Short description:

Language in African American Communities is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the language, culture, and sociohistorical contexts of African American communities. It will also benefit those with a general interest in language and culture, language and language users, and language and identity.

Long description:

Language in African American Communities is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the language, culture, and sociohistorical contexts of African American communities. It will also benefit those with a general interest in language and culture, language and language users, and language and identity. This book includes discussions of traditional and non-traditional topics regarding linguistic explorations of African American communities that include difficult conversations around race and racism. Language in African American Communities provides:

? an introduction to the sociolinguistic and paralinguistic aspects of language use in African American communities; sociocultural and historical contexts and development; notions about grammar and discourse; the significance of naming and the pall of race and racism in discussions and research of language variation and change;

? activities and discussion questions which invite readers to consider their own perspectives on language use in African American communities and how it manifests in their own lives and communities; and

? links to relevant videos, stories, music, and digital media that represent language use in African American communities.

Written in an approachable, conversational style that uses the author?s native African American (Women?s) Language, this book is aimed at college students and others with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics.

This is a splendid book, fully recognizing that language is a social, cultural, psychological, grammatical, homeland-based, and historical package. Language in African American Communities is brimming with the worldview, turns-of-phrase, and even the musical backdrop of our Blacktalk, which is permeated with the feelings, perspectives, and positionalities of its lifelong speakers. You can speak AAL grammatically, but that doesn?t mean you can Blacktalk. Sonja L. Lanehart in this book generously presents an introduction to Ebonics as a form of language, action, and social being.

No one is better qualified to write this book than Sonja Lanehart, the Queen of innovative research and publication on language in African American communities over the past two decades! I wish I were still teaching to take advantage of Sonja?s lively personal style, her professional insights and her thought-provoking questions following each chapter!

Table of Contents:

Contents

List of Tables and Figures

Acknowledgements

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for English in the Continental U.S.

Chapter 1: Talkin and Testifyin

Introduction: My Subjectivities and Positionalities

Name a Thing a Thing: About Definitions and Naming

What to Expect

Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry

References

Filmography

Discography

Digital Media

Chapter 2: A Seat at the Table: What Are You Bringing to the Table Before We Even Get Started?

Introduction: Real Talk

Linguistic Prejudice

Linguistic Shame and Denial

Linguistic Pride and Acceptance

Contradictions and All

What You?re Not Going to Do: Definitions, Naming, and Pet Peeves

To HEL?or HEC?and Back: The Messiness of Having the Army and the Navy

Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry

References

Filmography

Discography

Digital Media

Chapter 3: "Put Some Respeck on My Name!": Language and Uses of Identity in African American Communities

Introduction: How We Gon Play This?

Who Do People Say That I Am?

A Word on Ebonics

What Does It Feel Like to Be a Problem?

Say My Name!

Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry

References

Filmography

Digital Media

Chapter 4: "Where Your People From?:" Problematizing Origins and Development

Introduction: Controversial History, Development, and Contested Origins

The Deficit Hypothesis

(Neo?)Anglicist and (Neo?)Creolist Origins Hypotheses

Consensus Hypotheses: Substratist, Restructuralist, and Ecological

The Divergence/Convergence Hypothesis

My Conclusion: PeriodT!

Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry

References

Filmography

Discography

Chapter 5: What?s Good? A Concise Descriptivist Meta?Grammar of Language Use in African American Communities

Introduction: We Bout to Ride Up on This Elephant

Why Y?all so Interested in Language Use in African American Communities?

Patterns, Systems, and Structure, Oh My!

Lexical Level: Word Classes and Word Formation

Syntactic Level, Part 1: Verbal Markers

Syntactic Level, Part 2: From Multiple Negation to Patterns in Question Formation

Morphosyntactic Level: Inflections

Phonological Level

Speech Events, Discourse, Pragmatics, Nonverbal, and Paralinguistic Levels

Where Does This Leave Us?

Questions, Discussions, and Further Inquiry

References

Digital Media

Chapter 6: Where Your People At?: Regional and Geographic Variation

Introduction: A New Day Is Dawning

Gullah Geechee

Urban and Rural

CORAAL, et al.

From Regional to Social Variation

Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry

References

Filmography

Digital Media

Chapter 7: Where My Shawty?s At? Social and Gendered Variation

Introduction: It?s about to Be Lit Up in Here

Black American Sign Language, or Black ASL

Standards in Language Use in African American Communities

Middle?Class Language Use in African American Communities

African American Women?s Language, or AAWL

Hip Hop Nation Language, or HHNL

Sexuality and Gendered Identity in Language Use in African American Communities

Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry

References

Filmography

Discography

Digital Media

Chapter 8: This Is Why We Can?t Have Nice Things: Pop Culture, Social Media, and Digital Media

Introduction: Whatcha Know Good?

Afrofuturism and Ebonics

Ya Man, Steve Harvey: Blacktainment Extraordinaire

The Queen of Soul to Spoken Soul

Black Twitter and Language Use in African American Communities

Digital Media and the Performance of Language Use in African American Communities

I Refuse to Eat the Cake

Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry

References

Filmography

Discography

Digital Media

Chapter 9: It?s Not the Shoes, Bruh! You Black!: African American Language Use in AmeriKKKa?s Educational ApparatU.S.

Introduction: That?s the Way of the World

How and When We Enter White Educational Spaces ? and Some Definitions

We Ain?t Havin It!: Let?s Get on the Good Foot

We Come from a Remarkable People

The Research: Language and Linguistic Justice for Black Children

Language of Black America on Trial: The Ann Arbor "Black English" Trial and the Oakland Ebonics Controversy

As My Dad Would Say, "Stop Pussyfootin Roun the Issue:" Because Racism

Questions and Further Inquiry

References

Filmography

Discography

Digital Media

Chapter 10: "If You Don?t Know Me by Now ?"

Introduction: You Cain?t Do Wrong and Get By

Things I Didn?t Discuss that You Might Consider

Whatcha Know Good?: What I Hope You Did, Learned, and Hope to Do

Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry

References

Discography

Index