The origin of american black english

The Origin of American Black English W DE G Topics in English Linguistics 15 Editor Herman Wekker Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York The Origin of American Black English Ä?-Forms in the HOODOO Texts Traute Ewers Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York 1996 Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin © Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ewers, Traute, 1960— The origin of American Black English ; be-forms in the HOODOO texts / Traute Ewers p cm - (Topics in English linguistics ; 15) Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 3-11-014586-3 (cloth ; acid-free paper) Afro-Americans — Language (New words, slang, etc.) English language — United States — African influences English language - United States — Variation Black English Hoodoo (Cult) I Title II Series PE3102.N4E9 1995 427' 973 Ό8996 - d c 95-42929 CIP Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ewers, Traute: The origin of American Black English : be-forms in the Hoodoo texts / Traute Ewers — Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1996 (Topics in English linguistics ; 15) ISBN 3-11-014586-3 NE: GT © Copyright 1995 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-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 Printing: Gerike GmbH, Berlin Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin Printed in Germany To my parents Preface In the past three decades hardly any linguistic topic has been discussed as emotionally as the status of Black English in the United States The discussion revolves around two main issues, namely the historical origin of this variety and its relationship with American White English The essential question is whether Black English is derived from a creole language or from British and American dialects Whereas the great majority of early publications on this variety represented the traditional dialect position, the Creole theory received a strong impetus through the Black Power Movement in the 1960s Arguments in favour of one or the other hypothesis have at times triggered polemical discussion in the United States in which socio-historical motives have always played a major part To shed some light on the diachronic development of Black English, it is necessary to take an unbiased approach, which I have endeavoured to in this study The investigation is concerned with the use of &e-forms and is based on a collection of interviews carried out by the white priest Hyatt with black hoodoo doctors in the North and South of the United States in the 1930s and in 1970 It was only in the 1970s that these interviews were published in the five volumes of Hoodoo - conjuration - witchcraft rootwork The corpus, which has hardly been drawn upon for linguistic research, offers the rare opportunity of studying linguistic change in real time I shall argue that a priori assumptions of the creole and dialect theories have often led to circular reasoning and prevented an objective analysis of Black English Therefore this variety should first of all be studied in its own right An earlier version of this book was accepted by the University of Giessen as my doctoral thesis I am grateful to Prof W Viereck, who suggested the topic to me, and to my advisors, Prof D Stein and Prof A Jucker, who constantly supported my studies I also wish to thank Mouton de Gruyter and the editor of the series, Prof H Wekker, for accepting this work for publication Among those who have given their advice and practical help in many different ways, I owe a special debt to the