Black Vernacular English IS a Language
Presented
in EGL 380 on
I. Objective:
To introduce the subject, engage
the class considering text written in BVE, and encourage class to look at their
own preconceived notions (if there are any) of BVE and the English of wider
usage.
II. Materials:
III. Procedures:
1. Opening questions and explanations (10 minutes)
Reminder that they know what a marked feature is. (One that stands out prominently as
different from “standard” or expected usage. In English, this is often taken to
mean the one that looks unusual from the perspective of the language of wider
use (SE). For example, double negatives, ‘don’t’ instead of ‘doesn’t’ (she
don’t live here), and many of the other myth-rules of prescriptive grammar we
have all had hammered into our heads over the years.)
Unmarked features are everything
else – the language uses we take for granted in everyday speech and text.
And what is BVE?
In a December 22, 1996, article on
the controversy in the Oakland school district regarding the addition of Black
Vernacular English (BVE) to the official curriculum – not instead of but in addition to SE, The Washington Post noted that BVE is “also know as Ebonics, a term
combining ‘ebony’ and ‘phonics’.”
The Fourth edition of the American
Heritage Dictionary of the English Language says, “In the United States,
the term Black English usually refers to the everyday spoken varieties
of English used by African Americans, especially of the working class in urban
neighborhoods or rural communities. Linguists generally prefer the term African
American Vernacular English, although some use the term Ebonics,
which saw widespread use in the late 1990s. It is an error to suppose that
Black English is spoken by all African Americans regardless of their
background. In fact, the English spoken by African Americans is highly
varied—as varied as the English spoken by any other racial or ethnic group.”
2. Group Work (15 min)
We are doing something different
today so I need your cooperation. We will be working in small groups – count
off and relocate, TAs too.
Selection #1
“You wants to be keerful ‘bout who you
marry, Mis’ Starks. Dese
strange men runnin’ heyh tryin’ tu take advantage of yo’ condition.”
“Marry!”
Janie almost screamed. “Joe ain’t had time tuh git cold yet. Ah ain’t even give marryin’ de first
thought.”
“But
you will. You’se too young uh ‘
“Ah
hope not. Ah mean, at dis present time it don’t come befo’ me. Joe ain’t been dead two
months. Ain’t got settled down in his grave.
“Dats whut you say now, but two
months mo’ and you’ll sing another tune. Den you want tuh
be keerful. Womenfolks is easily taken advantage of. You know what tuh let none uh dese strag niggers dat’s settin’ round heah get de inside
track on yuh. They’s jes lak a pack uh hawgs, when dey see uh full
trough. Whut yuh needs is
uh man dat yuh done lived uhround and know all about tuh
sort of manage yo’ things fuh
yuh and generally do round.”
Jamie
jumped upon her feet. “Lawd, Ike Green, you’se uh case! Dis subjick you bringin’ up ain’t fit tuh be talked about at
all. Lemme go inside and help Hezekiah weigh up dat barrel uh sugar dat just come
in.” She rushed on inside the store and whispered to Hezekiah, “Ah’m gone tuh de house. Lemme know what dat ole
pee-de-bed is gone and Ah’ll be right back.”
Selection #2
King: If
I had a crew I could get paid. All you need is a crew with some heart and a
nose for the cash.
Peaches:
Banks is where the money is.
Johnny:
Naw. Bank money is too serious. The man comes down
hard for bank money. You need to find a getover where
nobody don’t care – you know what I mean. You cop from
somebody with a green card or an illegal and they don’t even report it.
…
Bolden:
So he turned me on to 2 cartons for 5 dollars each. I asked him how he copped
and he said he was in a robbery in a drugstore. I didn’t say no more because
all I wanted was the smokes.
Petrocelli: Did he tell you when the store was
robbed?
Bolden:
He said it just went down.
Petrocelli: And when did this conversation take
place?
Bolden:
The day before Christmas. I remember that because I gave a carton of cigarettes
to my moms as a present.
