Language in African American Communities

Sonja Lanehart is Professor of Linguistics; Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies; and Africana Studies at the University of Arizona, USA. Her scholarship focuses on language and education in African American and Black communities; language and identity; sociolinguistics; raciolinguistics; and critical sociolinguistics from Black feminisms, critical race theory, critical discourse analysis, and intersectionality perspectives. She is particularly interested in African American Women’s Language and pushing the boundaries of research in sociolinguistics, language variation, and education to be anti-racist, inclusive, diverse, and equitable in the fight for social and linguistic justice. Her publications include Sista, Speak! Black Women Kinfolk Talk about Language and Literacy (2002); African American Women’s Language: Discourse, Education, and Identity (ed., 2009); and The Oxford Handbook of African American Language (ed., 2015).

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.Arthur K. Spears, Presidential Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology Emeritus, The City University of New YorkNo 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!John R. Rickford, J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor of Humanities, Dept of Linguistics, emeritus, Stanford University

• ContentsList of Tables and FiguresAcknowledgementsInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for English in the Continental U.S.Chapter 1: Talkin and Testifyin Introduction: My Subjectivities and PositionalitiesName a Thing a Thing: About Definitions and NamingWhat to ExpectQuestions, Discussion, and Further InquiryReferencesFilmographyDiscographyDigital MediaChapter 2: A Seat at the Table: What Are You Bringing to the Table Before We Even Get Started? Introduction: Real TalkLinguistic PrejudiceLinguistic Shame and DenialLinguistic Pride and AcceptanceContradictions and AllWhat You’re Not Going to Do: Definitions, Naming, and Pet PeevesTo HEL—or HEC—and Back: The Messiness of Having the Army and the NavyQuestions, Discussion, and Further InquiryReferencesFilmographyDiscographyDigital MediaChapter 3: "Put Some Respeck on My Name!": Language and Uses of Identity in African American CommunitiesIntroduction: How We Gon Play This?Who Do People Say That I Am?A Word on EbonicsWhat Does It Feel Like to Be a Problem?Say My Name!Questions, Discussion, and Further InquiryReferencesFilmographyDigital MediaChapter 4: "Where Your People From?:" Problematizing Origins and DevelopmentIntroduction: Controversial History, Development, and Contested OriginsThe Deficit Hypothesis(Neo–)Anglicist and (Neo–)Creolist Origins HypothesesConsensus Hypotheses: Substratist, Restructuralist, and EcologicalThe Divergence/Convergence HypothesisMy Conclusion: PeriodT!Questions, Discussion, and Further InquiryReferencesFilmographyDiscographyChapter 5: What’s Good? A Concise Descriptivist Meta–Grammar of Language Use in African American CommunitiesIntroduction: We Bout to Ride Up on This ElephantWhy Y’all so Interested in Language Use in African American Communities?Patterns, Systems, and Structure, Oh My!Lexical Level: Word Classes and Word FormationSyntactic Level, Part 1: Verbal MarkersSyntactic Level, Part 2: From Multiple Negation to Patterns in Question FormationMorphosyntactic Level: InflectionsPhonological LevelSpeech Events, Discourse, Pragmatics, Nonverbal, and Paralinguistic LevelsWhere Does This Leave Us?Questions, Discussions, and Further InquiryReferencesDigital MediaChapter 6: Where Your People At?: Regional and Geographic VariationIntroduction: A New Day Is DawningGullah GeecheeUrban and Rural CORAAL, et al.From Regional to Social VariationQuestions, Discussion, and Further InquiryReferencesFilmographyDigital MediaChapter 7: Where My Shawty’s At? Social and Gendered VariationIntroduction: It’s about to Be Lit Up in HereBlack American Sign Language, or Black ASLStandards in Language Use in African American CommunitiesMiddle–Class Language Use in African American CommunitiesAfrican American Women’s Language, or AAWLHip Hop Nation Language, or HHNLSexuality and Gendered Identity in Language Use in African American CommunitiesQuestions, Discussion, and Further InquiryReferencesFilmographyDiscographyDigital MediaChapter 8: This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Pop Culture, Social Media, and Digital Media Introduction: Whatcha Know Good?Afrofuturism and EbonicsYa Man, Steve Harvey: Blacktainment ExtraordinaireThe Queen of Soul to Spoken SoulBlack Twitter and Language Use in African American CommunitiesDigital Media and the Performance of Language Use in African American CommunitiesI Refuse to Eat the CakeQuestions, Discussion, and Further InquiryReferencesFilmographyDiscographyDigital MediaChapter 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 WorldHow and When We Enter White Educational Spaces … and Some DefinitionsWe Ain’t Havin It!: Let’s Get on the Good FootWe Come from a Remarkable PeopleThe Research: Language and Linguistic Justice for Black ChildrenLanguage of Black America on Trial: The Ann Arbor "Black English" Trial and the Oakland Ebonics ControversyAs My Dad Would Say, "Stop Pussyfootin Roun the Issue:" Because RacismQuestions and Further InquiryReferencesFilmographyDiscographyDigital MediaChapter 10: "If You Don’t Know Me by Now …" Introduction: You Cain’t Do Wrong and Get ByThings I Didn’t Discuss that You Might ConsiderWhatcha Know Good?: What I Hope You Did, Learned, and Hope to DoQuestions, Discussion, and Further InquiryReferencesDiscographyIndex