african american culture and dialect

African-American culture is rooted in _____ and _____ africa

west and central africa

Understanding its identity within the culture of the United States, it is, in the anthropological sense, conscious of its origins as largely a blend of ______ and ________ cultures

West and Central African cultures

Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of African- Americans to practice their original cultural traditions, many______, _____, and ______survived, and over time _______and/or ______ with European cultures and other cultures such as that of Native Americans

practices, values and beliefs; modified and/or blended

_________ and _______ were a significant part of African Americans' ancestral culture

Elaborate rituals and ceremonies

In the beginning of the eighteenth century _______ began to spread across North Africa; this shift in religion began displacing ___________________

Christianity; traditional African spiritual practices

The enslaved Africans brought this ________________ within their culture to America

complex religious dynamic

For many years African-American ______ and _______ developed separately from European-American culture, both because of _____ and the persistence of ______________ in America, as well as African-American slave descendants' desire to create and maintain ____________

culture and dialects; slavery; racial discrimination; their own traditions.

The legacy of the African-American oral tradition manifests in diverse forms. example?

African-American preachers tend to perform rather than simply speak.

The emotion of the subject is carried through the speaker's tone, volume, and cadence, which tend to mirror the rising action, climax, and descending action of the sermon

African-American preachers tend to perform rather than simply speak

The emotion of the subject is carried through the speaker's ____, _____, and _______, which tend to mirror the ________, _____, and ______________ of the sermon

tone, volume, and cadence

rising action, climax, and descending action

________ and ________, even _______, _____ is another aspect of African-American oral tradition often evident in the pulpit in a tradition sometimes referred to as…

Hyperbolic and provocative, even incendiary, rhetoric

“prophetic speech”

Other aspects of African-American oral tradition include ______, ___________, and ________, many of which have found their way into mainstream American popular culture and become international phenomena

rhyming, semantic inversion and word play

what is semantic inversion? example

a word is used differently than its commonly used

thats sick

get ill if wanna get ill

whos the illest shorty alive

some of the realest, illest, chillest cats you may see

Signifyin' directs attention to the _________, __________ significance of words, which is accessible only to those who share the cultural values of a given speech community

connotative, context-bound

where does the expression, “signifyin” come from?

stories about the Signifying Monkey, a trickster figure said to have originated during slavery in the United States

Example of what?: Grace is pregnant and beginning to show but has not formally informed her sister yet. Her sister, seemingly unaware of the situation, comments on her weight gain: Grace (noncommittally): “Yes, I guess I am putting on a little weight.” Rochelle: “Now look here, girl, we both standing here soaking wet and you still trying to tell me it ain’t raining?

verbal play- “signifyin”

indirectly spoken

cultural origins

• some values, beliefs, and life ways

• strong kingship bonds, work orientation, religious orientation

• adaptable family roles

• use informal support networks- church or community

• distrusst of government and social services- feel “big brother doesnt care about us”

• most are assimilated to ango-american culture

African Americans experience significant health issues related to ______, _______, and ________

disease, injury and disability

Diseases with a higher prevalence in the African American community which may impact speech, language and hearing include

HIV/AIDS, sickle cell disease, stroke and lead poisoning.

consider giving _________ advice for african americans concerning health

practical

hair products that support working out

eating healthy is not affordable sometimes

_____-– African Americans have a disproportionate rate of HIV/AIDS in the US

2007

____ has more negative effects for Black Americans than for other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Though Black people make up just about ___% of the U.S. population, they accounted for ___% of all HIV cases in 2022. That was ___ the rate of Latinx/Hispanics and __times higher than Whites.

HIV; 12%; 39%; twice; 8

__________ the most heavily affected region of the world for HIV/AIDS (2009) data. In 2009 ~_______ people died from HIV/AIDS

Sub Saharan Africa; 1.3 million

Related to several communication disorders due to infections, ________issues as a result of _________, ________ and ____________

neurological issues as a result of HIV/AIDS, HIV drugs and drug interactions

Common reported disorders associated with HIV/AIDS include

• Aphasia

• Apraxia

• Dysphagia

• Dysarthria

• Voice disorders

• Stuttering

• Hearing loss

all of these things are things that we treat

what disease occurs primarily in people of African ancestry?

sickle cell anemia

about ______ African American infants have the sickle cell trait

1 in 10

sickle cell anemia occurs in ~ __ out of every _ live births

1 out of 375

Misshapen shape to what should be a typical blood cell causing them to clump together painfully in veins and arteries causing blockages in vital organs which can lead to…

this misshapen shape refers to what?

strokes- aphasia

sickle cells

sickle cell anemia may also cause …

hearing loss

sickle cell anemia has the potential to __________________ in children (children who are in pain and cannot pay attention may not benefit from instruction in school or home)

delay speech and language development

African Americans are __% more likely to have a stroke than other racial groups

50%

Those that survive strokes are at greater risk for complications and continued disability than other groups, potentially because of:

• More frequent food consumption higher in saturated fat (higher blood pressure, other health issues)

• Potential for disparities in available long term rehabilitation for African Americans

• Cultural beliefs for caring for family members instead of “institutions”

Please note that while this issue can impact African Americans due to environmental circumstances, _________ can affect anybody – not just African Americans

lead poisoning

lead is commonly found in…

• pipes, paint, factory soil run off

• low SES neighborhoods and communities (affects hispanic communities as well)

can damage many bodily systems and cause learning disabilities among other issues

lead

Generations of hardships imposed on the African-American community created distinctive language patterns. what is an example of why this happened?

Slave owners often intentionally mixed people who spoke different African languages to discourage communication in any language other than English.

a variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of American English, most commonly spoken today by urban working-class and largely bi-dialectal middle- class African Americans

African American Vernacular English (AAVE)—also called African American English (AAE); less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV), or Black Vernacular English (BVE)

Non-linguists often call it ________ (a term that also has other meanings and connotations) coined by Black psychologist Robert Williams. – AS SLP’s we don’t use this term, we use ___

Ebonics; AAE

AAE shares a large portion of its ________and _______ with the rural dialects of the Southern United States

grammar and phonology

AAE also shares several characteristics with _________ language-forms spoken by people throughout much of the world

Creole English

AAE has __________, ___________, and ____________ in common with various ____________ languages

pronunciation, grammatical structures, and vocabulary; West African

The traits of AAE that distinguish it from the General American accent and other American English dialects include the following:

• specific pronunciation features along definable patterns, many of which are found in creoles and dialects of other populations of West African (patterned based)

• distinctive vocabulary

• distinctive use of verb tense and aspect

• the use of double negatives

However, ___ should not be thought of as the language of Black people in America. why?

AAE

Many African Americans neither speak it nor know much about it

people who are not African American can also use this dialect

T/F since AAE has a vast geographic spread, it has no uniformity

explain

false; it has near uniformity despite vast differences

This may be due in part to relatively recent migrations of African Americans out of the American South as well as to long-term racial segregation

Phonological features that may set AAE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American) include:

• Word-___ ______ of /_/, /_/, and /_/, whereby, for example, “cub” sounds like “___”

word-final devoicing of /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/; “cup”

Phonological features that may set AAE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American) include:

• Reduction of certain diphthong forms to monophthongs, in particular, /__/ is ______________ to [__] except before __________ (this is also a feature of many Southern dialects)

/aɪ/ is monophthongized to [aː]; voiceless consonants

Phonological features that may set AAE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American) include:

• The vowel sound in ___ (/_/ in General American) is also __________, especially before /_/, making it indistinguishable from ball.

boil /ɔɪ/; monophthongized; /l/

Phonological features that may set AAE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American) include:

• Conversely, ___ speakers in some regions (such as the ________) may use [__] in words like coach and road that have [__] in General American (i.e. [koɪtʃ], [roɪd]

older; American South; [oɪ] [oʊ]

Phonological features that may set AAE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American) include:

• Word-____, /θ/ is _______________ in other English dialects (so thin is [θɪn]); in other situations, it may move forward in the mouth, going from dental (with the tongue near the top teeth) to ______ (with the lower lip near the top teeth). “mouth” becomes [_____]

initially; normally the same as; labiodental; [mauf]

Phonological features that may set AAE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American) include:

• /ng/ becomes /_/ in the _________ position (“singing” becomes “singin”

/n/ - word final

Phonological features that may set AAE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American) include:

• A marked feature of AAE is ___________________ (West African languages do not have _______________) “test” becomes “___”

final consonant cluster reduction; final consonant clusters, “tes”

Phonological features that may set AAE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American) include:

• Use of ________ forms like “___” for "ask" or “___” for "grasp"

metathesized; “aks”; “graps”

Phonological features that may set AAE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American) include:

• the rhotic consonant /r/ is typically _____ when not followed by a _____; it may also manifest as an unstressed [__] or the ___________ of the preceding vowel. ________ /r/ may also be dropped

dropped; vowel; [ə]; lengthening; Intervocalic

Phonological features that may set AAE apart from other forms of American English (particularly, General American) include:

• /r/ may also be ______ between a ______ and a _________, especially in words like ______, ______, and ________

deleted; consonant and a back rounded vowel; throw, throat, and through

One of the most distinguishing features of AAE is the use of “__” to indicate that performance of the verb is of a ________

In most other American English dialects, this can only be expressed ___________ by using adverbs such as _____

“be”; habitual nature

unambiguously; usually

Syntactically, “I flew it” is grammatical, but done (always unstressed) is used to emphasize what?

the completed nature of the action

As phase auxiliary verbs, _____ and ______ must occur as the first auxiliary; when they occur as the second, they carry additional aspects:

“He been done work “ means "_______________".

