography Supplement Series and 12 and 10 vols Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Rickford, John R 1974 Hie insights of the mesolect In: David DeCamp and Ian F Hancock (eds.) Pidgins and Creoles: Current Trends and Prospects, 92-117 Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press 1977 The question of prior creolization in Black English In: Albert Valdman (ed.) Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, 190-221 Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1986 Social contact and linguistic diffusion: Hiberno English and New World Black English Language 62: 245-290 1987 Contribution to Are Black and White Vernaculars Diverging? In: Fasold et al (eds.) 1987: 55-62 1991a Representativeness and reliability of the ex-slave material, with special reference to Wallace Quarterman's recordings and transcripts In: Bailey, Maynor, and Cukor-Avila eds 1991:191-212 1991b Variation in the Jamaican Creole copula: New data and analysis Paper presented at the Beryl Bailey Symposium, American Anthropology Association meeting, Chicago, November 1992 The creole residue in Barbados In: Joan H Hall, Nick Doane, and Dick Ringlet (eds.) Old English and New: Studies in Honor of Frederic G Cassidy, 183-201 New York and London: Garland 1996 Copula variability in Jamaican Creole and African American Vernacular English: A reanalysis of DeCamp's texts In: Gregory R Guy, Crawford 322 References Feagin, Deborah Schifimi and John Baugh (eds.) Towards a Social Science of Language Vol 1: Variation and Change in Language and Society, 357-372 Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins 1997 Prior creolization of African-American Vernacular English? Sociohistorical and textual evidence from the 17th and 18th centuries, Journal of Sociolinguistics 1: 315-336 [Reprinted in Rickford (ed.) 1999: 233-251, which is quoted in the present study.] 1999a Phonological and grammatical features of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) In: Rickford (ed.) 1999: 3-14 1999b Suite for Ebony and Phonics In: Rickford (ed.) 1999: 320-328 1999c Grammatical variation and divergence in Vernacular Black English In: Rickford (ed.) 1999: 261-280 1999d Preface In: Rickford (ed.) 1999: xii-xxiii 1999e Using the vernacular to teach the standard In: Rickford (ed.) 1999: 329348 Rickford, John R (ed.) 1999 African American Vernacular English Oxford: Blackwell Rickford, John R., Ametha Ball, Renee Blake, Raina Jackson, and Nomi Martin 1991 Rappin on the copula coffin: Theoretical and methodological issues in the analysis of copula variation in African American Vernacular English Language Variation and Change 3.1: 103-132 (Reprinted in Rickford (ed.) 1999: 61-89; which is quoted in this study) Rickford, John R., and Renee Blake 1990 Copula contraction and absence in Barbadian English, Samaná English and Vernacular Black English In: K Hall, J.-P Koenig, M Meacham, S Reinman, and L A Sutton (eds.) Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 257-268 Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society [Reprinted in Rickford (ed.) 1999: 61-89, which is quoted in the present study], Romaine, Suzanne 1982 Socio-Historical Linguistics: Its Status and Methodology Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press Sankoff, David (ed.) 1986 Diversity and Diachrony Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins Schneider, Edgar W 1982 On the history of Black English in the USA: Some new evidence English World Wide 3: 18-46 1983 The origin of the verbal -s in Black English American Speech 58: 99113 1984 A bibliography of writings on American and Canadian English In: Wolfgang