The development of African American English /

This book focuses on one of the most persistent and controversial questions in modern sociolinguistics: the past and present development of African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Despite intense scrutiny of the historical and current development of AAVE, a number of issues remain unresolved. Mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wolfram, Walt, 1941-
Other Authors: Thomas, Erik R.
Format: eBook
Language:English
Language Notes:English.
Published: Oxford, U.K. ; Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Publishers, 2002.
Series:Language in society (Oxford, England) ; 31.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Description
Summary:This book focuses on one of the most persistent and controversial questions in modern sociolinguistics: the past and present development of African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Despite intense scrutiny of the historical and current development of AAVE, a number of issues remain unresolved. Most prominent among these is the development of African American English during the antebellum period and the trajectory of change in twentieth-century AAVE. This book addresses both of these issues by examining an unparalleled sociolinguistic situation involving a long-standing, isolated, biracial community situated in a distinctive dialect region of coastal North Carolina. This unique environment provides a venue for dealing with questions of localized dialect accommodation and ethnolinguistic distinctiveness in earlier African American English. The conclusions drawn challenge the Creolist, Anglicist, and neo-Anglicist positions with respect to the history of AAVE and offer insights into the development of African American speech in the twentieth century.
Physical Description:1 online resource (xv, 237 pages) : maps
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-231) and index.
ISBN:9780470690178
0470690178
9780470779903
047077990X
1281319686
9781281319685
9780631230878
0631230874
9786611319687
6611319689