AAVE - African American Vernacular English
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- čas přidán 18. 05. 2024
- This video is all about African American Vernacular English, the dialects of English historically spoken by Black Americans in the United States.
Special thanks to Lawrence Pittman who recorded the audio samples for this video. Check out his art on his Instagram page / challat_art . Additional thanks to Eunartha Bossamy for her ideas and feedback, as well Jamie Conner, Demetrii Wright, and Hasani Arnold for their feedback.
🚩 Special thanks to the following Champions who support Langfocus at / langfocus :
J Choi, Ali Mametraimov, AmateurTextualCriticism, Anjo Barnes, Auguste Fields, Bennett Seacrist, Bill Walderman, Brandon Gonzalez, Brian King, CFitz17, Clark Roth, Jacob Madsen, John Moffat, Karl-Erik Wångstedt, Kenny, Kirk Kirkpatrick, Leon Jiang, Marcelo Loureiro, Matthew Etter, Michael Arbagi, Michael Cuomo, Michael Regal, Nobbi Lampe-Strang, Paul Falstad, Rosalind Resnick, Ruben Sanchez Jr, ShadowCrossZero, Victoria Goh, Vincent David, W T, Walter Moore, Yamen Zein, Yuko Sunda, 19jks94, Abdullah Al-Kazaz, Adam Powell, Adam Vanderpluym, Admir Soko, Alan Corley, Alen, Alex Hanselka, Alexandre Smirnov, Ali Muhammed Alshehri, Alvin Quiñones, Andrew Transini, Andrew Woods, Anthony Kinread, Anthony Peter Swallow, Aous Mansouri, Ashley Dierolf, Avital Levant, Bartosz Czarnotta, Ben, Benn M, Brent Warner, Brian Begnoche, Brian Morton, Bruce Stark, Chelsea Boudreau, chris brown, Christian Langreiter, Christopher Lowell, contumaciousCulimancer, Daniel Young, Darek, David Eggleston, David LeCount, Dean Cary, Debbie Willow, Diane Young, DickyBoa, Dieter Raber, divad, Divadrax, Don Ross, Donald Tilley, Ed B, Ed Heard, Edward Wilson, Eren Parla, Eric Loewenthal, Evolyzer, Fabio Martini, fatimahl, Fawad Quraishi, G Bot, Grace Wagner, Greg Boyarko, Gregory Garecki, Guillermo Jimenez, Harry Kek, Henri Saussure, Herr K, Howard Clark, Hugh AULT, Ina Mwanda, J Yang, Jack Jackson, Jaidyn Workman, Jakub Krajňanský, James and Amanda Soderling, James Lillis, JAMES ORR, Jay Bernard, Jens Aksel Takle, JESUS FERNANDO MIRANDA BARBOSA, Jim Wink, JING LUO, JK Nair, JL Bumgarner, joanna jansen, John Hyaduck, Justin Faist, K M, Kirk Vistain, Klaw117, Konrad, Kristian Erickson, Krzysztof Dobrzanski, Kyle Ibarra, Kyle James, Laura Morland, Lee Dedmon, Leo Coyne, Leo Barudi, Lincoln Hutton, Lorraine Inez Lil, Louie dela Fuente, Luke Jensen, M.Aqeel Afzal, Mahmoud Hashemi, maiku, Margaret Langendorf, Maria Comninou,
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Main sources used for this video:
African American Vernacular English by Jack Sidnell . www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/lan...
Outline of AAVE Grammar by Jack Sidnell. cdt.org/wp-content/uploads/20...
Game done changed: A look at selected AAVE features in the TV series The Wire. By Joe Trotta & Oleg Bylahher.
Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America. ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena-by-ca...
Unstressed been: Past and Present in African American English
By Arthur K Spears
Englishes around the World: Studies in honour of Manfred Görlach. Volume 1 ...
edited by Edgar W. Schneider
American English Grammar: An Introduction
By Seth R. Katz
Introduction to Sociolinguistics by Ronald Wardhaugh, Janet M. Fuller page 46-49.
Music:
"Gisele Revisited" by South London HiFi.
Outro: "In Case You Forgot" by Otis McDonald.
Never have "ASS constructions" been explained in such a serious tone
I must admit that my reation was:
"ASS? LOL. I wonder what that stands for. Oh, it's actually the word ass!"
A whole-ass segment on it lol
It reminds me of a Finn chap called Ismo.
There's also dead-ass and head-ass.
Thomas Leo Lookin ass
You, a peasant: glutes workout
Me, an intellectual: ass construction
Finna hit the gym with my concrete mixer.
😂😂😂
Or, dorsal development, posterior assembly, etc.
Bitch, I died 🤣🤣🤣
AAVE should be taught in schools 🤔😁
"Standard English is clearly an important tool, but AAVE isnt inferior to it, it's simply DIFFERENT... as all dialects are." You betta preach, son! I be code switchin' like a mofo! 🤣 This video is yet another illustration of the uniqueness, expressiveness and creativity of our culture. Props to you. 👍🏾👏🏽💯
it is definitely inferior , it lacks proper vocabulary and was developed by illiterate ppl
@@danielcoyle8069 Grammar, phonetics, and syntax and structure aren't the same thing as vocabulary. Most American English speakers lack an expansive vocabulary. For example, the fact that you used the word "vocabulary" instead of all the other language structure words, means you yourself lack proper vocabulary.
No matter what people say, the reality is that not only are you guys very creative but your dialect has had massive influence across the world among youth. Here in Johannesburg South Africa, many people normally speak English how you do rather than standard English. In fact, your language is even taking us away from our Commonwealth kind of English to an extend.
@@siyabongamviko8872 It really is quite remarkable. Through the influence of media like rap, CZcamsrs and creators, and even just memes, even people where I live (a third-world country in Asia) tend to use a lot of expressions from, or even just entirely speak English sometimes leaning towards AAVE. It never ceases to amaze me.
@@danielcoyle8069 Would you mind describing what counts as "proper vocabulary"?
Wow. Love how he turned what many think is lazy, uneducated Black slang, into a lesson on language and dialects. As many said, it elevates the speakers significantly and mitigates much of the racism. The point is well taken when considering the countless varieties of most languages. Love the emphasis that where one lives, education, context, etc. really do play a part. He forgot the whole "ax" for "ask" thing--very common and something I would have liked to see covered. Great videos!!
Now I know what grammar mistakes I make listening to bad English or "Ebonics" in media.
Are you jewish?
@@alterego8496 It's not "bad English." That's literally the point of the video. It has it's own grammar structure. The only reason it's not respected is because of who speaks it.
@@deb1920EXACTLY❗️🤣
@alterego8496 It's literally a sub English. It's a real language that has actual meaning with the words, phrases, and sentence structures.
When he said "yo ass gone learn" 💀💀💀💀 I said "aw naw, why he just threaten us" 🤣🤣
I'm dead 💀
😁
he's a teacher after all lol
Dude i thought the same thing!
I dead thought the same thing
Never has ASS been explained with such scholarly precision.
ass....
@@azgrxy buttocks....
@@retsreinyrelgeinthrelaveri1456 y’all asses crazy asl
Im sure a proctologist would disagree
😂
As an American this is so informative. I wish this approach was used in school to teach us about how this dialect evolved. How refreshing.
In the 90s it was actually proposed in Oakland,CA that Ebonics as a Second Language be a part of the public school system curriculum. I was like 6 when this was proposed so I couldn't give a for sure answer to what was decided but having lived in Venice and being bilingual it really caught my interest.
Its just slang
@@Xxrocknrollgodway to ignore literally everything in the video 🤡
@MrYo888779 the video he literally goes over the entire process, of why it's evolved a bit farther than just slang.
Listen, I was not prepared for that voice actor but it's definitely appreciated 🤣
Never thought I'd see that day that AAVE would be acknowledged in such a positive light. I'm actually a bit embarrassed I just found out they've given it that name, but I really enjoyed this. I feel kinda cool now 😎
Paul should've started the video by saying, 'yo ass gon' learn today.'