Viereck, Edgar W Schneider, and Manfred Görlach (comps.) A Bibliography of Writings on Varieties of English, 1965-1983, 89-223 Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins References 323 Regional variation in 19th centuiy Black English in the American South In: Jacek Fisiak (ed.) Papers from the 6th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, 467-487 Amsterdam: Benjamins American Earlier Black English Tuscaloosa, London: University of 1989 Alabama Press 1990 The cline of creoleness in English-oriented creóles and semi-creoles of the Caribbean English World-Wide 11: 79-113 1993a Africanisms in Afro-American English: Weighing the evidence In: Mufwene (ed.) 1993:209-221 1993b Writings on varieties of American and Canadian English In: Beat Glauser, Edgar W Schneider, and Manfred Görlach (comps.) A Bibliography of Writings on Varieties of English, 1984-1992/93, 63124 Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins 1996 Introduction: Research trends in the study of American English In: Schneider (ed.) 1996: 1-12 1997a Earlier Black English Revisited In: Cynthia Bernstein, Thomas Nunnally and Robin Sabino (eds.) Language Variety in the South Revisited, 35-50 Tuscaloosa and London: University of Alabama Press Diffusion, selection and the evolution of New Englishes: The example 1997b of negation patterns Paper given at 4th IAWE Conference, Singapore, 1997 Schneider, Edgar W (ed.) 1996 Focus on the USA Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins Schuchardt, Hugo 1914 Die Sprache der Saramakkaneger in Surinam Amsterdam: Johannes Möller For English translation of preface, see Schuchardt 1980: 891985 126 1980 Pidgin and Creole Languages: Selected Essays Glenn G Gilbert, ed and trans Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Shick, Tom W 1980 Behold the Promised Land: A History of Afro-American Settler Society in Nineteenth-Century Liberia Baltimore: John Hopkins UP Shick, Tom W (ed.) 1971 Emigrants to Liberia: 1820-1843 An alphabetical listing Newark, DL: University Press Shuy, Roger, Walt Wolfram and William Riley 1967 Linguistic Correlates of Social Stratification in Detroit Speech Cooperative Research Project No 61347 East Lansing: Michigan State University 1968 Field Techniques in an Urban Language Study (Urban Language Series 3.) Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics 324 References Singler, John V 1977 Language in Liberia in the nineteenth century: The settlers' perspective Libertan Studies Journal 7,2: 73-85 1984 Variation in tense - aspect - modality in Liberian English Doctoral dissertation, UCLA, [printed facsimile: 1986 Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International; Summary in English World-Wide 6,2: 292 (1985)] 1987a The city, the mesolect, and innovation Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 2,2: 119-147 1987b Where did Liberian English na come from? English World-Wide 8,1: 69-95 1988 The place of variation in the formal expression of inflectional processes: Evidence from Kru Pidgin English In: Kathleen Ferrara, Becky Brown, Keith Walters and John Baugh (eds.) Linguistic Change and Contact Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference on New Ways of Analyzing Variation in Language , 345-353 Austin, TX: University of Texas, Department of Linguistics 1989 Plural marking in Liberian Settler English, 1820-1980 American Speech 64,1: 40-64 1991a Copula variation in Liberian Settler English and American Black English In: Edwards and Winford (eds.) 1991: 129-164 1991b Liberian Settler English and the ex-slave recordings: A comparative study In: Bailey, Maynor, and Cukor-Avila (eds.) 