Table Of ContentLanguage in African American
Communities
Language in African American Communities is essential reading for anyone
with an interest in the language, culture, and sociohistorical contexts of African
American communities. It will also benefit those with a general interest in
language and culture, language and language users, and language and identity.
This book includes discussions of traditional and non-traditional topics
regarding linguistic explorations of African American communities that include
difficult conversations around race and racism. Language in African American
Communities provides:
• an introduction to the sociolinguistic and paralinguistic aspects of language
use in African American communities; sociocultural and historical contexts
and development; notions about grammar and discourse; the significance
of naming and the pall of race and racism in discussions and research of
language variation and change;
• activities and discussion questions which invite readers to consider their
own perspectives on language use in African American communities and
how it manifests in their own lives and communities; and
• links to relevant videos, stories, music, and digital media that represent
language use in African American communities.
Written in an approachable, conversational style that uses the author’s native
African American (Women’s) Language, this book is aimed at college students
and others with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics.
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).
Routledge Guides to Linguistics
Series Editor: Betty J. Birner is a Professor of Linguistics
and Cognitive Science in the Department of English
at Northern Illinois University.
Routledge Guides to Linguistics are a set of concise and acces-
sible guidebooks which provide an overview of the fundamental
principles of a subject area in a jargon-free and undaunting for-
mat. Designed for students of Linguistics who are approaching a
particular topic for the first time, or students who are considering
studying linguistics and are eager to find out more about it, these
books will both introduce the essentials of a subject and provide
an ideal springboard for further study.
This series is published in conjunction with the Linguistic
Society of America. Founded in 1924 to advance the scientific
study of language, the LSA plays a critical role in supporting and
disseminating linguistic scholarship both to professional linguists
and to the general public.
Titles in this series:
Bilingualism
Shahrzad Mahootian
Language in African American Communities
Sonja Lanehart
More information about this series can be found at www.
routledge.com/Routledge-Guides-to-Linguistics/book-series/RGL
Language in African
American Communities
Sonja Lanehart
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2023 Sonja Lanehart
The right of Sonja Lanehart to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lanehart, Sonja L., author.
Title: Language in African American communities / Sonja Lanehart.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge,
2023. | Series: Routledge guides to linguistics | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022017051 (print) | LCCN 2022017052
(ebook) | ISBN 9781138189690 (hardback) | ISBN
9781138189706 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003204756 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Black English—United States. | English
language—Variation—United States. | English language—
Social aspects—United States. | African Americans—
Intellectual life. | African Americans—Communication.
Classification: LCC PE3102.B54 L36 2023 (print) | LCC PE3102.B54
(ebook) | DDC 427/.97308996073—dc23/eng/20220803
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022017051
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022017052
ISBN: 978-1-138-18969-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-18970-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-20475-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003204756
Typeset in Times New Roman and Gill Sans
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Acknowledgments x
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for English
in the Continental U.S. xii
1 Talkin and Testifyin 1
Introduction: My Subjectivities and Positionalities 1
Name a Thing a Thing: About Definitions and Naming 9
What to Expect 11
Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry 15
References 15
Filmography 16
Discography 17
Digital Media 17
2 A Seat at the Table: What Are You Bringing to the
Table Before We Even Get Started? 18
Introduction: Real Talk 18
Linguistic Prejudice 19
Linguistic Shame and Denial 23
Linguistic Pride and Acceptance 25
Contradictions and All 26
vi Contents
What You’re Not Going to Do: Definitions, Naming,
and Pet Peeves 27
To HEL—or HEC—and Back: The Messiness of
Having the Army and the Navy 28
Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry 36
References 38
Filmography 39
Discography 40
Digital Media 40
3 “Put Some Respeck on My Name!”: Language and
Uses of Identity in African American Communities 41
Introduction: How We Gon Play This? 41
Who Do People Say That I Am? 43
A Word on Ebonics 44
What Does It Feel Like to Be a Problem? 46
Say My Name! 52
Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry 54
References 54
Filmography 57
Digital Media 57
4 “Where Your People From?”: Problematizing
Origins and Development 58
Introduction: Controversial History, Development, and
Contested Origins 58
The Deficit Hypothesis 59
(Neo-)Anglicist and (Neo-)Creolist Origins Hypotheses 61
Consensus Hypotheses: Substratist, Restructuralist, and
Ecological 67
The Divergence/Convergence Hypothesis 69
My Conclusion: Periodt! 70
Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry 71
References 71
Contents vii
Filmography 74
Discography 74
5 What’s Good?: A Concise Descriptivist
Meta-Grammar of Language Use in African
American Communities 75
Introduction: We Bout to Ride Up on This Elephant 75
Why Y’all so Interested in Language Use in African
American Communities? 78
Patterns, Systems, and Structure, Oh My! 103
Lexical Level: Word Classes and Word Formation 104
Syntactic Level, Part 1: Verbal Markers 104
Syntactic Level, Part 2: From Multiple Negation to
Patterns in Question Formation 109
Morphosyntactic Level: Inflections 111
Phonological Level 111
Speech Events, Discourse, Pragmatics, Nonverbal, and
Paralinguistic Levels 113
Where Does This Leave Us? 115
Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry 117
References 117
Digital Media 121
6 Where Your People At?: Regional and
Geographic Variation 122
Introduction: A New Day Is Dawning 122
Gullah Geechee 126
Urban and Rural 127
CORAAL, et al. 131
From Regional to Social Variation 133
Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry 134
References 134
Filmography 138
Digital Media 138
viii Contents
7 Where My Shawtys At?: Social and
Gendered Variation 139
Introduction: It’s About to Be Lit Up in Here 139
Black American Sign Language, or Black ASL 140
Standards in Language Use in African American
Communities 141
Middle-Class Language Use in African American
Communities 148
African American Women’s Language, or AAWL 152
Hip Hop Nation Language, or HHNL 158
Sexuality and Gendered Identity in Language Use in
African American Communities 164
Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry 166
References 167
Filmography 174
Discography 175
Digital Media 175
8 This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Pop
Culture, Social Media, and Digital Media 177
Introduction: Whatcha Know Good? 177
Afrofuturism and Ebonics 178
Ya Man, Steve Harvey: Blacktainment Extraordinaire 181
The Queen of Soul to Spoken Soul 184
Black Twitter and Language Use in African American
Communities 186
Digital Media and the Performance of Language Use in
African American Communities 187
I Refuse to Eat the Cake 189
Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry 189
References 190
Filmography 191
Discography 192
Digital Media 192
Contents ix
9 It’s Not the Shoes, Bruh! You Black!: African
American Language Use in AmeriKKKa’s
Educational ApparatU.S. 194
Introduction: That’s the Way of the World 194
How and When We Enter White Educational
Spaces . . .and Some Definitions 196
We Ain’t Havin It!: Let’s Get on the Good Foot 201
We Come From a Remarkable People 204
The Research: Language and Linguistic Justice for
Black Children 207
Language of Black America on Trial: The Ann Arbor
“Black English” Trial and the Oakland Ebonics
Controversy 211
As My Dad Would Say, “Stop Pussyfootin Roun the
Issue:” Because Racism 214
Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry 216
References 217
Filmography 221
Discography 221
Digital Media 222
10 “If You Don’t Know Me by Now . . .” 223
Introduction: “You Cain’t Do Wrong and
Get By” 223
Things I Didn’t Discuss That You Might Consider 225
“Whatcha Know Good?”: What I Hope You Did,
Learned, and Hope to Do 227
Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry 227
Reference 228
Discography 228
AAL and Black culture words and phrases 229
Index 233