@@ericv738 I agree with both of you lol. Would've been hilarious
It would’ve been funny, but everyone is too sensitive
Nicolas Russell luckily, most of us aren’t like you. 😘
Erin H what you talkin bout?
@@ericv738 Imagine being offended for someone else. 👌🏽
This is so funny to see as a black american myself. I never thought about these things. It's just natural. This video is so fascinating
I love Black Americans🇺🇸
@@bgl9935 tf?
Props for being able to about this without being all problematic
@@jamalrobinson8321 It was definitely interesting to have it explained in an academic sense
I just saw a post on Instagram and didn't even know this was a thing till now, and now I feel uncomfortable cuz they were tellin people not to talk like this if they aren't black and now idk what to do because I speak and write in a mix of aave and northern.
As an Asian who grew up in the California Bay Area, it was very common place for 2nd generation Asians to use AAVE. I think this has a lot to do with the Asian American communities and Black communities being located adjacent to each other (think Oakland or San Francisco). I've observed the same adoption of AAVE from Asians who grew up in Los Angeles. Very fascinating phenomenon.
Yeah in Norcal a lot of blacks share the same neighborhoods and have good relationships.
As a turtle sitting on a tortoise I agree with the Asian human
Wow, that’s cool to know.
You’re adopting AAVE bc it’s hip and fashionable, it’s not your culture or heritage.
asian americans speak a weird mix of standard english and aave, along with an asian accent (i'm asian american too)
Honestly, I'm not even American but this should be played and explained in American schools so that young people can differentiate the African-American dialect from slang and why it shouldn't be considered "broken english"
The White Conservative Christians in the US, think that if their White Children learn things like this, they will hate themselves and think they are no superior to all other races.
People should speak proper English, not bad English (AAVE)
@@michaelsunguro6530did you watch the video? Half brain little boy
@@michaelsunguro6530 This isn't 'bad English,' but rather its own dialect. This was very clearly stated in the video. It appears that not only are you not very knowledgeable on the subject of linguistics, but you also lack elementary listening and comprehension skills.
@@michaelsunguro6530 This isn't 'bad English,' but rather its own dialect. This distinction was made clear in the video. It seems that you might not be very familiar with the topic of linguistics, and you might also find some aspects of listening and comprehension challenging.
Homie who did the audio should narrate audiobooks
Hahahaahahaha
He did a damn good job
He sounds like CJ from GTA San Andreas
Word🙌🏾
I would love that
White suburbian high school boys- “Yeah I speak like this”
fr 😂😂
lmao there are people who do. It's not always inappropriate in the right context of course, but when it's just some kids trying to look cool amongst themselves or hell, even think that it somehow puts them in a sort of position of power, it's embarrassing.
Source: white boy who spent years around it in predominantly minority schools before moving to the burbs.
Better than Boston accent.
@@Taima as a white suburban boy my english has a lot of features from AAVE. But not because I want to sound cool. Its just the way I learned it and how it feels natural. Even if it puts white boys in a position of power speaking like this because they want to adopt the clishees tied to that speech.. wouldnt that fuck up a lot of old white supremacist that want their white youth to learn right and proper english or even better VATERLANDSSPRACHE DEUTSCH?
HA! Now if they said "I really do be talkin like that tho, fr, I even gon front. Yall seent me, talkin all ratchet n shit," I would probably believe it.
i’m white and grew up in an area in the south where there is a large population of black people, so my friend group has all kinds of people. and i noticed over time i started using some of these words and shifting my pronunciation a bit. it’s especially pronounced when i’m with my friends. i find that how we talk, in a way, has unified us as a friend group, and it enriches our conversation. i’m grateful to have people in my life to show me their culture and allow me to participate, as it’s educated me in that talking casually and expressively doesn’t make anyone less or unintelligent. it’s culture happening right in front of us, and it should be respected, because it’s american culture (:
That is called jargon, my homie
the last sentence… ehm
@@whoevr yes? what about it?
Not really American culture
I feel like you need to take a trip to West Africa and enjoy that culture all you want.
It never struck me until now how beautiful this variety is in its own way.
Ya'll this man really put together a whole ass lesson on how we talk and I'm genuinely impressed lol I ain't even realize it was structure to it. I thought we all just spoke like this lol. P.S I wrote that out exactly how I would say it. I'm normally the grammer police online. And now i cant stop saying PO-LEASE lmao i never realized we said it like that 😂
im actually country a little, but i dont write/txt how i talk
@@fashoaaron yea I never write how I talk. Some stuff just looks crazy written down lol
Speaking of Grammar Police, *Grammar.
When he said, he STAY runnin late for work, I felt that. There is no better way to write that sentence and feel that emphasis. Then I see your comment with the WHOLE ASS lesson. And you're right. This the most thorough run down of our dialect.
Whole ass the class in this one huh
He broke this all the way down. As a professional black person I code switch throughout my day. I must say, I’ve never thought about the details of my cultural vernacular
as a fellow professional black person, same lol
Dannie Doll It’s natural for us. After I watched this video I found myself noticing my speech lol
Professional black person😂 I’m dead
Jakobi Dye He meant professional as in being formal, not professional at being black😭
@@tacoengineer6660 ya but nah i laughed too - joke-obi-wan kenobi is on point
I’m Korean and I really respect AAVE. I’ve been familiar with the language with Hip-Hop influence. I’m now diggin jazz, Motown souls and other music genres. Now I can understand what old jazz musicians saying in the old interviews. Btw Big L once taught us what AAVE is in detail. RIP Big L.
What's weird is Korean tend to be the most anti black racist group of Asians.
Lol what you know about that 😂😂😂😂. Stop ✋️
I love this guys lessons! This is how you do things respectfully. I knew AAVE had structure and some of it actually mirrors west African senate version structure but this is the most thorough explanation I’ve heard and made me so proud to be AA.
Why everything thing got to be west African most enslave black people came from Angola 🇦🇴 and drc Congo and brought to USA in the southern and they were the one who created AAVE the name Called Gullah was the emerge of Black American English Gullah may refer to Angolan tribes that were brought to South Carolina.
"You done messed up A-A-ron."
Aaron earned an iron urn.
@@patrickscannell6370 eeeri uuur iiire uur
I'm a white Scots born Australian, my best mates son is Aaron, I just love to watch him curl up into a ball when I say A-A-Ron.
Normally Arron pronunciation here BTW.
BA-LA-KAY
DEE-nice
As an African American I can’t express how much I appreciate and flattered that you’ve done this video but for some reason I also feel exposed. 😂
Right! I’m black and I don’t know whether to share this with my black friends and laugh, or get mad because I feel exposed 😄😄😄
Why would you feel exposed? More sharing of a wonderful culture is a good thing!
I’m white Australian but strangely I do understand your feeling. It’sa bit like the feeling you get when you’re a kid who uses coded or secret language amongst your friends suddenly hears those words in the mouth of an adult. I can only say we need more of this, proper explanation of what the world really is rather than politicised and prejudiced crap about people who talk and think differently has gotta be a good thing, right?
@@erstenamefamiliename7988 people have been told for a VERY long time that AAVE was something illegitimate, it was something to be ashamed of, it was a sign of black inferiority. Many blacks believed it too. Even though the intellectual class insisited that AAVE had merit, many blacks are very aware of the public image of AAVE speakers. Videos like this expose blacks to the fact that they ALLOWED themselves and culture to be needlesslay shamed and it makes them wish they had fought harder against those negative stereotypes and believed in and valued their culture more.
Hunter Tyler Blanton now I have to go back to HU and study ASS CONSTRUCTIONS cause ma’ ass didn’t learnt a dam thang. Hahahaha
As a non English speaking native, I was always so confused when I watched black movies when I was young.
But I grew up understanding all the dialects and it's super easy for me to understand black slang with so much ease.