“He done been work” means "_____________________________"

been and done

“he finished work a long time ago”

“until recently, he worked over a long period of time”

it is important to remember that AAE is what in language?

rule-based, patterned, and not disordered

The aspect-marking form of ____ or ____ is stressed and semantically distinct from the unstressed form: __________ ('She has been running for a long time') and ___________ ('She has been running')

As shown above, been places action in the distant past. However, when been is used with _________ or ________, been shows that the action began in the distant past and that it is continuing now

been or BIN

She BIN running; She been running

stative verbs or gerund forms

For instance, in response to "I like your new dress", one might hear “Oh, I been had this dress”, meaning that the speaker has

had the dress for a long time and that it isn't new.

Negatives are formed differently from most other varieties of English

example?

negation

ain’t

The copula __ in the present tense is often dropped, as in Russian, Hebrew, Arabic and other languages

examples?

be

For example: You crazy ("You're crazy") or She my sister ("She's my sister"). The phenomenon is also observed in questions: Who you? ("Who're you?") and Where you at? ("Where are you (at)?").

On the other hand, a stressed “is” cannot be dropped: “She is my sister”

Only the forms “__” and “__” (of which the latter is anyway often replaced by is) can be omitted; “__”, “__”, and “___” are not deleted. (which are inidcators od DLD in monolingual english speakers)

Present-tense verbs are uninflected for number/person: there is no -s ending in the present- tense third-person singular

example?

“is” and “are”

“am”, “was”, and “were”

She write poetry ("She writes poetry")

The ______ -'s ending may or may not be used. ______ case is inferable from ________.

This is similar to many creoles throughout the ______. Many language forms throughout the world use an unmarked possessive; it may here result from a simplification of grammatical structures

example?

genitive; adjacency

Caribbean

my momma sister ('my mother's sister')

AAE shares much of its ______ with other varieties of English, particularly that of ________ and _______ dialects.

There are some notable differences between the two, however.

It has been suggested that some of the vocabulary unique to AAE has its origin in ___________ languages, but etymology is often difficult to trace

lexicon; informal and Southern

West African

Linguists maintain that there is nothing intrinsically "wrong" or "sloppy" about AAE as a language variety since, like all dialects, AAE shows consistent __________ and _________, and is used ______ to express thoughts and ideas.

Other attitudes about AAE are less positive; since AAVE deviates from the standard, its use is commonly misinterpreted as a sign of __________, _________ or _____

Perhaps because of this attitude (as well as similar attitudes among white and other Americans), most speakers of AAVE are _______, being able to speak with a more ____________ accent as well as ____

internal logic and grammatical complexity; naturally

ignorance, laziness, or both

bidialectal; General American; AAE

A Challenge for Clinicians:

Grammatical patterns in AAE look like those of delayed or disordered MAE (Mainstream American English)

Examples: AAE & DLD similarities

• Zero-agreement “John run_.” (-s) (acceptable in AAE but not in mainstream English)

• Tense inflection “Yesterday they jump__” (-ed)

• Zero-copula “My pen __ down there” (is)

remember these!

• Asked SLPs to judge sentences for “how comprehensible” they are

• Found a ___________ to processing unfamiliar speech – in this case, AAE

• “____________” – responses from some SLP’s

• SLP’s didn’t recognize AAE reliably as a _______ (emphasizes need to develop ________ with the ______)

• perceptual cost

• It just sounds bad

• dialect; more familiarity with the variety

Unique to AAE features NOT shared with SAE

contrastive features

features shared between SAE and AAE

non contrastive features

A speaker of AAE may use contrastive features. example?

final consonant deletion

You should look for difficulties in __________ features to dx a disorder

non-contrastive

6 year old who does not use pronouns or articles appropriately, exhibits final consonant deletion and gliding in all word positions

this is an example of?

difficulties in non-contrastive features

How can we overcome our covert attitudes/biases?

• learn about AAE and features of AAE dialect use (DELV screener)

• Use standardized and non-standardized assessments when possible (narrative sample, language learning potential tasks)

• In studies that have been reported, children that speak AAE and exhibit SLI have difficulty with forming questions and irregular third person, and the infinitive markings - zero-mark infinitival TO (e.g., I want Ø jump)

• ASHA website has many resources about African American English

what is an important test that is norm-referenced that helps diagnose children with speech and language disorders for dialects of non-mainstream english?

DELV

In studies that have been reported, children that speak AAE and exhibit SLI have difficulty with _________ and ___________, and the _________ - _________ TO (e.g., I want Ø jump)

forming questions and irregular third person, and the infinitive markings - zero-mark infinitival