African American Vernacular English



African American Vernacular English is a dialect or sociolect spoken in the United States. It is sometimes considered as a creole or sometimes even a separate language. It is spoken by many African Americans, European Americans, and even some Hispanics or Asians in the US are able to speak it. Another name for African American Vernacular English is Ebonics, AAVE, or Black American English.

AAVE has been spoken since the arrival of African slaves, it has used in the Hip-Hop culture. African American Vernacular English gets some of its grammar and words from many African words such as the Wolof word "Dig" which means understand. The Wolof word "Dig" derives from the Serer word "Ndigil" which means truth in the Serer language. Some of its grammar comes from Southern American English and Gullah. There is also Black American Language. Like AAVE, it has some differences from Standard English. The spelling of AAVE could be confusing, but it is a very easy to learn this creole, dialect, language, or sociolect.

Contents
Introduction
 * 1) About AAVE
 * 2) /Pronunciation/
 * 3) Why study AAVE?
 * 4) /Greetings/

/Grammar/
 * /Verbs/
 * Copula
 * Aspect
 * /Quoting/

Links
AAVE on Wikipedia

African American Portal

AAVE Tips

College page on AAVE

A collection of AAVE links