It’s similar for a lot of native speakers. They have trouble understanding it until they get enough exposure to it. I’ve been hearing it on tv and in music since I was a little kid, so I rarely have trouble understanding it.
Same here and don't forget black cartoons
This isn’t black “slang”, it’s a dialect
Definitely sending this to my Jamaican boyfriend. He struggles and misinterpret my words when I’m speaking. I learned I must only speak clear standard English when in conversation with him or there will be a complete misunderstanding. He does not understand my southeastern AAVE at all! You have to also keep in mind the tone and pitch of voice in how we speak. “Im good,” can mean 10 different things depending on the the context, tone, and pitch of voice. My boyfriend who is from Jamaica is still trying to understand what I meant when I said, “ You got me all the way fucked up” years ago. He doesn’t understand the “all the way” part. Lmao
Man the list goes on and it’s stressful trying to break things down like this to him. I told him he put his foot in the last meal he cooked and he almost passed out from humiliation not knowing that’s the ultimate praise. Thanks for this video.
Lol
I'm Jamaican and I can understand y'all so idk how he can't understand y'all
the black man's voiceover is cracking me up. 😂 his voice is so smooth and deep
Girl yes I was not expecting that either
Dude should do voiceover work
@@bakang8929 he should!!
Same, I was not expecting it.
@@yosoydiamond Especially smooth and deep in contrast to Paul's!
"Man I ain't tryna hear all that."
White dad translation-
"I have no interest in hearing what you are saying."
His translation took me down 😂
@@Okra_winfrey that’s the part that SLAUGHTERED me
@@raymondmorton9366 OK?! I threw my remote and CACKLED.
Lol
"I don't want to hear it"
Also why we replace “TH” with a “D” is because of our ancestors. A lot of African languages don’t use the “TH”. Also why Jamaicans say “Brudda” instead of Brother or “Ting” instead of Thing. It’s second hand for us considering our African roots.
Rashad, you meant wst african languages because the eNguni ones , many DO use Th and T-H separately too. this particular AAVE is relatable because within african languages we do have our own brand of shortened and unnofficial vernicular and it translates well with AAVE . This is the reason why i keep saying black people NEEEEEED to learn african languages
Do these black American and Caribbean dialects pronounce TH and D identically, or do they pronounce TH as a dental plosive (instead of the dental fricative of Standard English) and D as an alveolar plosive, maintaining a distinction in the same way as Irish English?
Damn your right like when we say "Dat" which is funny because actually in Dutch "Dat" is "That" so either this was on accident or someone got inspiration from the Dutch either one is still fascinating to me
Only around 7% of the world's languages have the dental fricative (th) sound in them. Unfortunately, one of them is English, which forces much of the world to learn a sound that they absolutely hate (and I don't use that word lightly; English learners often tell me that the "th" sound makes them want to pull their hair out). This is why so many dialects in English itself drop the "th"
@@GCarty80 i am not black or carribean so i cant swear anything but its been 9 months and noones answered you so i will ig. as far as i know tho, they just merge them. /θ/ -> /t/ , /ð/ -> /d/ , unlike, as far as i know, irish which does keep them distinct as dental plosives
It's pretty dope seeing just how influential AAVE is to the English language. It's become so cemented into everyday American speech that we don't even notice it that much anymore. I'm calling it now, the "habitual be" and "habitual stay" will only get more popular because of how good they convey so many things at once.
I love how English is constantly evolving, and the people influencing the language the most are of African decent.
The way Paul says "gonna" is absolutely hilarious
🤷♂️🤟🏻🤟🏻🤟🏻
@@Langfocus 👍
“Goe-nah”
I love Paul's accent, has a certain charm to it.
@Anonymous bro you are not even subbed to him at The point you wrote this
Photonic Pizza What kind of accent does Paul have? I know he’s Canadian but I don’t recognize the specific region.
As an African American who speaks, what we call, "proper," this video had me in tears. Much appreciated. As a lover of linguistics, it was always annoying to have to explain why the way that some speak English is not inherently bad English. You broke it down well. Happy 4th of july! 😅
Brooo 🤣🤣🤣
As a white guy that grew up fairly working class and spent plenty of time around Detroit and now Chicago this was almost surreal to watch. Its like watching a news cast treating the US like we treat other countries on the news. Like i never consciously thought about code switching as a white dude but honestly happens almost every time i walk out the door
@ z Ed; Technically, all forms of American speech, dialect and spellings are bastardised version of "proper" English originating from the UK, whether you're Black, Asian, Latino or white American, and these groups choose/chose to deviate for the same reasons; to establish autonomy and simplicity.
The standard dialect in China is Mandarin, yet provinces such as Hong Kong and Guangzhou speak Cantonese, which deviates slightly from standard Chinese, but there's no right or wrong and likewise all Americans should relate and refer to their form of English in the same manner as the Chinese do and realise that there's no hierarchy amongst Americans when it comes to English language and anyone who tries to besmirch or mock Ebonics as inferior are hypocritical and deluded.
@@richbarrett6380 Some nonstandard English features, in both AAVE and other dialects and in Shakespeare, go back hundreds of years and have appeared repeatedly in different dialects over the centuries. It's like English has some undercurrent tendancies that aren't reflected in the standard language. Some of them also exist in other Germanic languages or other Indo-European languages. "Ain't" is from centuries-ago England. Double negatives were standard English a few centuries ago. The language and these tendencies are a great millenium-long epic in itself, which makes the standard languages invented in the 1800s seems small in comparison. The standard languages are still worthwhile, but there's another story that isn't being told much. David Crystal the linguist has done the most this past fifty years to tell parts of the underlying story in his videos and books. He also documents how English is changing now, in both majority-English and minority-English countries.
AndresOMEGA21; Yeah, I'm guessing also that one of Noah Webster's motivation to create an "American English" language was predicated on establishing America as a solo identity, independent from Britain.
Likewise, during the fight for independence in South America against the Spanish, Simon Bolivar became the George Washington of his nation by defeating his nemesis, but he was only able to conquer and defeat the Spaniards with the help of Creoles, Indigenous peoples, ex slaves and his fellow countrymen, resulting in a mixture of tongues still prevalent in the modern day.
This guy is so clear when he explain the difference between Standard and Dialects....I keep watching his videos and I learnt something every time... Keep up the good work...
AAVE has evolved over the years and now every state has its own version of AAVE or slang
Hurray...🙄👎
salty lmfao
@@ems3832
I really appreciate this video! As an African-American who doesn’t speak in AAVE, I often am treated differently as if I’m “one of the good ones.” In the US, there’s this conception that black people who speak AAVE are unsophisticated and uneducated when in reality they just speak a different dialectic that has it’s own rules.
Exactly. 👍🏻
Same. I’ve been complimented on my speech so many times at job interviews. I thought it was any ol’ compliment the first time it happened, but now I just think it’s offensive.
For me, the code switching is real. I grew up around it, but was also taught that it was the wrong way to speak. So it really just depends on who I'm speaking to.
I feel like every middle class American is made fun of if he doesn’t speak AAVE lol
Which dialectic? Hegelian? 😂😂😂
In AAVE, you can repeat a word back to back in a sentence as an adjective or adverb to stress that word.
Example 1: He's very fast!(Standard Am. English) He's fast fast! (AAVE)
Example 2: He's running quickly! (Standard Am. English) He's runnin' runnin'!(AAVE).
You may not know how much asian this is
@@ynntari2775 You mean Malay? :D I know it is a Malay thing.
@@Angelotube5000 No, he means Asian. Something similar happens in Chinese for example.
Reduplication is the term. Not common in western languages as far as I know but is common in Asia.
Honestly, we do that in Fargoese (i.e. North Midwest) as well, and it can be used with nouns too. However, it's rarely used without appearing as a clarification to an early statement:
Me: Honey, I need my jacket!
Hubby: *holds up coat* This one?
Me: No, my jacket jacket.
