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

thought. When they do this, they ignore decades of linguistic research which show us that “standard” English became the standard for historical and political reasons, not because it was better at communicating. That is, the group who speak a particular dialect have achieved power over groups who speak other dialects. It is the speakers who have power; the status of the dialect merely reflects the social and economic status of the group using it. People trained in linguistics, unlike lay people, generally consider that all dialects and modes of speech are equal. They are all adequate to communicate any message, at least among people who share the dialect. Even linguists, who are usually non-judgmental though, recognize that some contexts favor the use of a particular variety over another. (UMASS)

The fact is, when two or more languages come together, two or more peoples have come together and the result is always about power and identity. If the result is that one language becomes the lingua franca, it means that the ideology of a dominant language/people has overwhelmed the other languages/peoples and the conquered must deal with that marginalization. If the result is a pidgin—a language that is nobody’s mother tongue, where there is no recognizable grammatical structure associated with a particular language—then there is a desperate need to communicate, whether for trade or survival after conquest. If children use the pidgin language and they expand the vocabulary, introduce grammar and so on until it becomes a creole language, then that means that they were conquered people who never got back home. So if the history of a language speaks volumes, the history of African American English is deafening. (Morgan, 2002: 12)

The “Africanized form” of AAVE and its cultural history serve as a symbol of ethnic identity and pride. AAVE's resistance to assimilation into Standard American English or other more standard dialects is a consequence of cultural differences between blacks and whites. Any language used by isolated groups of people is likely to split into various dialects . Thus, language becomes a means of self-differentiation that helps forge group identity, solidarity and pride. It is “intricately bound up with his or her sense of identity and group consciousness”. (Smitherman) AAVE has survived and thrived through the centuries also as a result of various degrees of isolation from

Southern American English and Standard American English — through both “self-segregation from and marginalization by mainstream society”. (Answers)

Part 3: Appellations and Racial IdentityAppellations

The African Americans have used a variety of appellations at various points in history, such as African, Negro, Colored, Black, Afro-American, African-American and Africo-American. These names are given respective explanations during different periods, and gain the popularity of certain groups of African Americans. All have reflected African Americans’ racial complex and pursuit of equality and dignity. (黄卫峰, 2002: 5th Journal)

We may first take a glance at how the appellations changed in time sequence. In the colonial period, African Americans were called as Nigger or Negro, but they would rather name themselves as Africans, because they wouldn’t forget where they came from. Until the nineteenth century, although they didn’t obtain the expected rights and status, they considered it reasonable to be host of the land for having lived there for several generations, so that they were proud to be called the Colored. During WWⅠand WWⅡ, the African Americans did their best to fight for the America at great expense. Therefore, they thought they should enjoy the same equality and civil rights with the White. Their name was changing to Negro used commonly by the White. After WWⅡ, the African American soldiers didn’t receive desired equality. At the same time, the afterwar flourishingly prosperity also urged them to demand for better situation and treatment. Since the 1950s, they replaced Negro with White as a counterpart. The African American civil rights movements first started in the 1960s. They carried the slogan of “Black Power”, aiming to assemble African Americans’ political and economic power to realize racial equality. The also put forward “Black is Beautiful”. Later on, words with Black such as Black English, Black History, Black Study and Black Soul resulted from the Black’s struggle for civil rights and prevailed