What Is Black English

This series allows us to gain a better understanding of Black English than was possible during, for example, the Ebonics controversy of 1996. Black English is a nonstandard dialect of English, with its own rules and complexities. It contains many features found in nonstandard English dialects of the United Kingdom, which slaves in America were exposed to in contact with settlers and indentured servants who spoke these varieties. Some have argued that Black English is an African language with English words, but this would make it a creole, and we can see that it does not have the traits of those languages. Rather, to the extent that it simplifies English a bit more than other dialects, Black English is lightly influenced by being created by adult learners—just as standard English itself was after the Viking invasions.

Before we proceed, we are now in a position to understand the nonstandard English dialect most immediate—and controversial—for Americans. Because of the widely covered Oakland School Board controversy in 1996, it is now best known as Ebonics. Linguists have called it Black English or, more technically, AfricanAmerican Vernacular English (AAVE).