Also see, "Tie it tight, but not tight tight." and "Fancy, but not fancy fancy."
I'm around AAVE at work and this makes it even more interesting than it already it is. Thank you for making this.
I love your channel and I’ve been watching them for awhile now, though I’m late I’m very happy to see you cover a language from my culture. It’s so refreshing to see someone treat AAVE with so much respect.
Being AA you naturally learn to code switch. I could tell when my mom was on the phone with someone important vs her sisters 😂. Now that I am older I notice my self doing it all the time.
@Adrianna Lopez yes haha the most important people hear AAVE, the "others" hear standard English. If I speak SE with you, you're at arm's length and I do not trust you 😂
So i am white but some most of this is how I was raised talking at home. But i don't understand why I was told by teachers to change my speech. Which it almost faded away but when I went to my grandparents house it always returns. Can anyone explain why I spoke this as a 3-12 without knowing.
There's a time and place for every thing my mom would say.
@@daemiannixon1228 🤡🤡🧑🏿🦱🌚
@@musicesperantoandtokipona64 Were you around people that spoke this way? Did you watch and listen to people who spoke this way through TV, music, literature. Those can be reasons why
"AAVE is not broken Standard English. It's simply not Standard English. It's something else."
Automatic like for that.
For some reason English is not allowed to have linguistic dialects; which is ridiculous imo. I'm glad he called it what it is.
ok libtard
@Árpád the English language is a mess of inconsistencies, so I think it's silly to worry about its integrity.
AAVE clearly has defined rules of use, it's certainly an evolving dialect, as is Southern US Dialect, or Scottish, but I'd argue even more then those since it has more grammatical rules.
Also, to say it's broken English is silly as hell, since we all speak broken English compared to our Victorian counterpart.
@Árpád you’re saying having people talk ‘black’ is going to rot western society? Check what your saying bro. Just because it’s white doesn’t mean it’s right. AAVE is a dialect, and trying to exclude it from being a dialect and saying it’s just “broken English” proves your motives. You don’t think black people can have their own dialect, cuz I don’t see you complaining about others dialects.
@Árpád I love Mark Twain, Edger A Poe and Shakespeare (though that's a different, extinct type of English) etc, but I don't think they'll go extinct since dialects rarely replace other completely; especially now that English has become an untethered international language.
You're senselessly worrying about nothing, and I'm afraid opposition will only fuel your paranoid determinism. And even if language does somehow change, it is what it is. We wouldn't even be speaking English if languages didn't change and adapt.
This video is amazing! I was told years ago by a professor of linguistics, that AAVE is a legitimate language.
Your professor is wrong
@@leoborrosYour opinion is based on what exactly? I was actually raised with the same opinion, as someone who is not a linguist. I asked that professor was "Ebonics" a legitimate language, and he went on to mention some of the same things mentioned in this video.
In both cases "talking stupid" is not a language 😊
@@leoborros The (American) English you think is "the" correct English was just one random dialect that was chosen as the standard. Other dialects, such as AAVE, are not illegitimate just because they were not randomly chosen as the universal variety.
It's not a language, it's a dialect. There is less difference, than say between Scots and English.
As a Somali American, I was raised in a diverse neighborhood and did pickup standard and AAVE or Ebonics. My siblings and I code switch and have added our own somali twist to both lol. In professionally settings we used standard English or what some of my friends call “white English” and at home, especially with my siblings it’s a mix of standard, AAVE, and somali English 😂. Like humans mix, so do languages. It can be a beautiful thing, if people allow it to be.
Somilians gone have to pick a side.
I’m so glad he got a voice actor for the examples because I would not be able to watch the host say these sentences seriously lmaoo
He always uses audios of native speakers in every language he's covering
I first heard of "AAVE" today and when I looked it up, this was the video that popped up. I was NOT prepared for the voice actor but loved it 🤣
@@blue.orangeade 😆💀😆💀LMAOOOOO
Funny how most black folk are ‘bi-dialectical’ (if that’s a word)-they can usually slip in and out of AAVE as the situation demands. But it would be culturally taboo for a while person to try to speak in a full AAVE dialect, especially with their black friends
@@SuperManning11 that is a word, and it is taboo because it has become a symbol of oppression; as said in the video, people often thing AAVE is broken English and that idea is used to reinforce existing prejudices. That’s why it’s inappropriate, the relationship with white people’s prejudice and AAVE is so intertwined that they are inseparable. It is inappropriate for non-native white AAVE speakers to try to speak it because it is so often used as an offense.
As a black linguistics student, I love this so much. In general, all black vernacular, dialects, pidgins, creoles, etc, have always been gaslighted into the ground by everyone else. It’s refreshing to see how we are finally coming around to give it credence in its own right. One of the issues in the community right now is that of how black Americans culture is globally appropriated, so it’s nice to have mentioned that so much of the current “slang” are words being borrowed from a people who have always felt so unseen.
Well said
Watching this it now seems so obvious AAVE is an English dialect but I agree it is not seen as such
It's a weird phenomenon. Black culture is disproportionally incredibly popular domestically, and worldwide, but black people are still treated as lesser. It's really weird in that an oppressed group is so influential culturally.
Probably that was also the case when vulgar Latin became a new language after a while - the name says it all :)
@@MiklosHajma Exactly
It’s interesting to hear about this from a language expert, who looks for similarities instead of differences.
I live in South Carolina. Was born and raised here. AAVE is predominant in my area, as well as various depths of Gullah. Many native South Carolinians, black and white frequently lapse into speaking Gullah amongst ourselves. It’s a beautiful language, I wish it was more widely spoken. It’s difficult for some to understand but ya natives have no problems. AAVE speakers need to keep their vernacular alive and going for sure. It’s part of who we all are. It saddens me to think of all the Gullah and Geechie storytellers who have died - and their families didn’t keep the stories alive.
Yup!!
Same I am also in SC!
They could have it back. It's not ours we just waa using it
This illustrates the point that linguists study how people use language, while teachers of rhetoric discuss how language ought to be used.
I studied Speech Communication and my Rhetoric professor said rhetorics is the art of persuasion. The most important part is knowing what your audience believes and taking them one step at a time that to what you want them to believe. (If you believe A, you can believe B. If you believe B, you can believe C.) Beautiful language style was another part, but the fascination with outdated classical forms died out a few centuries ago, and it was mainly the grammarians rather than the rhetoricians that insisted on a rigid prescriptivist style.
There was a conscious effort in the 18th to the early 19th centuries to shoehorn English into Latin norms, even though it's a different language family with a different grammatical syntax. That's where the proscriptions against double negatives, "ain't", ending a sentence with a preposition, split infinitives, etc, came from. They also introduced "inkhorn words": gratuitous Latin and Greek borrowings that didn't fill a semantic gap in English. And they inserted silent "b" and "s" in words like "debt" and "island" believing those words were derived from Latin when they were actually derived from different Germanic and Celtic words that never had a "b" or "s".
You could liken linguistics to science and rhetoric to engineering
I respect that so much. It's less arrogant than people saying we are simply talking wrong.
Its important for everyone to speak the same language though, thats how people groups and nations are born and created; not by ethnicity as much, but by how we communicate
@@drethethinker6418 its hard not to see people as different if they communicate different, as a northerner the whole southern dialect is pretty hard for me to understand and they do sound rather uneducated, regardless of race.
Most people don't even realize AAVE has some pretty strict rules in terms of structure and composition.
Periodt. All languages do. The funny thing about languages is that they often want to break them... replacing them with others XD
@@julystargaryen9452 eh, swiss-german dialects don't really tend to follow any rules. you can place any word almost anywhere in a sentence, and we're not too strict with pronunciation, either. my brother tends to speak in a different way, compared to me, and we grew up in the same household. mind you, he's not much younger than me (3yrs), so there's no real generational gap, unlike with our youngest brother and us (10/7yrs).