1991:249-273 1991c Social and linguistic constraints on plural marking in Liberian English In: Cheshire (ed.) 1991: 545-562 1998a The African-American Diaspora: Who were the dispersed? Paper presented at NWAVE27, Athens, GA 1998b What's not new in AAVE American Speech 73,3: 227-256 Smitherman, Geneva 1981 Talkin ' and Testifyin ' Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Sommer, Elizabeth 1986 Variation in Southern Urban English In: Montgomery and Bailey (eds.) 1986:180-201 Stewart, William A 1966 Nonstandard speech patterns Baltimore Bulletin of Education 43: 5265 1967 Sociolinguistic factors in the history of American Negro dialects Florida Foreign Language Reporter 5: 11-29 1968 Continuity and change in American Negro dialects Florida Foreign Language Reporter 6: 3-14 1969 On the use of Negro dialect in the teaching of reading In: Joan C Baratz and Roger W Shuy (eds.) Teaching Black Children to Read, 156-219 Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics References 325 The National Atlas of the United States 1967 Washington, DC: United States Department of the Interior Geological Survey Tagliamonte, Sali and Jennifer Smith 1999 Old was, new ecology: Viewing English through the sociolinguistic filter In: Poplack(ed.) 1999:141-171 Taglicht, J 1973 The choice of relative pronouns in written English Scripta Hierosolymitana 25: 327-336 Thibault, Pierette and Michelle Daveluy 1989 Quelques traces du passage du temps dans le parler des Montréalais 1971-1984 Language Variation and Change 1: 19-46 Tottie, Gunnel 1997 Relatively speaking: relative marker usage in the British National Corpus In: Terttu Nevalainen and Leena Kahlas-Tarkka (eds.) To Explain the Present: Studies in the Changing English Language in Honour of Matti Rissanen, 465-481 Helsinki: Société Neophilologique Tottie, Gunnel and Michel Rey 1997 Relativization strategies in Earlier African American Vernacular English Language Variation and Change 9,2:219-247 Tottie, Gunnel and Dawn Harvie 1999 It's all relative: Relativization strategies in Early African American English In: Poplack (ed.) 1999: 198-230 Traugott, Elizabeth Closs 1976 Pidgins, creóles, and the origins of Vernacular Black English In: Deborah Sears Harrison and Tom Trabassso eds Black English: A seminar, 57-93 Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Troike, R 1973 On social, regional, and age variation in Black English The Florida Foreign Language Reporter Spring/Fall: 7-8 Trudgill, Peter 1988 Norwich revisited: recent linguistic changes in an English urban dialect English World-Wide 9: 3 ^ U.S Bureau of the Census 1918 Negro Population in the United Sates, 1790-1915 New York: Kraus Reprint [1969] 1976 The Statistical History of the United States From Colonial Times to the Present New York: Basic Books Van den Eynden, Nadine 1993 Syntactic Variation and Unconscious Linguistic Change: A Study of Adjectival Relative Clauses in the Dialect of Dorset Frankfurt a M.: Peter Lang 326 References Van Herk, Gerard 1998 Don't know much about histoiy: letting the data set the agenda in the Origins-of-AAVE debate Paper presented at NWAVE 27, Athens, Georgia 1999a "Ye was very much Oppress": 18th-century AAVE texts and the origins debate Paper presented at Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, Los Angeles 1999b The question question: Auxiliary inversion in Early African American English In: Poplack (ed.) 1999: 175-197 Viereck, Wolfgang 1988 Invariant be in an unnoticed source of American Early Black English American Speech, 63: 291-303 1989 A linguistic analysis of 'Early' American Black English In: Udo Fries and Martin Heusser (eds.) Meaning and