Selection #3
“So we
heading down the street and she’s boring us silly about what things cost and
what our parents make and how much goes for rent and how money ain’t divided up right in this country. And then she gets
to the part about we all poor and live in the slums,
which I don’t feature. And I’m ready to speak on that, but she steps out in the
street and hails two cabs just like that. … Don’t
nobody want to go for my plan, which is to jump out at the next light and run
off to the first bar-b-que we can find. Then the
driver tells us to get the hell out cause we there already. And the meter reads
eighty-five cents. And I’m stalling to figure out the tip and Sugar say give
him a dime. But then I decide he don’t need it as bad
as I do, so later for him. But then he tries to take off with Junebug foot still in the door so we talk about his mama
something ferocious. Then we check out that we on
3. Class Discussion (30 min total)
A. Open
with mini-lecture (5 min)
So, what’s wrong with BVE? Absolutely nothing. However, an
issue seems to arise when we as teachers, English majors, or self-proclaimed
grammar-mavens see something as marked that the speaker or writer experiences
as unmarked. The biggest problem that BVE speakers face is prejudice. Many
people, a disproportionate number of them English teachers, believe that BVE is
sub-standard English. In reality, BVE is just as legitimate as the English of
wider usage, however, due to this prejudice, and to the power, status, and
opportunity associated with what is commonly called standard English (and what
you just saw bordered on a religion with the prescriptivists),
there is a big push in the African American community to be bi-dialectical –
fluent in both Standard and Black Vernacular English.
Back in 1979, the famous and influential
American author James Baldwin published an article in the New Yorker in which
he said:
[Language] is the most vivid and
crucial key to identity: It reveals the private identity, and connects with, or
divorces one from the larger public, or communal identity…To open your mouth…is
(if I may use Black English) to ‘put your business on the street’” You have
confessed your parents, your youth, your school, your salary, your self-esteem
and, alas, your future.
One linguist calls the fact that people who speak BE are
most comfortable writing just as they speak and the alterations to so-called
standard writing that result, “cultural leftovers,“ likening them to “cultural
carry-overs,” the name social anthropologists use for things such as dress,
food, ritual, etc., people bring from their family heritage. These cultural
leftovers are “distinctive spoken features used by African Americans that are
left intact in written discourse.” She uses this phrase with a positive
connotation because, “flavors are often enhanced in leftovers.” These things,
which include the dialect issues you worked on as well as techniques such as
repetition, speaking directly to the reader, audience involvement, colloquial
expressions, emotional appeals, use of imagery and symbolism, and what has been
described as “a lively evangelical style” are generally devalued in the writing
of standard English, especially in what we know as academic writing.
The
B. Then
Group Presentations and discussion (20 min)
·
Have one member of each group read a paragraph or so from their original
text and another member read the same lines in their revised version.
·
Another spokesperson for the group should then briefly explain
what changes were made and why.
·
Cross-class
discussion
4. Packet Information
Review (25 min)
I saved this for last, just in case we run out of time,
because all the rest of the things we’ll talk about today are in your packet.
(All material in “packet information review” developed by Professor Patricia Belanoff for EGL 380.)
A. Phonology:
B. Morphology
§
3rd person
singular s and nominative plural s: the latter not lost unless redundant: He do that. He say that.
§
Lack of
standard agreement on some frequently used verbs: has/have, is/are/, was/were/, do/does.
§
The verb to be:
o
Deletion of
copula:
§
before adjectives: He nice; before expressions of location: sister
at home; with gon or gonna;
I gonna do it; before nouns: She the teacher who gave
me the good grade. It’s there when needed for the meaning however: She here, is
she?
o
Durative be:
§
He busy vs. He
be busy. Durative is for the habitual and repeated, when
the time of the action is stretched out. He be waiting
for me every night when I come home. This is different from saying He waitin’ for me right now. It would be ungrammatical to say:
He be waiting for me right now or He waitin’ for me every night. Durative be allows for a
contrast SAE doesn’t have: He be workin’ when de boss
come in. He workin’ when de boss come in. In the latter, he works only
when the boss is there
o
Durative:
§
She be sick. She be going. Negative:
She don’t be sick. She don’t
be going. What’s important is aspect, instead of tense.
o
Punctual:
§
She sick. She go. She going. Negative: She ain’t
sick. She ain’t going. She not going.
o
Perfective
(completed):
§
She done went. The negative of this is
unclear.