following: John Rickford for sending me unpublished papers of his own; Dr John Schleppenbach for providing me with original recordings of the HOODOO interviews; Paul Hudson and Kathryn Khairi Taraki for helping to analyze the elusive forms of be2; Günther Partosch for his invaluable advice on computer VIII Preface research; Elizabeth Reagan, Charlotte Kiiffner and John Nicholson for proofreading the manuscript; and Gabriele Vickermann and Petra Fleiner for their encouragement and helpful comments Lünen, 25 August 1995 Traute Ewers Contents List of abbreviations Introduction IX 1.1 Discussion of the topic 1.2 Terminology 11 The HOODOO texts as corpus 19 2.1 General background and description 2.2 Linguistic value 2.2.1 The interview situation 2.2.2 Linguistic reliability 2.3 Other sources of Earlier Black English 2.3.1 Literary dialects 2.3.2 The WPA Ex-Slave Narratives 2.3.3 Mechanical ex-slave recordings 2.3.4 Samanä English 2.4 Methodological considerations 2.4.1 The study of language change 2.4.2 Informant selection 2.4.3 Computer-based analysis Invariant be 19 21 21 26 30 30 33 42 43 46 46 51 56 59 3.1 Origin of beι 62 3.1.1 The Creole hypothesis 63 3.1.2 The influence of Irish English and other English dialects 74 3.1.3 Rickford' s diffusion theory 84 3.1.4 The divergence hypothesis 92 3.2 Invariant be in HOODOO 97 3.2.1 Williwould deletion 97 3.2.2 Bei vs b e ^ in HOODOO 101 3.2.3 Cooccurrence of invariant be with frequency adverbs 107 3.2.4 The two variants of bez: be vs be's 109 3.2.5 Tenselessness 116 References 1991 313 "Representativeness and reliability of the ex-slave materials, with special reference to Wallace Quarterman's recording and transcript", in: Bailey etal (eds.), 191-212 1992 "Grammatical variation and divergence in Vernacular Black English", in: Marmel Gerritsen - Dieter Stein (eds.), Internal and external factors in syntactic change, (Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs 61.) Berlin: Mouton, 175-200 Rickford, John R - Arnetha Ball - Renee Blake - Raina Jackson - 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: 103-132 Rodney, Ruby Veronica 1981 Analysis: Guyanese Creole and American Black English with special emphasis on tense and aspect University Microfilms International (Ph.D dissertation, The State University of New Jersey) Rogge, Heinz 1965 "Das Erbe Afrikas in Sprache und Kultur der nordamerikanischen Gullahs", Zeitschrift fur Volkskunde 61: 30-37 Romaine, Suzanne 1982 Socio-historical linguistics: its status and methodology Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1984 "On the problem of syntactic variation and pragmatic meaning in sociolinguistic theory", Folia Linguistica 18: 409-437 1988 Pidgin & Creole languages (Longman Linguistics Library.) 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Wiesbaden: Steiner, 287-296 1986 "Variation in southern urban English", in: Montgomery - Bailey (eds.), 180-201 Spears, Arthur K 1992 "Reassessing the status of Black English (review article)", Language in Society 21: 675-682 Spears, Monroe K 1980 "Black English", in: Leonard Michaels- Christopher Ricks (eds.), The state of the language Published in association with the English-speaking union, San Francisco Branch, Berkeley: University of California Press, 169-179 Sprauve, Gilbert A 1976 "Toward the parameters of Black English", in: Harrison Trabasso (eds.), 45-54 Stewart, William A 1965 "Urban Negro speech: sociolinguistic factors affecting English teaching", in: Roger W Shuy (ed.), Social Dialects and Language Learning, Champaign, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, 10-18 