Black English - in a nutshell

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Black English – in a nutshellWhen one thinks of dialect variation in general, one usually thinks ofdialects that depend on geographic location. This holds true forAmerican English as well. Regional variation accounts for many lexicaland phonological differences between different dialects in America.For example, one may pronounce "creek" differently in Oregon than inCalifornia. Depending on where one lives, one also chooses wordsdifferently; some regions refer to carbonated beverages like Pepsi orSprite as "sodas", while others prefer saying "pop". Besides regionalvariation, however, dialects can also depend on social or ethnicfactors.One particular example is the English spoken by the majority of Blackyouth, especially in the inner city. This dialect is often referred toas Black English Vernacular (BEV). Although it does not apply to allBlacks in America, nor exclusively to Blacks (some White urban youthand White southerners possess similar speech patterns), BEV applies tothe majority of the Black population
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and is therefore considered anethnic dialect.In comparing BEV to regional dialects, the main difference is that itis defined mostly by its syntactical and phonological differencesrather than lexical choices. There are indeed certain words that areused in the Black community that don't exist in other dialects, butthis vocabulary keeps changing. Terms used by Blacks, such as "rap" or"chill", are often spread to mainstream society through the MTVgeneration, and by the time their use becomes popular with Whites aswell, a new word to replace the old one is already being popularizedin the Black community.While lexical terms come and go, the syntactical and ...

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