非裔美国人的英语与称谓及音乐与舞蹈 种族认同及文化影响

African American English & Appellation and Music & Dance: Racial Identity & Cultural Influence 非裔美国人的英语与称谓及音乐与舞蹈: 种族认同

及文化影响

Part 1: The Relation between Culture and Language

The relation between culture and language is as that between content and form. Content decides form and form reflects content. The American language, as the form, also reflects the proper content of American culture, for example, multiple cultures. Such words are often used to describe the multiculturalism in America as American mosaic, cultural bouillabaisse, kaleidoscope, pot of stew and so on. In essence, the multiple cultures of the United States of America are shaped by the immigrants from every corner all over the world. Every immigrant from alien countries is making every effort to manifest his/her own national features and characteristics, so it is commonplace to find in American English these words like diversity, tolerance, multiculturalism, cultural congruence, acculturation, cultural pluralism and others. A language reflects the characteristics of a nation. It not only carries the nation’s history and cultural background, but also delivers the nation’s philosophy, lifestyle and way of thinking.

The African Americans have existed in the United States for over two hundred years. As one of the most important multicultural components there, they have their own indispensable contribution to American language and culture. They have developed African American English as a dialect of English and extended the influence of African American music and dance, which helps to maintain their ancestral language and culture, and influence American language and culture. As time goes on, their appellations have been changing which implies that they have become more aware of their racial identity. Also, the wide spread of their music and dance adds to their increasing influence in America.

Part 2: AAE and as a symbol of Identity

As to the form of English used by African Americans, linguists have many controversies over the years and yet haven’t reached an agreement. The form can be named as African American English (AAE) or African American Vernacular English (AAVE, = “Ebonics”). AAE is a dialect of American English used by many African Americans in certain settings and circumstances. It is not slang, as people sometimes say. Like other dialects of English, African American Vernacular English is a regular, systematic language variety that contrasts with other dialects in terms of its grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. (from CAL) Ebonics is used most often for the vernacular (=colloquial, working-class, street, disrespected) forms of it. (Patrick) Ebonics is a language system characteristic of certain speech communities in the United States, especially (but not exclusively) African American communities in urban areas and the South. Although it has many features that distinguish it from various dialects of English, it also has very much in common with kinds of English all over the world. It also differs from community to community. We must be careful to note that (a) not all African Americans speak Ebonics, (b) there are non-African Americans who do speak Ebonics, by virtue of having grown up in the communities where it is spoken. (Rubba, 1997.)

J.L. Dillard defines Black English as a separate dialect of English spoken by 80 percent of African Americans, which differs from other varieties of American English in that it is “traceable…specifically to language-contact phenomena associated with the West African slave trade and with European maritime expansion in general, and to survivals from West African languages”. (Dillard, 1972: p. ix) Although Ebonics, a word coined from a fusion of ebony and phonics, and a word synonymous with Black English, has been in existence since the 1970s. (Perez, 2000) From the 1700s until the early 1900s, approximately 90 percent of the African American population in the United States lived in the Southern states. With such a high concentration of speakers,

Black English was able to mature into a highly sophisticated and rule-governed dialect of English. It spread throughout the United States in the twentieth century as many African Americans migrated to the large urban centers in the North. Through this two-way connection between African American communities in the rural South and the industrial North, Black English emerged. Strong regional and familial ties between the rural South and the industrial North generated much cross-fertilization of old and new communication patterns. On the other hand, de facto segregation in the large urban centers of the North tended to insulate African American and white communities from each other. That meant that, given the social distance created between speakers of Black English and standard English, both dialects had minimal influence on one another. Black English, therefore, continued top develop its own set of structures, functional patters, and styles. (Whatley, 1981)

Distinctive patterns of language use among African Americans arose as creative responses to the hardships imposed on the African American community. Slave-owners often intentionally mixed people who spoke many different African languages to discourage communication in any language other than English on their plantations. Moreover, many whites were unwilling to allow blacks to learn proper English. One response to these conditions was the development of pidgins, simplified mixtures of two or more languages that speakers of different languages could use to communicate with each other. Some of these pidgins eventually became fully developed Creole languages spoken by certain groups as a native language. Significant numbers of people still speak some of these Creole languages, notably Gullah on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. African American Vernacular English (AAVE), also called black English or Ebonics, is a dialect of English spoken by many African Americans that shares some features with Creole languages. (Harris, 2007)

People without linguistic training are seldom aware that they have language prejudices. They commonly make assumptions about the inferiority of some dialects, like AAE, and the superiority of others, like British English. They may also draw unfounded connections between “correctness” of standard grammar and logic of