1966 "Observations on the problems of defining Negro [1975] dialect", in: Dillard (ed.), 57-64 Reprinted from The Florida Foreign Language Reporter 9.1/2 (1971): 47-49, 57 1967 "Sociolinguistic factors in the history of American [1971] Negro dialects", in: Allen - 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Trabasso (eds.), 209-225 Thiede, Ralf 1983 "A Black English/standard English interim grammar in college composition: a case study", Transactions of the Missouri Academy of Science 17: 171-179 Thom, William T 1884 "Some parallelisms between Shakespeare's English and the Negro-English of the U.S.", Shakespeariana 1.5: 129-135 Thomas, Charles K 1958 "The linguistic Mason and Dixon Line", in: Donald C Bryant (ed.), The rhetorical idiom, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 251-256 Torrey, Jane W 1983 "Black children's knowledge of standard English", American Educational Research Journal 20.4: 627-643 Traugott, Elizabeth Closs 1972 A history of English syntax A transformational approach to the history of English sentence structures New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1976 "Pidgins, Creoles, and the origins of Vernacular Black English", in: Harrison - Trabasso (eds.), 57-93 1977 "Pidginization, creolization, and language change", in: Valdman (ed.), 70-98 1979 "Why Black English retains so many Creole forms", in: Hancock etal (eds.), 339-346 Troike, Rudolph C 1973 "On social, regional, and age variation in Black English", Florida Foreign Language Reporter 11: 7-8 Trudgill, Peter 1983 On dialect: social and geographical perspectives Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1990 The dialects of England Oxford: Blackwell 318 References Trudgill, Peter (ed.) 1984 Language in the British Isles Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Tucker, R Whitney 1966 "Contraction of 'was'", American Speech 41: 76-77 Turner, Lorenzo Dow 1949 Africanisms in the Gullah dialect Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1971 "Problems confronting the investigator of Gullah", in: Wolfram Clarke (eds.), 1-15 Valdman, Albert (ed.) 1977 Pidgin and creole linguistics Bloomington, London: Indiana University Press Van Sertima, Ivan 1976 "My Gullah brother and I: exploration into a community's language and myth through its oral tradition", in: HarrisonTrabasso (eds.), 123-146 Vaughn-Cooke, Fay Boyd 1987 "Are black and white vernaculars diverging?", in: Fasold et al., 12-32, 67-70 Viereck, Wolfgang 1975 "Die Erforschung des Black English in den USA - Sinn und Unsinn", Grazer Linguistische Studien 1: 102-118 1978a "Afto-amerikanische Aspekte der Mobilität: 'Black English' eine kritische Auseinandersetzung", Amerikastudien 23: 330-340 1978b "Sprachliche Variation im Englischen und ihre Erforschung", Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik 45.2: 161-174 1979 "Social dialectology: a plea for more data", Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 11: 15-25 1980 "The dialect structure of British English: Lowman's evidence", English World-Wide 1.1: 25-44 1985 "On the origins and developments of American English", in: Fisiak (ed.) - Ahlqvist (concl.), 561-569 1988 "Invariant be in an unnoticed source of American Early Black English", American Speech 63.4: 291-303 1989 "A linguistic analysis of 'Early' American Black English", in: Udo Fries - Martin Heusser (eds.), Meaning and beyond Ernst Leisi zum 70 Geburtstag, Tübingen: Narr, 179-196 1991 "In need of more evidence on American Black English The ex-slave narratives revisited", Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 92: 247-262 References 319 Wakelin, Martyn F 1975 Language and history in Cornwall London, Beccles and Colchester: William Clowes & Sons 1986 The Southwest of England (Varieties of English Around the World, Text Series 5.) Amsterdam: Benjamins Weber, Claus 1984 "Some facts about 'Black English" spoken in the USA", Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität (Gesellschaftswissenschaftliche Reihe 33.) 