Beyond Ernst Leisi zum 70 Geburtstag, 179-196 Tübingen: Narr 1995 Verbal -s inflection in 'early' American Black English In: Jacek Hsiak (ed.) Linguistic Change under Contact Conditions, 315-326 Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter Walker, James A 1999 Rephrasing the copula: Contraction and zero in Early African American English In: Poplack (ed.) 1999: 35-72 Weldon, Tracy 1994 Variability in negation in African American Vernacular English Language Variation and Change 6: 359-397 Wiley, Bell I 1980 Slaves No More Letters from Liberia 1833-1869 The University Press of Kentucky Williamson, Juanita 1972 Selected features of speech: Black and White College Language Association ΧΠΙ: 420-433 Winford, Donald 1992a Another look at the copula in Black English and Caribbean creóles American Speech 67,1: 21-60 1992b Back to the past: The BEV/creole connection revisited Language Variation and Change 4,3: 311-357 1997 On the origins of African American Vernacular English - A creolist perspective Part I: The sociohistorical background Diachronica 14: 305-344 1998 On the origins of African American Vernacular English - A creolist perspective Part Π: Linguistic features Diachronica 15: 99-154 Wise, Claude Merton 1933 Negro dialect The Quarterly Journal of Speech 19: 523-528 References 327 Woodward, C Vann 1974 History from slave sources American Historical Review 79,2: 470-481 Wolfram, Walt 1969 A Sociolinguistic Description of Detroit Negro Speech Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics 1970 Linguistic correlates of social differences in the Negro Community In: James E Alatis (ed.) Linguistics and the Teaching of Standard English to Speakers of Other Languages or Dialects, 249-257 Report of the Twentieth Annual Round Table Meeting In Linguistics and Language Studies Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press 1971 Black-White speech differences revisited In: Wolfram and Clarke (eds.): 139-161 1974 The relationship of White Southern speech to Vernacular Black English Language 50,3: 498-527 1990 Re-examining Vernacular Black English: Review article of Schneider 1989 and Butters 1989 Language 66: 121-133 Wolfram, Walt and Nona Clarke, eds 1971 Black-White Speech Relationships Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics Wolfram, Walt, Kirk Hazen, and Jennifer Ruff Tamburro 1997 Isolation within isolation: A solitary century of African American Vernacular English Journal of Sociolinguistics 1:7-38 Wolfram, Walt, Erik R Thomas and Elaine W Green To appear The regional context of Earlier African-American speech: Evidence for reconstructing the development of AAVE Language in Society Wolfram, Walt et al North Carolina Language and Life Project, [http://www.ncsu.edu/ linguistics/llp.htm] Yeager-Dror, Malcah 1989 Real time and apparent time change in Montréal French York Papers in Linguistics 13: 141-154 Yetman, Norman R 1967 H e background of the slave narrative collection American Quarterly 19: 534-553 Index abolition (of slavery) 7,213 acrolect 92,120 act of identity see linguistic identity adjacency (of relative marker and antecedent) 162,166-168,170, 173,179-182,184,189-193, 195, 200-201, 203-204,206, 208-210, 242, 250-252,256-257 adjective (after copula) chapter 4, chapter 6.3 adverb 78 Africa 5-6, 212-213, 219, 227 African 4,6-7,45, 90,100, 111, 127, 285 African American(s) 2,4, 6-9,13, 17-21, 24-26, 37-38,51-52,59, 64, 66,74, 88,103,120,150151,211,213,215, 219-222, 239,254,256-257 African Nova Scotian English (ANSE) 45-46, 90, 92,100-102, 105,110-114,119,156,158159,161,165,167,172,255 age 19, 28, 30, 33,153,217,237 Alabama 7,18-19, 23,25,28, 29, 