@@masterman1001 There's no such thing as a dialect "not following any rules". I'm pretty sure you can't utter gibberish and call it Swiss German, or just switch words around randomly and still get the message across. Rules dialect language and every is governed fledged full by.
@@masterman1001 Languages and dialects with "free" word order still have marked and unmarked word orders. You can place any word almost anywhere in a sentence, but it won't mean quite the same. You'll be introducing subtle nuances, emphasizing this or that element of your sentence, etc.
@@sem5263 you appear to misunderstand. Of course I was being rather dramatic when I stated there were "no rules whatsoever". It generally follows rules similar to german when it comes to basic sentence structure, it's usually an SVO language (*Ich* *gehe* nach *Hause*/*I* *gang* *Heim*/I'm going home), although some tenses, like in german, are structured in an SOV way (*Ich werde* nach *Hause* *gehen*/*I* *wird* *Heimgoh*/I'll go home). That said, swiss german may or may not use the first future tense (Futur I) and just use the same regular present tense (Präsens), in which case both "I'm going home" as well as "I'll go home" are the exact same sentence, in which case context is necessary to gauge whether or not you're speaking in a present or future tense.
About the pronunciation, it's usually the case that, since we don't have a standardised version of our "language/dialect", pretty much anyone tends to speak in whichever way they please. I'm the only one in my family to pronounce the word "cheese" (chääs) as "kääs", whereas some relatives of mine pronounce it "kees", and my brother pronounces it as it "should" be pronounced, at least for a central swiss dialect.
That said, we're from Basel, where people usually speak with a "High Alemannic" dialect, whereas the rest of Switzerland is comprised of "Highest Alemannic" speakers.
Either way, you're certainly correct, there are some underlying rules as to how things *should* be pronounced, based on the dialect, but most speakers don't appear to be following many of these rules. Speakers of "Baseldytsch" *should* pronounce the umlaut *Ü* like an *Y* (more on the german *i* side of things, rather than an actual, proper *Ü*), they *should* generally pronounce a Swiss German *CH* with a *K*, and their *E*s should be stretched out more, but that just doesn't seem to be how they roll.
this video is gold, a lot of my african american vernacular speech is subconscious, almost as if it’s second nature to speak as such. this video enlightened my speech from throughout my life, that i wasn’t aware of, and it’s beautiful!
This was really great. I find AAVE to be rich and interesting but so often discussions of it are so racist and disrespectful that they're intolerable. I really appreciate how you approached this topic. I learned a lot and think it'll do people some good to see it analyzed without condescension.
I can say that as a black person we turn a phase into a single word. Like, "I don't know" to "iouno" or "I'm going to leave" to "imago". I never noticed how much I do this compared to standard American English. It's crazy to think there are rules to it but there are.
Invisible grammar rules that we all are kind of brought into
Ok AAVE and Australian English Slang have a lot in common lol
@@ilijaan that sounds cool lol ima start saying using that when i talk
@@ilijaan As an ndn myself, this is hilariously true, especially when visiting family on the rez.
My favorite variation of this as a person from Baltimore, when ordering chicken boxes we say saltpepperkatchup 😩🤣
Paul: "Yo' ass" replaces "yourself".
Me: (Getting Domics flashbacks)
Yess
"When your ass is kicked, all of you is kicked. Your ass is you."
Mother, Father, Sister, and Brother. Mova, fava, Susta, Brova (sometimes pronounced breva.)
Lmfaoooo
@@YNGVIRTUOSOVIOLIST "Yo mama... " ;)
English is my second language. Whenever I heard someone talk in AAVE, I sensed it was different, but it's so heavily context-dependent, that I always understood it. Couldn't quite put my finger on its peculiarities though. Absolutely love Paul's approach to variants of standard english, so refreshing and lively. The complete opposite of what a dinosaur of a devout studier of "correct english" would say. Big OP to you man!
Would never imagine that out of all the videos that I have watched on this channel, I'd be most interested in one about my own language in a variety of it that I'm very familiar with. A very well done video, I wish everyone would watch this. It'd hopefully better the views of a lot of people
the dude reading AAVE sounds like he's getting his belly rubbed after eating 2lbs of honey
🤣 🤣
R/oddlyspecific
Lmfao why did you put it into words better than I could have
😂😂😂😂😂
😂🤣🤣
I feel dumb. I never thought we had "rules" to AAVE. He broke our language down and it makes sense 😭😭😭
@Rain Smith 3 separate comments... You're being weird sir!
@Rain Smith I m dying cuz I don’t know if you’re legitimately mad or not.
@Rain Smith you can’t have everything black people have… go take a chill pill babe
It's a dialect not a language. There were no conscious rules .
@Pinky...that's true for my dialect of English too. I can't imagine what it must be like for folks to learn English when we can't even explain how it works. I'm 53. years old and this year I learned about adjective order, which I still can't explain to you but which makes "the large green expensive Japanese car" correct and "the Japanese green large expensive car" seem nonsensical. imagine being Chinese or Indonesian and having to learn the rule that makes that work?
I use AAVE unconsciously a lot, like it's so normal for me I rarely ever realize. Crazy to think how much African Americans have affected our daily speech. Wish you all the best, thanks for making this world brighter
I truly appreciate this Paul. Thanks so much.
As a student of linguistics, a polyglot, and a speaker of a dialect influenced by Standard English, AAVE, and Bahamian Creole, I cannot express what a surreal experience it was for me to watch this video.....in particular the juxtaposition of the linguistic analysis in Standard English with the examples in AAVE was trippy as hell!
How is Bahamian Creole¿ I learned a bit of Haitian Creole some 15 years ago. 70% of its vocabulary is French-based and the rest mainly West-African, so as a fluent French speaker, I can kind of understand easy written texts. Grammar is more heavily influenced by West-African origins, but has become fully isolating without any conjugation or declension (as most Creoles). Unfortunately, the course was discontinued after half a year.
As a Swede, I grew up learning English from Fresh Prince and Black adder (I know, a strange mixture of dialects and sociolects), and this feels like a part of my English heritage! :-P
Angels Joker, Bahamian Creole is English vocab + grammar from West African languages (+ some vocab from West African languages) based Creole......I think it is more intelligible for English-speakers than Jamaican Patois and other English based creoles,.....but then again I am biased 😉
How awesome!
@@laurenazalea Nice. I'd like to hear how it sounds :)
I remember taking a introduction to linguistics elective my second semester at a large US university with ~4% black population. I was literally one of maybe 4 black students in a 100-200 seat lecture hall. I always found linguists cool, but I'd never heard AAVE brought up in an academic setting. I was SHOCKED hearing the professor discuss it. Not that we needed academic "legitimacy" but it was so refreshing hearing a white professor tell white students that black people aren't ignorant, we follow the same rules of linguistics everyone else does. They were all gasping and shocked at the patterns. Even as a STEM major it was one of my favorite classes.
Thanks for educating people. 👏🏾
Reading this makes me feel you're just your skin color and nothing more. Do you even have any personality?
@@pbj4184 stfu
@@pbj4184 So, you didn't read the comment, then.
@@pbj4184 He's talking about a certain ethnic aspect of his being that is innate, which has shaped his life socially and linguistically because it is part of a certain little something called identity. It's interesting, and you're on a channel which where people share that kind of interest. How is that a bad/good thing objectively? It "annoys" you... why? Plus who are you to know that's all he talks about? You know him in real life?