4: 419-420 Weltens, B 1983 "Non-standard periphrastic in the dialects of South West Britain", Lore and Language 3.8: 56-64 Whinnom, Keith 1965 "Origin of the European-based Creoles and pidgins", Orbis 14.2: 509-527 Williams, Ronald 1976 "The anguish of definition: toward a new concept of blackness", in: Harrison - Trabasso (eds.), 9-24 Williamson, Juanita Virginia 1970 "Selected features of speech: black and white", in: [1971] Williamson - Burke (eds.), 496-507 Reprinted from CLA Journal 13 (1970): 420-423 Williamson, Juanita Virginia - Virginia M Burke (eds.) 1971 A various language Perspectives on American dialects New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Winford, Donald 1980 "The Creole situation in the context of sociolinguistic studies", in: Day (ed.), 51-76 1992 "Another look at the copula in Black English and Caribbean Creoles", American Speech 67.1: 21-60 Wolfram, Walter A 1969 A sociolinguistic description of Detroit Negro speech (Urban Language Series 5.) Washington D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics 1970 "Linguistic correlates of social differences in the Negro community", in: Alatis (ed.), 249-257 1971 "Black-white speech differences revisited", in: Wolfram - Clarke (eds.), 139-161 1974 "The relationship of white southern speech to Vernacular Black English", Language 50.3: 498-527 1979 "Landmark decision affects Black English speakers", The Linguistic Reporter 22.2: 1, 6-7 320 References 1982 "Language knowledge and other dialects", American Speech 57.1: 3-18 1987 "Are black and white vernaculars diverging?", in: Fasold et al., 40-48, 73, 74 1990 Review of Schneider 1989 and Butters 1989 American Speech 66.1: 121-133 Wolfram, Walter A - Nona H Clarke (eds.) 1971 Black-white speech relationships (Urban Language Series 7.) Washington D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics Wolfram, Walter A - Ralph W Fasold 1974 The study of social dialects in American English Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Woodson, Carter Godwin 1933 The mis-education of the Negro Washington D.C.: The Associated Publishers Inc Wright, Joseph (ed.) 1898-1905 English dialect dictionary vols London: Frowde Wyld, H C 1956 A history of modern colloquial English Oxford: Blackwell Yetman, Norman R 1967 "The background of the slave narrative collection", American Quarterly 19.3: 534-553 Index Accountability 142-143 Acculturation 5, 52 Acrolect 15, 139 Adverbs, temporal 68, 69, 71, 72 African languages 3, 5, 65, 90, 208 Age-grading 52, 95-96, 114, 191, 196, 202, 221 Ain't 119, 159, 174, 227, 229-238 emphatic character 235, 238 Alleyne, MervynC 1, 5, 65, 128, 208-209 Am, non-concord 36-37, 83, 190, 192-193 Analysis, linguistic computer-based 56-58 implicational 47-49 statistical Aspect vs aktionsart 122-125 Aspect, habitual in Black English 59, 63, 68-71, 73-74, 82, 85, 87-95, 97-100, 109, 118, 127-134, 138, 143, 149, 151 in Creoles 64-67, 85, 87-90, 119, 155-156 in Hiberno-English 75-77, 80, 83, 85-87, 90, 118-119 in other English dialects 81-84, 87-88, 119 Aspect, imperfective 93-94, 96 in Black English 70, 74, 91, 127-128, 136, 138 in Creoles 64-67, 90-91, 155, 209 Aspect, perfective in Black English 59, 