35-38,41-42,48, 51-53, 59-60, 64,73-77, 80, 86,98,103-104, 106,124,147-148,150-152, 170,193-201,203, 212, 217218, 221, 239, 241, 257, appendix aluminum disk recordings 20,22 amanuenses 219, 221 American(s) 3,7,17, 20,31, 37,52, 58,63,75-76,103,163,211, 213,215, 218 American Colonization Society 212-213 Ann Arbor 2, 285 antecedent (of relative marker) 159— 160,162,164-179,181,184- 192,195-201, 204-209, 211, 242,245-251, 253, 257 Appalachian 158-159 Archive of Folk Song 18,22 Arkansas 7, 25, appendix assimilation (phonetics) 96,105, 107-108,118, 238 Atlantic South (US) 80 audio-recordings 10,12,16,18, 2029, 31-32, 92,156,159, 255 auxiliary verbs 40, 55-56,59, 61, 64-77, 88, 227-230, 236, 253, 257 Bailey, Guy 8-10,12,22-24, 29, 31-34, 36, 39,42-43,47, 61, 6566, 88, 90, 92, 94,97-99,104105,117-118,122,125,144, 154,160,165,168-170,256,285 Bajan/Barbadian 4,91-92,101 Barbados 5-6 basilect(al) 7,91-92 Baugh, John 92, 99,285 Berlin, Ira 10, 212, 219-222, 225228, 232, 235-238, 240-246, 248-250 biased speech (by ethnicity) 18,27 bidialectalism black(s) see African Americans Botkin, Benjamin 14 Brewer, Jeutonne 9,11,18, 24, 38, 45,81 British (English) 5, 30, 81,157158,163-167,211 Byrd, Susie R 21-22 Canada 3, 255 Caribbean 4, 6,7,120,138 change in progress 33-34,39,154 Cheshire, Jenny 158,211 Chomsky, Noam 29,30 Index 329 clause 156-157,163,165, 202, 204, 206-207,242, 246, 252 colonies 5-7, 35,120 competence 30,33 consonants 23,104-105,107,115, 118,133-137,139,146-147, 217,221, 223 contraction (copula) see copula copula (full, contracted and zero (0) forms) chapter 4, chapter 6.3 calculation / formula (Labov, Straight, Romaine) 109-115,123-126,130,132134,136-139,154-155, 222 corpus 10,12, 22, 24,28, 30-32, 35, 37, 39,40, 45,47, 50, 56-58, 62, 64, 68-69, 72,79, 81-84, 8689,95-98,100-101,104,106, 109-115,122-125,128-137, 139,142-143,146,156-157, 160-161,170, 172, 176, 182, 189,193,197, 203, 211-212, 219, 224,226-235, 238, 242252, 255-256, 258 county 37,103, 257 creole 4-6, 9, 39, 56, 89-92,101104,119-120,123-124,127, 138,144,146-147,150,154155,172, 211,242, 258 creolist 4-5, 89, 91, 102,144, 285 creolists' hypothesis 90 creolization 4, 6,102,120,139, 150,172,258 Cukor-Avila, Patricia 3, 22-24, 33 CVC-structure (phon.) 133 CV-structure (phon.) 135 decreolization 8,91,102,120,138, 144,147,154, 258 Delaware 221,225 deletion (copula) see copula demographics 6,8,31,35,37-38, 51-52,59-60, 74, 87,103,139, 151, 214-215 diachronic 1,9-10, 32, 89,113114,140,182,191,193-194,207 dialect geographers dialectologists 4-5, 89, 91, 285 dialectology 39, 89 Dillard, Joey 16, 20,23,157,285 divergence 1, 5,7-10,56, 88,113, 144,157,196 Dorset (England, relativization) 158, 163-164,166 Earlier Black English (EBE) 11,17, 38 East Palo Alto (EPA) 3, 8,92,95, 97,100-101,110-111,113-114, 119-120,127,139, 255 Ebonics 2,11, 285 economics 6-7,17,24, 35 Ediphone (recording machine) 26, 28 education 2,28, 84,219 emancipation 24, 58,213,219, 220 embryonic variants 59 emphatic copula 94 ethnic group 8, 37,215 ethnic marker see linguistic identity European American 2-3, 6-7 existential constructions 61, 82,232 ex-slave narratives 9-10,12-16, 18-22, 24, 29, 31-32, 35,45,46, 62, 68, 93, 98 ex-slave recordings (ESR) 10,16, 18,22-24, 31-32, 34, 36-38,40, 43-46,48, 51, 55-56, 62, 67-69, 79,81-84,100-101,119,121, 123,125-136,155-156,158162,164-165,167,171,173182, 212 extra-linguistic 15,17, 21, 33,47, 74,115,181,203,206,255 330 Index Faulk, Henry 18,24 Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) 12-13 female see also gender, male 20, 38-39,77-78, 87,104,152, 203, 205, 255 fieldwork(ers) 18, 22,24, 26-27, 32 Honda 14, 23,25-26, 28-29,3638,42-43,48,51-54,59-60, 