§
Different way
of handling what English-of-wider-use handles with the present perfect tense:
o
Been for past
action that has recently been completed where SAE would use have + been: He
been there before. BEV allows: Tony been seen at her house today but not Tony
been seen at her house yesterday. That would be: Tony was seen at her house
yesterday.
o
Been for
emphasis: She been there and He been gone a long time (but not if there are
other words for emphasis).
o
A future be: She be there later and She-ah (‘ll?)
be looking for you next week.
§
Use of be and
do in combination:
o
Do they be
playing all day = habitual
§
The boys do be
messing around a lot = emphasis
§
is often used
where E-W-U would use have/had:
o
Three months
the total time I’s spent goin’
to school. or The trees is all died.
§
The verb to do:
o
Past
participle done used in past constructions in place of have: I done finish my
work today.
o
Did is for
emphasis:
§
I done did my
hair=I have done my hair.
o
Done and been
can be used together:
§
He done been
gone all night or He been gone all night.
o
Possessive
deletion:
§
That is John’s
house becomes That John house.
o
Regular
past-tense marker often not expressed -ed is in the
deep structure.
o
Tendency
toward present tense.
C. Syntax
§
Negative:
o
He doesn’t
know anything: He don’t know nothing.
o
When verb
negated, something to nothing (anything)
o
somebody to
nobody (anybody)
o
some to none
(any)
o
I have
something for you to I don’t have
anything for you
o
I don’t have nottin’ for you.
o
I have some
here. to I don’t have any.
o
I don’t have
none.
o
Rule existed
in earlier period for all dialects of English.
§
Use of ain’t.
§
Movement of
negative auxiliary in front of subject:
o
Don’t nobody
say nothin’; ain’t no
little bug gonna git me
down!
§
Two or more in
a sentence:
o
all negative
equals positive:
§
Don’t nobody pay no attention to no nigger that ain crazy. (If you are a crazy nigger, you will get
attention.)
o
All negatives
plus one positive = negative:
§
Don’t nobody pay no attention to no nigger that’s crazy. (If you
are a crazy nigger, you will not get any attention.)
§
Combining
sentences:
o
My teacher
wanted to know something. She asked me, “Have you done your homework?” becomes:
My teacher asked me if I had done my homework
§
BEV: My
teacher asked did I do my homework?
o
I asked her a
question and Did she go? combines
to form “I asked her if she went (or had gone).”
§
BEV: I asked
her did she go.
§
Subject
doubling with pronoun:
o
“My son, he have a new car.” This is for emphasis (can say it without the
“he” also).
§
It sometimes
in place of there: It was a man once who lived on this corner.
Compare these two versions of the same biblical passage:
The
And the sister told
him, “Yeah, snake, I can eat of these trees, just not the tree of knowledge or
the Almighty said I’d be knocked off.”
And that bad old
serpent told the sister, “Nah, sister, he’s feeding you a line of bull. You
won’t die. The Almighty just knows that if you eat from the tree you’ll be
hipped to what’s going down.”
So the sister looked
back at the tree and saw that things looked righteous and she also wanted to be
hipped to what was going down, so she dug in and gave some to her old man to
eat.
And quick as a flash
they got hipped to the fact that they didn’t have on no clothes so they put
together some fig leaves for some appropriate threads. Soon they both heard the
voice of the Almighty walking ‘round in the garden, so they took to hiding from
the presence of the Almighty.”
Black Bible Chronicles, by P, K. McCary. (African-American Press, 1994)
Now the serpent was
more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not
eat of every tree in the garden?
And the woman said
unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees
of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, least
ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman,
Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods. .
. .
And when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a
tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did
eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
And the eyes of them
both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and they sewed fig leaves
together, and made themselves aprons.
And they heard the
voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees
of the garden.
The King James Bible, Genesis,
Chapter 3