68, 70-74, 92-93, 127-128, 136, 138, 156 in Creoles 65 in Hiberno-English 77, 83 Atlas records 8, 32 Bailey - Bassett 62, 117 Bailey - Maynor 124, 144, 146, 194 on conjugated öe-forms 181, 184, 188, 191-192, 195-196, 200-203, 216-219 on divergence hypothesis 92-96, 131 on invariant be 59, 73, 99-100, 108-109, 114, 118, 129-130, 138, 143, 147, 150, 152, 155, 159, 162 Basilect 15, 24, 52, 65-66, 85, 88-90, 95, 119, 139, 140, 164, 170, 193, 208-210, 230 Been/bin, remote perfective 59, 139-142, 171, 210 Be-forms: see present/past tense Z>e-forms importance of fie-forms, invariant 59, 105-109, 137-138, 264-283 aspectual meaning in HOODOO 126-132 and bei 143, 147-151, 162 "conjugated" variant 59, 101, 109-116, 121, 128 with different complements 93, 96, 110, 130-131, 151-158, 161 with different subjects 110-111, 113, 116, 147-150 and diffusion theory 84-92 and divergence hypothesis 92-96 and emphasis 134-136, 138 influence of clause types 157-162 322 Index language-external factors 106-107, 116 in literary dialects 73 methodology 142-147 origin of 62-63 possible Creole origin 63-74, 119, 134, 151, 155-157 possible dialect origin 74-84, 116, 118, 119, 131, 134, 150, 157-158 tenselessness 116-122 after wherever/whenever 132-134 will!would deletion 60-61, 68, 72, 94, 97-104, 105, 108, 117, 120, 142 subjunctive 105, 161-162 see also aspect Bernstein, Cynthia 109-116 Bickerton, Derek 193, 208 Black English aspect system 59, 64 meaning of the term 14-16 origin of 1, 2, 5, 6, 59, 62, 219, 221 subjunctive 69, 105, 161-162, 177 uniformity of 55-56 see also Creole theory, dialect theory, substratist hypothesis Black Power 13 Black-white speech relations 1-4, 6, 8, 15-16, 59-61, 63-64, 92-96, 109, 139-141, 150, 179, 192, 195-197, 200-201, 204-205, 219-221, 230 Brewer, Jeutonne P 33, 117, 118, 139-140, 151, 163, 165, 229, 230, 238 on WPA Ex-Slave Narratives 34-35, 192-193 on mechanical ex-slave recordings 42 Brinton, Laurel J 122-125, 127 Butters, Ronald R 129, 135, 161, 221, 222 on HOODOO informants 40 Cheshire, Jenny L 50, 229, 230, 232, 235-238 on vernacular 16-17 Clause types: see öe-forms, invariant Code switching 7, 52 Colonial lag 77 Complements: see öe-forms, invariant see present tense be\-forms Computers: see analysis Comrie, Bernard 123-124, 158 Constraints, sequential 137-138 Copula forms: see 6e-forms Copula, locative 89, 155-156 Corpus: see analysis Creole order 156, 209, 218-219 Creoles aspect markers 64-66, 139 continuum 47, 89, 151, 171-172, 222 influence on invariant be 62-68, 85-91, 119, 134, 151, 155-157 see also past/present tense Reforms Creole theory 1-2, 4, 52, 59, 63-74, 138 see also Creoles Data basis 8-9 for present study 2, 19-21, 46-47, 53 De/da 64, 66, 67, 68, 85, 88, 89, 90, 91, 139, 151, 155-156, 208209 origin of 65 Index Decreolization 4, 10, 63, 66-68, 85, 88-91, 138, 151, 167, 178, 179-180, 193-194, 208-209, 216, 219, 222 Dialect borrowing 7, 11 Dialect levelling 10, 75, 182, 202 Dialects, English diachronic development of öe-forms 81-83 influence on invariant be 80-85, 87-88, 90-92, 131, 134, 150, 157-158 see also past/present tense Z?e-forms Dialect theory 1, 2-3, 4, 52, 138 Diffusion theory 84-92 Dillard, Joey L 4, 7, 52, 64, 66, 74, 75, 91, 139, 172 on conjugated öe-forms 184, 227, 228-229 on invariant be 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 116, 125 Divergence hypothesis 1, 10, 63, 92-96, 131, 152, 155, 191-192, 196 Do, periphrastic 81, 84, 86, 87 Earlier Black English 53 corpora of 32, 189-194, 216 see also terminology Early Modern English 81, 82, 84, 87, 150, 162, 200-202, 203 Emphasis 77, 83, 88, 92, 134-136, 