64, 66,73-77, 80, 86,95,103-104, 109,116-117,147-148,150152,160,170,172,193-203, 257, appendix folklore 12,24-25 freed slaves 212-213 Freedmen's Bureau Letters (FBL) 219, 221-238,242-253 gender see also male, female 30, 32-33, 38-40,53-54, 60-61, 64,70,77-80,84, 87, 89,102, 104,115,152-153,155,170, 203-206,255 generative 115 geography 24,46,70,73,102,120, 133,156,166-167,170,176, 178,181-182,193,195,197198, 201-202,207, 256-257 Georgia 3-4,7,14, 18-20,23,25, 28-29, 35, 37-38,42-43,48, 5155,59-60, 64,73-78, 80, 82, 8687,103,125,147-148,150-152, 161,193-203,217-218, 231, 239,257, appendix ghetto 2,8,63 ghettoization 120 Glasgow (English) 236 gonna (after copula) chapter 4, chapter 6.3 grammatical core (of AAE) 5,89 grammatical environment 90,92, 97,127,130-131,136,138-140, 144-147,151-152,155, 239, 241,257 Gullah 4-5,7, 22, 29,91,156,172 Guyana 101 Hawaiian Creole 92 heterogeneity (of AAE) 6,39,256257 hierarchies (copula deletion and contraction) 124-127,130-132, 140,144,146,148,151-152, 155,171,173, 253, 257 homogeneity (of AAE) 75,182, 257 hoodoo-texts 10,12, 24-25, 31-32, 62, 66,79 humanness (of antecedent; relativization) 159-160,162165,168,171,173,175,181182,184,191-193,195-197, 204-206,209-211, 242, 246, 251-253,257 Hyatt, Harry Middleton 10,12, 2429, 36-37,41-43,54-55, 61, 6566, 78, 82, 90,95-99,104,106107,109,116-118,124-126, 160-161,168-170,172, 231 hypercorrection 216 idiolect 47,62,72,75, 83,105,118, 172 Illinois 24 illiterate 220 imperative 61 imperfect 214 indefinite pronouns 122,124,136 indeterminates (any* / no*) 40, 61, 64-74,77-79, 81-84, 86,116, 136,166,227-233, 253 Indiana 13 informants 14,17,19, 20-21,2328, 32, 34-39,45-47,49,51-53, 61, 64, 68,72, 75, 77, 83, 87,96, 100,102-105,107-108,118, Index 331 120,150,156,158,172,182, 193,204,207,211-212,221, 231,255-256, 258 interethmc bias / tensions 17-18,20 interrogatives 61 interview(er)s 10,12-29, 32-34,36, 45,101,104,106,119,156,164, 171,255 intonation 94 invariant be 4,8 inversion 61,97 irrealis 91 iterative 91 Jamaica 5,91,101 Jesperson, Otto 166 Kansas Kentucky 13,217, 221,232, 239, 241, 245,249, 250 Kretzschmar, William Labov, William 2-3, 8, 34-35, 38, 40,45, 63,92,97,99-100,104105,109-115,123-125,127, 130-134,136-138,154,157, 256 language acquisition 4,6,7, 33-34, 36-37,155, 203, 253 letters 9-10,19,212, 214-228, 230, 232-246, 248-254,258 Lewis, Roscoe 20,22 Liberia 4, 23,29, 36,212-214, 218-219, 221,285 Liberian and Alabama Letters (LAL) 212,218,221-236,238, 242-253 Library of Congress 14,22 linguistic atlases 3,33 Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States (LAGS) Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States (LAMSAS) linguistic change 6,9,33-34,40, 50, 58, 70, 86,114,140,146, 155-156,166,177,182,187, 189,191-193,207,209, 256 linguistic identity 8,59,88,140, 256 linguistic prestige 214 literacy 84, 213-214,220, 222-223, 226-227, 231-232, 253,258 literary attestations 9,212,222 locative (after copula) chapter 4, chapter 6.3 Lomax, John 14-16,19, 21,24 Louisiana 13, 23, 25, 28-29, 36-38, 43,52-53, 59-60, 64,73-77, 80, 83, 86, 99,103,117-118,147148,150-152,193-203,217219, 221,226, 228, 239, 241, 246, 257, appendix Lower Louth (US) 7,220 male see also female, gender 38-39,77-78, 87,104,152,203, 205, 255 manuscripts 20-21, 215-217, 221, 223,253 Maryland 23, 25, 28-29, 37,52,72, 74-77, 80, 82, 86-87,103,116, 118,170,217-218, 221-222, 228,235-236,257, appendix Maynor, Natalie 8-9,12,14-16,19, 22-24, 29, 33-34, 36, 39, 61,6566, 88, 90,92,94, 97-99,104105,117-118,122,125,160, 168-170,285 mesolect 91-92,138 methodology 3,10-12,21,28,32, 70,89,91,93,108,114-115, 120,130,167,173,180, 206, 