I think that it is normal for African American to speak one way to school or work an then change there dialect when they return home. African American have their won way of connecting with each other. When I was growing up we use to call each other B. Not the profanity word, but literally the work B. It was just something we did. It is imperative that a person speaks proper when they are at home or at school because they are being judge by people that are in their surroundings. Speaking in a vernacular language create a bond. It allows the person that you are talking to understand you better. Speaking in proper in English when a person it outside of their home helps them gets accepted by the community. I m black and people always tell me that
Before he talked about African-American culture he first talked about French speaking people. Saying, “A Frenchman living in Paris speaks a subtly and crucially different language from that of the man living in Marseilles; neither sounds very much like a man living in Quebec; and they would all have great difficulty in apprehending what the man from Guadeloupe, or Martinique, is saying, to say nothing of the man from Senegal--although the"common" language of all these areas is French.”(Baldwin, paragraph 2). Explaining to readers that even though those people in each place speak French they are separated by their dialect. Making the point that speaking a certain dialect of a language ties you with that culture. Pointing the reader to accept or listen to African American expression of English. By giving this example about dialect, Baldwin wants to express that dialect is a way to separate cultures among people. He then talks about the African American “slang” and how it ties to the
1. As a writer who was also an anthropologist and a folklorist, Zora Neale Hurston studied
This marginalization is still prevalent today, as Black English is still overwhelmingly stigmatized and discredited in nearly all academic settings, particularly within American culture. Jordan’s demonstration that Black English is not given respect or afforded validity in academic and social settings still rings true today. Black English-speaking students see little to no representation of their language in the classroom, and are often actively discouraged from speaking the language of their community and of their upbringing. This suppression and delegitimization of a valid method of communication represents colonialist and white supremacist notions of language, social homogeneity, and latent institutional racism, and has negative, even dire, consequences for the students
In the essay if Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is? by James Baldwin and Mother Tongue by Amy Tan both shows idea of uses of slang and language in different context. In the essay if Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is? Baldwin states that how language has changed and evolved overtime, Baldwin describes how black English were used as white English, in civil rights movement where blacks were treated as slaves and the used slang language to communicate so that the whites won’t understand. This slang was taken from black language and now everyone uses to make the communication short. In the essay Mother Tongue Tan explains that how language could affect people from different culture. Tan states that how Asian students in America struggle in English. Tan also states that her mother is smart but she couldn’t communicate in English. Tan thinks that’s a big disadvantage for her mother and people coming from different countries cannot show their talent because of their weakness in communication.
Other times, however, it is more overt. People come up to me using slang and gestures typical of urban African-American youth, and expect me to reciprocate. It's gone so far as for white kids to think they can use the "n" word around me. This does more than make me angry, it makes me question my identity.
Africanisms in America are a highly surveyed topic for the black community. Joseph E. Holloway describes Africanisms as “those elements of culture found in the New World that are traceable to an African origin” (Holloway 2). I believe, that africanisms are the traditions and cultural behaviors of African Americans that resemble the some of the same traditions and cultures in Africa. Which makes you ponder about what current elements does our culture use that ties back to Africa. Which in fact there are several africanisms that still exist. African Americans have retained an essence of Africa in their speech, hair care, clothing, preparation of foods, and music by over centuries of separation from the Dark Continent.
Language in the South varies according to which area someone is in and what the person’s ethnic background is. Most white people that live in the South have a country draw in their accent or talk very proper. Most black people in the South talk using Ebonics or are really proper, but some do have a draw in their accent. The other ethnic groups talk in their native language or in English with a distinct accent associated with their ethnicity. If one is in Southern Louisiana their accent will be Cajun. The language in the South is alike in most places according to the person’s race except in Southern Louisiana.
All characters have their own dialect and their ways of speaking differ slightly" (Hansberry 40).They speak a real language of their community, a language that is unconventional. They speak a common dialect in the black communities (Hansberry 40).
Not only does this happen in the real world, but it also occurs in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, when Calpurnia talks to the people at her church differently than the way she talks with Scout and Jem. Scout and Jem go to church with Calpurnia (their “second mother”), but this church is mainly for the people of color--which Scout and Jem are not--but Calpurnia is. At church, Calpurnia is greeted by Lula, who starts to speak in a way that seemed strange to both Jem and Scout. The way that African Americans and white people spoke were different from each other, because the African American way of talking sounded more like “slang”, while the white people had a more “sophisticated” way of speaking. Lula and Calpurnia ended up talking to each other in their “slang,” which shook Scout because Calpurnia spoke “in tones [Scout] never heard her use”(135). Scouts reaction leads you to believe as if Calpurnia was speaking a whole different language--even though it’s in English-- but, it’s in a different pronunciation of words. Even though Calpurnia knows how to speak “better”, she doesnt because “folks dont like to have somebody around knowin’ more than they do,” (143). Calpurnia doesn’t need to show everyone at church that she can talk a different way, almost seeming better than the people at her church. She has a character that makes her seem on top of the people that she is
Ebonics, also known as Black English, is a nonstandard dialect spoken in many homes in the inner cities of America. This nonstandard language is often looked upon as low-class or lazy talk. This is not the case, however. Due to consistencies found in the dialect, there seems to be an order. It has been found that, when learning English, African-Americans adapted the language using some of the structure and rules of their own native tongue. This Black English has carried on through slavery and then freedom for hundreds of years. Although there is a coexistence of more than two dialects in our society, those in power forget the flexibility of our language and see no other way than the use of Standard English.
It must be noted that for the purpose of avoiding redundancy, the author has chosen to use the terms African-American and black synonymously to reference the culture, which...
This is robustly shown in the characters of Topsy and Sam. On page 87 Chapter 7 is a common example of Sam’s dialect. He is talking to Mr. Haley and says, “Wal, now, I hope mas’r’ll ‘scuse us tryin’ dat ar road.” He also says “bery” instead of “very” multitudinously throughout his appearances in the novel. Topsy is another character that is shown as highly uneducated. An example of speech is in Chapter 20 page 304. She is talking to Miss Ophelia and says, “I spect I grow’d. Don’t think nobody never made me.” “Grow’d” is not the right tense and there is a double negative in the second sentence. When people read this novel it illustrates African American’s poorly. That they are all savage like and unsuited to be part of a
Within the episodes mentioned above, and in nearly all episodes, the use of African American Vernacular English or AAVE can be heard. AAVE is defined as “is a variety dialect of American English, spoken by urban working-class African Americans and largely bi-dialectal middle-class African Americans” (Edwards). In “Strike,” you can hear Penny say “I been gettin’” and “Gimme dat” (S1 E2). The use of AAVE is important because it as a common form of speech for many African-Americans. Often criticized as just “made up” or just written off as improper english, AAVE is something that comes under fire from the white majority. For TPF to use it very regularly is important for children of color to hear that their culture is valid and theirs to use.
Individuality is what distinguishes someone from a group full of people of the same kind. There are many factors when it comes to individuality, but one of the most important is self-expression and the way a message is sent and received. Something that can make or break self-expression and the impact one might want to make is language. The way one uses their main and secondary language will be the main aspect that brings their ideas together. Language is what helps the audience understand certain distinctions in an argument and reasoning, as it displays one’s culture, simplicity, and how they can communicate with others of certain social backgrounds.
What is a Creole? The word Creole means many things to many people. It derives from the Latin word “Creare,” meaning “to beget” or “create.” The Webster dictionary says a Creole is a “white person descended from the French or Spanish settlers of Louisiana and the Gulf States and preserving their characteristic speech and culture.”