138, 150, 226, 235, 237-238 Ex-slave recordings, mechanical 32, 42-43, 189-191, 193, 194, 203, 216 Fasold, Ralph W 4, 8, 52, 114, 323 164 on atlas records 32 on black-white speech relations 16, 61, 174 on conjugated öe-forms 179-180, 195, 215 on invariant be, 68-69, 70, 97, 98, 99, 100, 106, 108, 116121, 124, 161 on terminology 17-18 Feagin, Crawford 165, 175, 189, 192, 195, 197, 200, 230-231, 235, 237 Frequency-of-occurrence adverbs 69, 73, 94, 98-100, 107-109 Gullah 3, 4, 5, 59, 87, 89, 91, 119, 155-156, 167-168, 171, 231 aspect markers 64-68, 139 Harris, Joel Chandler 31 Harris, John 168 on invariant be 85, 87, 88, 116, 118, 119 Herskovits, Melville Jean Hiberno-English 142 influence on invariant be 74-80, 83-92, 116, 118-119, 131 see also past/present tense Reforms Historical present 165 HOODOO informants 243-248 age structure 39-40, 53 social status 53-54, 55 HOODOO texts comparison with WPA Ex-Slave Narratives 37-39, 40-41 publication of 41-42 see also data basis Hybrid grammar 157 324 Index Hypercorrection 116-117, 120 Imperative 105, 115, 130 in HOODOO 101-104, 108 Informants 243-248 children 52 elderly speakers 10, 52 see also data basis Informant selection 51-55 Interview situation 21-26 Inversion 220-222, 227, 235 Krapp, George P 3, Labov, William 1, 7, 48, 51-52, 55, 144, 146, 164, 175, 210, 235 on black-white speech relations 61 on conjugated £e-forms 178, 180, 181, 188, 189, 191, 196, 197, 202, 204-206, 208, 215, 217, 219, 221, 222-223, 224, 226 on divergence hypothesis 92 on invariant be 71, 72, 73, 134, 142, 143, 147, 149, 162 on Observer's Paradox 21 on real time studies 47 on vernacular 16-17 Language change 10, 49, 52-53, 91 and HOODOO texts 46-47 study of apparent time 46-47, 93-95 study of real time changes 46-47, 96 see also decreolization and divergence hypothesis Language-external factors 2, 3, 5, 11, 49, 55, 75, 78, 82, 86-88, 90-93, 106-107, 113-114, 116, 182, 188, 194, 196, 229-230 Language-inherent factors 49, 94 Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States 32, 62, 109, 111, 113 Literary dialects 8, 31-32, 73-74, 80 Maynor, Natalie on ex-slave narratives 34, 35-36 McDavid, Raven I Jr 79, 229 on literary dialects 31 Mesolect 15, 66, 67, 85, 87-90, 119, 128, 155, 164, 178, 193, 208-210, 222 Methodology 7, 11, 164-167, 196, 203-207, 210 Milroy, Leslie 49, 50, 52 Montgomery, Michael 78, 200 on atlas records 32 on WPA Ex-Slave Narratives 37 Mufwene, Salikoko S 4, 67-68, 91, 125, 139, 157, 168, 170, 231, 241 on conjugated öe-forms 184-185, 205, 208, 209, 217-218 Myhill, John 124, 134, 144, 158159 Negation 229-238 and Creoles 230-231, 238 and dialects 230-231, 235, 238 negative concord 235 Neutralization, phonological 144- 145, 167, 169, 177 New Deal 33 Observer's Paradox 21 see also interview situation Origin of Black English: see Black English Index Oxford Concordance Program 56-58 Past tense öe-forms 163-177 absence of 167-174 contraction of 164-166 and Creoles 164, 167-172, 177 and dialects 164-165, 168-169, 172, 175, 177 was Iwere 174-177 see also positions, exposed Phonology influence on copula forms 206-207, 215 Pidgins 3-5, 45, 64, 72, 91 Plantation Creole 4-5, 8, 17, 180 Poplack - Sankoff 156, 183 on conjugated öe-forms 180, 209, 210, 219 on Samanä English 43, 44-45 Poplack - Tagliamonte 32, 113, 200, 203 Positions, exposed 57, 132-134, 145-146, 150-152, 174, 179180, 219-229 and Creoles 221-222, 226-227, 229 and Standard English/dialects 219-228 Present tense bex-forms 93-94, 129, 131-134, 136-138, 147-151 absence of 93-94, 96, 156, 178-180, 181, 183, 184-199, 202-203, 208-220, 222-229 and Creoles 178, 179-180, 