211,215,217,221,258 Michigan 2,242,244 migration 7,212 332 Index minority 11,59,106,108,155-157, 176,184, 251, 258 Mississippi 7,12,15,18-19,25, 227, appendix Missouri 36, 217,221,226, 237238, 243 modal verbs 65-77, 88, 227-230, 255 Monrovia 213 Montgomery, Michael 10,16,158— 159,164-165,214, 219,221223, 236, 253, 285 morphology 3,15, 23 morpho-syntax 217 Mufwene, Salikoko 3,5-7, 34-35, 47, 88,120,139,144,156,172, 256 negation chapter 3, chapter 6.2, appendix negative attraction chapter 3.4, chapter 6.2.3 negative concord chapter 3.3, chapter 6.2.2 negative postposing chapter 3.5, chapter 6.2.4 negative transfer 40,78,81 neocreolization New York City 92 non-finite be 108 non-restrictive relative clauses 156, 158,173,206 nonstandardness 11,16,19,27, 31, 38, 255-256, 258 negation 40, 61-62,64-80, 8288 copula 104,119-120,122,136 relativization 156-159,167,171, 184,190,205,211 written vs spoken 212, 214,217, 219, 222-224,227, 229-230, 232-233, 242-244, 252-253 NORMS (dialectology) 202 North Carolina 3, 7,19, 25, 28-29, 36-38,46,52-53, 59-60, 64, 66, 73-77, 80, 86, 95,97,103-104, 147-148,150,152,193-203, 217, 221,239, 241, 257, 285, appendix Northern (US) 221 noun phrase 78,81,256 after copula chapter 4, chapter 6.3 relativization (category of antecedent) chapter 5, chapter 6.4 Nova Scotia English see African Nova Scotian English numerals 166,168,170,176 Oakland, CA, Schoolboard Ohio 3,13,51, 221,225, 255 origins discussion 4,6,9-10,30, 80-81,109,139,156,211,255, 257 overseer 41,54 participles (after copula) chapter 4, chapter 6.3 passive 117 past tense 19,45^6,56, 67, 80-81, 93,217, 223, 226 Pennsylvania 221, 243 perfectives 41,43-44,46-47,50, 52,55-57, 60,224-226, 229,234 performance data 30 phonetics / phonology 3,14-15,23, 59,97,99,104-105,107-109, 115,118-120,133-137,147, 216,221-222, 238 phonological environment 99,105, 107-108,115,118-119,133,137 pidgin 5, plantations 19,213-214,250 Poplack, Shana 5,10-11,89-92, 94,97, 99,102,120,255-256 Index 333 population proportions see demographics postmodification 156 postvocalic environments 106 present tense 16,45-48,50,55,67, 93,109, 237 prestige see linguistic prestige pronouns before copula chapter 4, chapter 6.3 relativization (category of antecedent) chapter 5, chapter 6.4 pronunciation 15,19,105,216 quantification 4, 56, 89, 91,115, 140,157-158,164,172-173, 211,242 Quirk, Randolph 156-158,163165,167, 211 racism 213 Rawick, George P 9-10,12-21,29, 32, 35,42,54-55, 61, 65-66,78, 82,93-94, 96-97,100,109,116118,122,126,158-160,164165,168-170 reconstruction 6,9-10,13,24, 63, 212,217, 220-223, 242, 252, 255 regional analysis 3-5,7,11, 30, 32, 35-37, 39-40,45-46, 51-52,59, 64,74,79, 87, 89,102-103,136, 147,152,154-155,177,182, 201,238-239,257 regionalism 46 register 215 relativization chapter 5, chapter 6.4 reliability (of sources) 9,14-17, 2224,27-28, 32,126, 217 repatriation (of slaves) 212-213 restrictive relative clauses 156-158, 160 rhoticity 96,105-108,118 Rickford, John 1,3-6, 8-9,23, 35, 89-93,97, 99, 101,105,109114, 120,123-124,126-127, 130-131,139,173, 255, 285 Romaine, Suzanne 110-112,114, 119 Samaná English 45,90,92,100, 102, 111, 113,119,156,158,255 Schneider, Edgar W 8-9,11, 15-17, 35, 37-38,45-16,55-56, 62, 81-82,102-103,147,157159,164-165,172, 257, 285 Schuchardt, Hugo 285 schwa h i 96,104-106 semi-literate 222,253,258 sibilants 107-109,115,118,133 slavery 4, 7,64 sociohistorical background 5, 6, 8, 35 sociolinguistic interviews 33,104, 106,119,172,255 South (US) 4,7,13-14, 24, 28, 35, 51,75-76,102,104,120, 217, 223, 236, 239, 241, 253 South Carolina 4, 6-7,14,22,25, 28-29, 35-38,43, 48, 51-53,5960, 64-66, 73-77, 80, 86-87, 9496, 98, 