Really I don't get people who think like this... Like, if you're black you can't talk about anything related to being black, not even from time to time? If you're chinese, you can't talk about your time living in shanghai, or about how you came to a new country to study something and were glad to meet a community of international students, including chinese students, which helped you integrate yourself better? Aware this is probly just a troll but who cares, To anyone reading this imma just lay out some truth: if someone else talking about his culture or social experiences in relation with his ethnicity "annoys" you, ask yourself if it really is that that person is truly annoying, or have you integrated that whole "ugh anything culture or social analysis related is boring because the masses say it's "laaaaame" and X youtuber said so"? You might just as well be willfully ignorant about a certain aspect of life, mainly the vast array of different cultures that exist and how much interesting info about language, sociology, anthropology or even geography are you missing out on by only interesting yourself in "my culture", never learning by opening yourself up to listening to other's experiences? If your answer to that is "it's part of my freedom", well sure, it's part of your freedom also to jump out a window or to drink 40 monster energy drinks in a row and die of a heart attack. There is freedom for everyone to be a dumbass and say dumb shit, which is FUN from time to time, don't get me wrong... But all the time? Why be the kind of person who never learns anything about the world and is proud of that? It's disheartening, and quite sad to be honest.
Life ain't just about "pragmatism", "confort zone" and preserving everything as it was 1000 years ago, that would be fucking boring and frankly not constructive for the kind of interconnected society we live in today. Progress is not a bad thing, otherwise there would be no vaccines and we would all still have 30% chance of dying of polio everyday. Everything constantly evolves in hundreds of different new ramifications, it's not merely a natural law but it also applies to humanities and socially oriented matters, including language. Ever read Darwin's evolution of the species? It's never "the strongest and oldest and biggest survive", it's "those who ADAPT the best and rapidly to new situational habitats" survive. Sure there is a utility for grammatically traditional formulations in certain contexts of academic publishing, however there is nothing to support that forms of patois, creole, or other Sociolects are grammatically incorrect or that "they shouldn't be used", say in literature, spoken word, musically, creatively, in life, hell, even in Shakespeare there is PLENTY of it. Please read :
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register_(sociolinguistics)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolect
I studied Anglistics in Germany for a couple Semesters and AAVE was also used in the introduction to make clear that Languages aren't "right" or "wrong" but that Prestige usually decides what we consider as such.
FANTASTIC WORK!!! he nailed it as usual! this dude knows his stuff. i have seen him do this one several other languages that I speak and understand fluently, like patois and creole and he is 100% on point! very interesting as usual. his breakdowns are super accurate. good job again
I'd love to see a video on Appalachian English. It's similar to AAVE but with slight differences. It's really underappreciated.
I was going to say the same thing. I’m from KY. I’m glad he mentioned it in the video that the AAVE is an amalgamation of the English they heard from the white people in the South (usually Irish or Scottish) and Creoles. Alot of people wrongly assumed for a long time that AAVE came from the African continent.
Appalachan dialect is incredible. I definitely wanna see a video on that too!
Appalachian here. I agree. Plus, there are plenty of black Appalachians -- maybe some cool crossovers will appear!
I dont know why this was so funny to me. I was prepared to be insulted but this is surprisingly educational. As a black woman from the south who can speak this as well as standard American english we simply call it code switching. But listening to this done as an actual teaching is surprisingly impressive. I think I learned something lol
The guy's channel is pretty solid.
He looks at linguistics from a very scientific perspective; and also without respect to culture or biases; as a rule.
In looking at how Latin evolved into Spanish, German evolved into both Yiddish and modern English; the only rule is that languages continue to evolve constantly. :)
And yes; Paul saying "yo ass" was objectively hilarious. :)
@@brymht without respect? wdym
It's almost bilingual
@@papasscooperiaworker3649 Not respect as in treating it with dignity, but respect as in attention. Essentially "without respect to culture or biases" meaning that he is not concerned with and does not consider the biases that cultures hold, not that he necessary respects/disrespects them.
He does a really good job diving in and finding local speakers for all the languages he researches, learns, and talks about.
Middle schoolers trying to be 'gangsta': *Write that down*
Also add the middle schoolers trying to act "sassy".
“Gangsta” originated with first generation Italian Americans in the Al Capone era 1920’s. It’s roots are not AAVE.
@@longbeach7623 Ik, but most middle schoolers think it is.
@OMG HAX fair enough.
@@longbeach7623 I think instead of gangsta what they meant to say is they’re trying to sound cool since rap music is very popular today but back then it was referred as a “ghetto slang” as they try to degrade our expressions as it was originated in the American slums/hoods
Man you broke this all the way down. Very professionally. I never have given much thought about the way i speak as a dialect. This was done very tasetfully.
I’m not African American so I’m not sure how much I can speak on this, but still I think it’s nice to see education on AAVE! I heard people who used it were often told it was “improper” and I can definitely believe that with both the way that there’s a lot of discrimination out there and the way I was taught to speak in school, one of my teachers took things too literally I think and it honestly didn’t help.
Nice video, quite interesting and informative !!
So much of AAVE is a part of casual American English that we forget its origin, and it loses (much of) it’s stigma. And that just highlights how arbitrary the bias against it really is.
2ManyLayersOfIrony so, you’re just here to start shit, right? That kind of ignorant talk shows that it doesn’t matter how you say something, it’s about what you choose to say. Deeming something “uncultured” when it’s a completely different from YOUR culture to begin with baffles me. YOUR bias is as uncivilized as it is crass.
Evan B bro he’s trolling. Come on man, it’s obvious.
2ManyLayersOfIrony Ok royalty 🙄😂
@Matty Bruno Lucas Zenere Salas Sooo...you didn't actually watch the video then? Or you're just using bastardization imprecisely? Because that's not what the message was up top.
Cultural inertia.
AAVE speaker here, I use AAVE 99% of the time, the only occasions I use Standard English is when I’m in formal situations, such as a job interview, or when speaking to those who don’t speak AAVE; anytime other than that I speak AAVE, I use it mostly with my friends and siblings
How difficult is it for you to switch to standard English. Like do you stumble somtimes or forget words or use words from your dialect by mistake?
Yeah, code switching -- Paul should tackle this in a future video.
@@misanthropicmusings4596 I believe he has. Hasn't he?
Carlos Garcia Switching between the two is pretty effortless, I feel like maybe sometimes I slip up and use words/phrases from my dialect, but it’s rarely anything major that they won’t understand
+Carlos Garcia It’s not difficult whatsoever
This is quite interesting. Yesterday I stumbled on a few linguist videos of accents across the US. And in good old YT fashion they suggested this. It's amazing cause I haven't thought this much about how me and my folks speak. It's spot on!!!
@@trek98597 what's your point?
Kudos once more, Paul. Helpful resource. Your authenticity adds power to your presentation
This is the first scientific analysis I've ever come across on the African American dialects. Good job for taking this seriously and not just dismiss it as "bad english" as so many people now.
Those people are obviously racist
I dont think anyone serious about language dismisses it as bad English, just those with a limited understanding of English. Many words in my dialect which normally end in ED instead end in a T. Learnt instead of learned for example. Ive had people try and correct me on that even though its common throughout the UK. Ive notice Americans trying to correct Canadians on the pronunciation of iron, thinking the R is dropped. Its not even dropped out of every American accent, nor around the world. But limited experience leads many to believe that many words, phrases, and grammar, all have standard rules to follow. And they dont know the many exceptions to these rules.
@@nicosmind3 learnt isn't simply "common" in the UK, it's the "standard" way of saying/spelling.
Some people (like Webster) tried to remove exceptions/change orthography/simplify the language.
some stayed (like -ed for all the verbs, color instead of colour, etc.) whilst some didn't (wimmen instead of women).
Even the UK had that kind of "unification", when they drop "holp" as the past tense of "help" to go with "helped".
A channel by the name of Xidnaf also did a video on it a few years ago
@God Bless The Internet I don't know where you're getting it from that people don't say that about those groups. They definitely do.
The most famous AAVE word internationally is probably "cool" in the context of something being impressive. Don't think many people know of it's AAVE origin.
Yeah, I think it made its way into standard English via jazz music. Now people say it all over the world.
@@Langfocus I believe it indeed has its origins in small jazz clubs in Harlem, if I'm not mistaken. The clubs would often get hot and stuffy, and so they'd have to open the windows to let the "cool" air in. I think that's how it became associated with jazz music and thus black culture.