184-185, 193-195, 197, 206, 208-211, 215-219 and dialects 178-179, 192, 195-197, 200-205, 215, 218 with different complements 325 185, 188, 205, 208-219 Labov vs straight deletion/ contraction 203-207 with different subjects 180-185, 197-203, 213-215, 219 in singular/plural contexts 185-197 see also positions, exposed Question marker 227-229 Questions 220, 221, 222, 227-229, 235-238 Rawick, George 33, 36 Recording techniques concerning HOODOO texts 26, 34 concerning WPA Ex-Slave Narratives 34-35 Relations, paradigmatic between bei and be2 143, 147151 Relexification 151, 155, 193, 208 Reliability, linguistic of HOODOO texts 26-30 of WPA Ex-Slave Narratives 34-37, 190-191 Rickford, John R 15, 53, 65, 76, 118, 139, 144,230 on conjugated öe-forms 188, 196, 202, 203-204, 206-207, 216 on diffusion theory 85-90 on divergence hypothesis 93, 96 on invariant be 59, 66, 67, 117, 119, 128, 151, 155-156 on mechanical ex-slave recordings 42-43 Romaine, Suzanne 50, 164, 203 326 Index Samanä English 32, 43-45, 200, 203, 216, 219 language change 44 origin of settlers 44-45 Scarcity of data 30, 33 Schneider, Edgar W 1, 5, 55, 114, 139, 166, 208-209, 229 on mechanical ex-slave recordings 42 on terminology 14, 15, 17 on WPA Ex-Slave Narratives 34, 35, 38, 40, 53, 164 Sea-Island Creole: see Gullah Segregation 92-93 Settlement history 78-80, 86-88, 90-91 -s inflection 112-116, 121, 200, 203 Slavery 4, 75, 82, 86 Smitherman, Geneva 13 Statistics: see analysis Stereotypes 31, 35, 37, 59, 151 Stewart, William A 4, 139, 167-168, 208, 226, 230 on terminology 13 on invariant be 63, 68, 72, 80 Style shifting 52, 54, 96 Substratist hypothesis Substratum 1, 65, 75, 78, 85, 90, 150, 208 Superstratum 65, 90, 150, 201 Tagging system 56-58, 249-263 Tense switching 165-167, 177 Tense system, relative 168, 170 Terminology, discussion of 11-18 African American 11, 13, 14 Afro-American 11, 12, 13 Black (English) 11-14, 17-18 Colored 12 Earlier Black English 17 Negro Dialect 13 (Nonstandard) Negro (English) 11-13, 15 Standard Black English 15 Vernacular 11, 16-17 Tests, statistical 9, 97 Transcription 27 Traugott, Elizabeth C 1, 55 on conjugated be-forras 179, 209 on invariant be 70, 71, 81-82, 87 on Standard Black English 15 Turner, Lorenzo D 3, 64, 65, 66, 208 Variability 7, 208, 210 Variables morpho-syntactic 50 syntactic 49-50 variants of 51 Variable theory 8, 47, 48-51 Variety, non-rhotic 189 Vernacular 26, 30 see also terminology Viereck, Wolfgang 10, 37, 41, 139 on HOODOO informants 39 on invariant be 67, 95, 110, 117, 120-121, 125, 127, 130, 161 Wherever/whenever and öe-forms 132-134 Will/would deletion 60-61, 68, 72, 94, 97-104, 105, 117, 120, 142 Wolfram, Walter A 6, 48, 52, 75, 80, 118, 144, 146, 151, 164 on black-white speech relations 60-61 on conjugated fte-forms 181, 188, 191, 195-196, 197, 205, 215-216, 218 on invariant be 69, 95-96, 106, 107, 142, 143 Index WPA Ex-Slave Narratives 23-24, 26, 32, 33-38, 53, 151, 190-194, 230 comparison with HOODOO 37-39, 40-41 327 .. .The Origin of American Black English W DE G Topics in English Linguistics 15 Editor Herman Wekker Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York The Origin of American Black English Ä?-Forms in the. .. On the basis of the HOODOO corpus I will investigate the diachronic development of de-forms in Black English, i.e conjugated and invariant forms of the copula The form of the Black English copula... 291), the subtleties of the Black English copula even "lead us right to the heart of the question of BEV's [Black English Vernacular's, T.E.] identity and its relationship to standard American English. "