103-104,107,116-118, 124,126,147-148,150-152, 168-170,193-203, 221,228, 239-240,257, appendix spelling 23,214-217, 219,221224, 253 standard(ization) 2-3,14-17,1921,27,40-41,46-50, 52-53, 55, 61-69,71-72, 74-75,77, 82-88, 100,116,119-120,158-159, 164,166-167,171,205,211212, 214-215, 223-224, 226233, 254,256, 258 standardization of dialect 14,19,21 standardness 93 334 Index standard-nonstandard continuum 74, 76, 87, 215,219 state (variation by) 1,7-8,13-15, 17-18, 23,25-26, 28, 33, 35-38, 40,46-48, 51-52,54, 59-61, 64, 73-76, 80, 84, 86-87,89,91, 103-105,115,126-127,138139,147-148,150-152,154155, 193-203,206-209, 217, 221, 239, 241,255-257 statistics 23, 60, 87, 99,104,109, 114,154, 203, 205,209,210,255 stigmatization 38, 226, 253, 255, 258 syllable 23,134, 216 synchronic 1, 3, 10, 50 syntax 3,15,23,99,159,161-162, 184,192, 203,244,251 Tagliamonte, Sali 10,38,90-92 Telediphone (recording machine) 26, 28 Tennessee 13, 25, 28-29, 36-38, 42,52-53, 59-60, 64,73-77, 80, 86, 90,103,107,117,125,147148,150-152,161,193-203, 217, 221, 227, 257, appendix Texas 8,23, 28-29, 33, 36-38,48, 51-53, 59-60, 64,73-77, 80, 86, 92, 103,105,147-148,152,193203, 257, appendix TMA markers Tottie, Gunnel 156-159,161,164167, 172, 211 transcription (of speech) 10,12,1420, 22-23, 26-27, 29, 33,45, 89, 94,96,105-106,119,133,215217, 221, 224, 255 Trinidad 4,91-92,101 Trudgill, Peter 33,59 U.S Bureau of the Census 38, appendix Upper South (US) 77, 220,257 VARBRUL 113,123,136-137, 163,209, 210 variability / variation 23, 28, 32-35, 38-40,44,46-47,49-51,53, 5659,61-62, 64, 68-70,74, 76, 81, 84, 87, 89, 91, 93-97,99-105, 107,109,113-116,119-120, 126,128-130,132-136,139140,142,144,146-147,150, 152,154-159,161-162,165166,171,173,175,177,181182,184-187,189-193,196201,204, 206-210,215, 221, 226,230, 234-235,238,242243,251-252,255,257-258 variety/-ies 2-5,7-9,11,14, 19, 24, 30-31, 33, 35, 38-39, 49,54, 56,58, 64-65, 89-90,92-93, 96, 101-102,105-106,113-114, 120,138,140,154,156-159, 167,190, 210, 214, 236,255258, 285 V-ing (after copula) chapter 4, chapter 6.3 Virginia 6-7,12,14,20-21, 23-25, 28-29, 31-32,34, 36^2,44-46, 48,51-56,59-62,64, 67-69, 7284, 86, 95,98,100-101,103104,117,119,121,123,125135,147-148,150-152,155156,158-162,168,171-181, 193-201, 203, 212, 217-218, 221, 231,239,257, appendix vocalization of/r/ 105 vowels 96,105-108,115,118,133137 W C (phon.) 133 Washington, DC 19,25,28-29,37, 93-94, 96-97,103,118,169, 219, 221 Index 335 West Virginia 19,28-29, 37,52 white (southern) vernaculars 4,8-9 white American dialects 2,6,158, 211 Winford, Donald 1,4, 6-7, 35,92, 94,99,120,138,173,285 Wolfram, Walt 3,16, 37-38,92, 94, 99,104-105,123,157, 285 Works Progress Administration (WPA) 12,16,20,29, 31-32, 34, 37-42,4Φ46,48, 51,54-56, 62, 67-69,79, 81-84,100-101,119, 121,123,125-136,146,155156,158-162,171-182, 212 written sources / writing , , 18, 21-22, 29, 31, 45, 94, 106, 133,158,163, 166-167, 212, 215-224, 226-239, 241-247, 250-253, 255, 258, 285 zero (0) copula see copula relative see relativization third singular 217 ... description of AAE and its comparison to other varieties of English 1.3 The debate about the origins of AAE 1.4 The sociohistorical background for the evolution of AAE 1.5 The divergence of AAE from other... to deliver the mot accurate assessment of the status and the evolution of AAE 1.4 The sociohistorical background for the evolution of AAE In this context, recent studies of the sociohistorical... Figure education origins THE STUDY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH divergence sources for historical reconstruction socio -historical evidence The study of African American English These topics are largely