Black jazz musicians also came up with the phrase "put your hands together for".
English and I think all languages evolves to fit the people using it.
"Cool" is indeed international. Here in Austria, "kühl" means "cool" in the sense of temperature, but "cool" means, well, "cool".
I had no idea. I learned sum'tin
Thank you so much for this. It is so important.
this is a remarkably informative vid. well done man!
The black guy speaking here has a good voice.
Yes he does
He sounds like he's trying to be all gangsta
Stereotypical
😂🤣🤣☺
Prabhanjan Sahoo or thats just how he speaks.
Living in the USA I quickly learned that AAVE itself is in fact a whole group of dialects. The speech in New Orleans was very different from Baltimore.
"Aaron earned an iron urn" is a famous Baltimore AAVE tongue twister
ern ernd n ern ern!
@@erentoraman2663 haha, rrn rnd a rrn rrn
haha im from baltimore 😆
Lol FACTS
New orleans dialect has significant influence from louisiana french and louisiana creole, and kinda ranges from actual aave to creole or cajun english which is it’s own dialect entirely separate from aave and extremely common in louisiana along with the french and creole that influenced em
This video is just amazing. So complete, so interesting. Simply incredible. Thank youuu
There's something very seductive and charming about AAVE, I mean...I'm not a native speaker, and I was taught the standard version of English. However, there's something about a person who speaks AAVE that makes the language flow effortlessly and smoothly...that takes it to another level and it's amazing!!
That they all sound like snoop dog
@@tayebizem3749 not necessarily like Snoop, but like the man in the recordings of this video, for instance.
@@tayebizem3749we all don't sound like snoop, southern aave is actually hella different
15:33 "There's nothing that makes a dialect incorrect" THIS applies to ALL languages, thank you
"A language is a dialect with an army and a navy"
Except when I write wrong answers on my English papers, I get 0 in grammar. AAVE is dumb English. Not because of any 'Africans are inferior' bullshit, but because it doesn't follow the rules of correct English. I don't see how race is involved in this when the question is whether AAVE is objectively correct or wrong
@@pbj4184 there is no objectively correct form of English. There are standard Englishes (dialects which receive no social stigma) and vernacular Englishes (dialects which do). Just because AAVE isn't a standard English does not mean it's incorrect, it's just a different dialect than is generally appropriate for academia (for a variety of social and historical reasons)
@@jojbenedoot7459 Then you too agree AAVE is not suitable for proper settings. Why might that be so?....🤔
It might have something to do with the general uneducatedness of it
@@pbj4184 well, no, it has to do with the fact that the people who decide which dialects are "proper" are not the people who speak AAVE
We also use the word 'whole' to emphasize the extent to which something exists. Ex. "He has a whole wife, and he literally tried to flirt with me". "He played your whole life. How's that feel?"
Look at you, a whole ass woman, explaining AAVE.
@@TheDarkAdventure 😂😂
As a non native English speaker this is the first time I came across the phrase "He has a whole wife", and if you hadn't explained it, I would have known what it meant. Thanks
@@julian-xy7gh Glad it helped!
@@julian-xy7gh Oh yeah, reading that made me realize how odd that must sound to foreigners 😂 I mean, what else could she be but a whole person? You can't marry half a woman after all.
Very interesting, objective and unbiased presentation. Excellent, I enjoy your videos and learn a lot from them.
This is my favorite video you've ever done!
The funny part, we immediately pick up when non blacks are attempting to use it. (Uber drivers attempt to switch to AAVE and change the radio to trap music n shit when they see you’re black)... it’s subtle, but we all notice it.
That sh*t annoys me.
Speaking from experience, it’s at least partially subconscious (sometimes I catch myself doing it and try to switch back so I don’t weird people out)
@@NoxaClimaxX Yeah I do it subconsciously too. I think it's natural to switch your communication style in attempt to make other people feel more familiar and comfortable.
Makes sense, since the rules of AAVE are fairly intricate as this video explains, and you can’t just interject common AAVE phrases and expect to be convincing.
I'm white but Russian so AAVE is closer to my native grammar than Standard English. Easier to speak.
Another one is how we repeat a word to emphasize its importance. "How is the weather today?" "it is hot, hot".
Kudjoe Adkins-Battle most english accents do that, its not exclusive to aave
@@longdogman True, like Micky Flanagan's bit on going "out out"
Basque also does that. As a non native English speaker that's a fun detail, thanks.
Definitely... He missed that one 'fa' sho' lol
That's used in the Caribbean.
I’ve been watching some of your other videos on pidgin/creole languages, and this video helped me understand those more in depth (how verb tenses change/simplify in the creole language, the addition of ‘setting markers’ before a verb to indicate tense). Additionally, as a Native (white) American English speaker who understands most AAVE ‘naturally’ I never realized how different it is to Standard English the history behind it! So cool how most Americans today (not raised speaking it) understand the nuances of AAVE without even thinking about it.
*disclaimer: I know AAVE is neither a pidgin or a creole language, but it does share some certain elements these languages typically contain. I watched your Papiamento video recently but didn’t understand a lot of the creolized parts until watching this!
This video is really informative, thank you! As a french native speaker studying afro american history, AAVE has always been a version of english i could not quite well understand (same feeling as for swiss german or french creole) But now i have the bases to understand it much better! Thank you!
*SOME OTHER KEY AAVE FEATURES:*
*Immediate future tense " 'bout ta"* (about to), which is more immediate than "gon' " or "finna" ("Yo, I'm 'bout ta buy me some smoove-ass sneakers wit' this money right here.")
*Use of adjectives as adverbs,* without the -ly suffix: ("You got to say it loud. Ain't nobody hear you when you speakin' quiet.")
*Versatile use of "on" to indicate connection to, investment in, or the importance of something* : ("I'm on some Ilhan Omar shit, she be speakin' dat truth to power." "Yo, on the real, where your head at son?" "Yo I got twenny on that." [I'm betting / contributing twenty to something I have a stake in] "I'm on my New York shit." [indicating embodiment of / connection to New York City culture] "On God, I ain't never once mess around on my boo." [both "God" and "my boo" come after "on"])
*Unique adverbs that communicate nuances of intensity not available in standard English.* Two examples are: "Straight" emphasizing sureness or definitiveness ("I straight TOLD you not to fuck wit them punk-ass kids!" "She over that sucka, she straight left his ass"), and "All" signaling contempt or mockery of another's actions ("Trump all like 'Mexico gon' pay for the wall', now how the hell dat 'posed to work?" "These fake-ass rappers be all 'money money gold chains' like they God's gift to hip hop or some shit"). "Mad" also is used like "very" ("I was mad scared when I heard the news") as well as non-adverbially when meaning "a lot" ("Mad people been had enough of the police, we ain't takin' it no mo'.")
*Other attitudinal cues not available in standard English:* "How [pronoun] gonna ..." signaling incredulousness or contempt ("How you gonna disrespect your momma like that?"). "Come up in" signaling intrusion or less obvious disrespect ("Them bougy folk come up in here like we 'posed to kiss they feet or somethin'.") "Lemme find out" signaling angry or playful suspicion ("Lemme find out you been usin' my curlin' iron when I ain't here!") and many others.
*Use of present tense instead of past for telling a story* ("Dude come up in my yard and I'm thinkin', 'fuck he about?' So I'm like, 'ey, what you need?' And he be like 'nah, dat barbecue smell good tho, lemme get a rib for my boy'.")
I could probably think of more, but ... I gots to go to bed! :-)
"Bout ta" and "Finna" are regional. I am from Richmond, Virginia. We say "bout to". While my family from NC says "Finna".
I don't think the use of present tense for telling a story is exclusive to AAVE
Wig Snatcher many parts of AAVE aren’t exclusive to it, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t aspects of the dialect. Like he said at the start of the video, AAVE to standard English is a spectrum.
As an African American its so funny seeing people studying this 💀💀
@@mistynights2834 I'm a Russian who likes to think he can speak English, and I find AAVE fascinating. It's vivid, expressive and hilarious ♥ ♥
Great video!
Thank you for debunking the idea that AAVE is just lazy English. Years ago a coworker here (in the Pacific Northwest of the US) was ragging on southern US dialects, saying it was just lazy English. I asked her to think of a time when was feeling lazy and asked her if she miraculously started speaking in a southern dialect. That shut her up. It's not lazy. It's just different.
It's there too
You're missing one important point: There's a difference between speaking a dialect and coming up with one, or rather, facilitating or participating in its inception. People can CHOOSE to make the effort, just as they can choose not to.
as a southerner, i think there may be a LITTLE bit of truth to our accent sounding lazy. we do tend to only half pronounce a lot of words and run words together to save time. and i'd say talk slower in general. the south really is more laid back, and it shows in our dialect. it's not necessarily lazy, it's just that life in the south runs at a slower pace in general. it's the opposite of the rat race mentality in big cities like NY. it's kinda fascinating that our culture, lifestyle, and general pace is reflected so heavily in our dialect. i wonder if it's the same in other countries? like i wonder if more rural areas of other countries have the same tendencies ?
@@Anvilshock 100% i grew up in the south, but always hated the accent, so i made a conscious effort to never use it.
I like the southern accent
Big thanks to this video! It aids me in communicating with a lot of my new friends!
As a black person from a large city and an English major, I love analyzing the way we talk. Even though I’m of course used to it, it’s low key fascinating to see someone from the outside break our language down
This dude is a certified hood professor. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I know right.
lol
Not to try over step here but associating aave to hood and such, does not help fight the negative connotations that this dialect has. He’s just a simple linguist explaining a dialect:)
As a Creole speaker growing up in South Florida with a bachelor’s in linguistics, I did a presentation on this very topic in college and found your same observations. In my presentation I compared the grammar of AAVE to Haitian Creole and found many similarities! Great video!
That sounds very interesting!! Haha i learned French in school, so I was always annoyed that I couldn't understand Haitian Creole well. Coming from a Jamaican Patois speaking family, I really wonder what types of parallels there would be~ haha. If you know some good sources, feel free to pass them on! I know what I'm gonna do today now haha
That's really cool. Do you have your info published somewhere?
I love AAVE and almost never switch out of it. I did great in nyc real estate and Corp sales without code switching.
I love Haitian Kreyol and am struggling to learn it. Black language is just so juicy! 🥰
@@TheAndrewPR93 agreed would love to read it!
Many creoles around the world have similar grammatical features even though they evolved in isolation and their parent languages don't have these features. Lingua Franca Nova, a constructed language, borrowed some of these creole grammatical features. I don't recognize any of these in AAVE so I'm curious what similarites it has to Hatian Creole.
I’m very impressed on how serious you dealt with this subject.
I never knew.
Awesome video bro. You touched on alot of things many of us want to people to understand.
I’m from Brooklyn, not an African-American. We actually say these words a lot! Especially when we’re talking to friends. It’s crazy to think how much the African-American community affected our daily speech.
As a black American it's crazy to hear SO many non blacks speak it but don't acknowledge, realize or will even deny it came from us, while telling us we never created nothing....this is equal to cultural appropriation. This comes from a accepted and common belief amongst all non blacks, whether that belief is conscious or subconscious, that black people are useless and, therefore, can not be the progenitors of anything. This is VERY traumatic and problematic for black Americans.
This video is a real conversation starter and eye opener. I'm glad you were able to learn something from it.
@@diamondgodisis5367 PERIOD! I’ve been saying for years how aave, although never knew the name for it, is literally a different form of language and if anything shows that we are intelligent enough to be able to distinguish between two different dialect curriculums. And easily switch between them. Its like being bilingual.
@@onyxcrescent64 just came across the term myself....never heard of it! That's actually something to question now that I think about it cuz they sure made ebonics well known, why wouldn't they do the same for AAVE? 🤔🙄😳🤯
@@diamondgodisis5367 because ebonics is more derogatory and insulting. Its literal translation would just mean “black sounds” its more of an animalistic description if you ask me and racist. So ofc theyd accept that term more. Anything to degrade black people unknowingly
I have a white boss that frequently tries to speak in AAVE to "lighten" the mood or seem more "relatable". Don't let his ass see this PLEASE! Lmao. This is an excellent video and broke AAVE all the way down. Great job, Langfocus!
Is your boss possibly named Michael Scott?
you can be my boss if you want 😕
Oh god, that has to be cringy for you.
In college I worked at Target, and I'm a black dude with dreds. The amount of middle-aged white soccer moms that tried to act like they were "down" when speaking to me was hilarious. One even asked me if I knew where "score" some weed. I was like ma'am, that is inappropriate. She won't bout to get me hemmed up.
White people can be super funny sometimes.
@@Fermion. so can black people
@@johnjohntv1195 Um sure we can. But MY story was about white suburban soccer moms.
Lowkey was hoping he'd do the examples himself but i respect the professionalism in outsourcing the task 🤣
This is amazing!
Brooo, I’m black and I never knew “co-sign” was original to AAVE.
There’s the original standard usage of co-signing a contract, but the usage of co-signing a person (ie. vouching for them) is from AAVE.
@@Langfocus cool. there were a bunch of other grammatical aspects of aave that you pointed out that I never even noticed.
@@Langfocus LoLoL I was going to take you to task for this mistake as co-sign is an obvious financial term. Also never expected you to reply to older videos
I never knew “finna” was a contraction! I mean I figured it came from somewhere but couldn’t figure it out.
bro me neither and im black too
I remember my English teacher called me out for saying, “I been finished my work”. He told me to correct the sentence but I had no idea how to correct it. I got an attitude with him and that got me in trouble so he called my mom. So I’ll always be triggered by using “been”.
Teachers in the US really should be introduced to AAVE and understand its main features. The things they say to kids can affect their beliefs and decisions forever. Even if they want to have you speak Standard English at school, they could say “That’s totally normal in everyday speech, but people in other communities speak a little differently, so at school we want to use Standard English”. It’s a small thing for a teacher to say, but it could make a big difference in the way children view themselves and their speech.
Langfocus yeah! I wish he said that. I’m traumatized still 😂
Tyree, that happened to me with "be." I don't remember exactly what I said but it was the habitual be (we be playing) and my teacher told me to correct myself I had no idea what she meant lol. Aloose is also a word in AAVE that got me into trouble in elementary school. I was in HS before I realized aloose isn't even a word lol.
LaRue1212 😂😂😂 omg. Oh how we’ve learned
I’m just gonna say it: your teacher was wrong and you were right. How much better if he’d known the fascinating grammar and structure of AAVE and something about code switching, and been able to say something like, “Can you express that idea in Standard/Generalized American English? No, that’s right, it’s very hard to concisely express because SE/GAE doesn’t have a good way to express a concept like ‘been.’ Let’s talk about these grammars and ideas as a class!” Also, for anyone in a similar situation, the *technically* correct but deeply frustrating way to reframe “I been finished my work,” is “Oh, professor, one has long finished one’s work and moved on to silent contemplation of one’s future assignments!” You’ll still end up in the principal’s office but your teacher will look like the ass he is.
What a great video. I love content like this
to start this off, i LOVED this video! as a black american who code switches bt aave, non-formal standard english, and standard english, this was super interesting to watch. to answer the question, i use aave pretty often in my every day speech however i use it almost consistently & exclusively when i’m telling stories (wild things that i come across or happen to me in a day). esp if i want to keep the other person engaged bc aave has so many more verb tenses that help establish the chronological order and also show how long the events lasted. like you mentioned, it also has emphatic structures that inherently express how serious or ridiculous something was without needing more words. also it’s common to start a phrase in a story “now why would *rest of sentence*” or “tell me why…” tldr: story-telling in aave is more fun as the speaker and as the listener