African American vernacular/accent

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"African american english" and our vernacular has a history behind it.

 

How does will smith speak?He speaks regular english when i hear him

 

Oh, I think I get what you're saying. I say "stahhl". And the thing with the "r"'s, I don't know. I hear people who aren't black though say hard and car without the r. Like those kids who don't know how to say words with r's, so they say "I swea(swear)",

 

Different places have different dialects. I don't know how it works in the rest of the world, as I have no experience firsthand with other countries, but I do know from speaking to many Canadians that their country is nearly, if not as, diverse in dialect as we are in America.

The accent of a person from Quebec sounds quite different from a person from Newfoundland.

The accent of a person from Atlanta sounds quite different from a person from Delaware.

Here in America, since it seems nearly every state has it's roots in different cultures, accents and dialects have evolved over the years from many different places.

Here are some examples of the way people speak where I'm from, though just as with the country as a whole different regions of WV have different types of accent. Mine is more pronounced because I'm from Southern West Virginia, near the border by Kentucky. Of course, rural vs urban environments also change the accent. Huntington, a city in Southern West Virginia, has a far different dialect than that of my hometown. Same with Charleston. I was teased incessantly by people from both cities because how I speak was so different than the way they did, though their accent is still there. It's just not as pronounced.

http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/westvirginia/westvirginia1.mp3

a detailed report

http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/westvirginia/westvirginia1.htm

Another example, female

http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/westvirginia/westvirginia2.mp3

and supporting text

http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/westvirginia/westvirginia2.htm



I got these from this website

http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/westvirginia/westvirginia.htm

Which also has information about dialects and accents from other areas in North America, as well.


Let me break it down to you like this: EVERYONE TALKS DIFFERENTLY. Honestly, there are so many similarities between ebonics and the dialect I grew up was it was quite easy for me to learn how to converse with the people I need to talk to here in Houston to buy my weed. Just because someone speaks ebonics doesn't make them any less intelligent than me (and I'm pretty fucking smart)...the real test comes when a person whose dialect seems to be bastardized English actually has to speak proper English. If you can do both, fantastic.

There is no "African American" accent/dialect, unless you want to discuss the accent of a person who immigrated here from Nigeria, or Senegal, or where the fuck ever in Africa. Some black people speak one way, some another, some another, some another, etc etc ad fucking nauseum. Some white people speak differently, too! I know, it's a hard concept to grasp that race has less to do with accent/dialect than the place you grew up.

It's a culture thing. Some people embrace it when they grow up somewhere, or migrate somewhere, others refuse it. Others watch BBC America and try to sound British when they're really from Wisconsin, because they think it sounds cool.

You might as well ask why people in Liverpool sound differently than people in London.

I'm quite gifted with the English language, yet often people assume I'm stupid because of the way I talk. Even when speaking proper sentences the stigma of my accent causes people to instantly think "She must be a stupid redneck". I've had countless people gasp and seem quite shocked when I use words with more than 3 syllables, like it's unheard of for a country girl to even know words like that. And no, this has nothing to do with my penchant for slang and swearing. I'm talking about those "first meeting" moments...like on job interviews. I've shocked so many interviewers with my grasp of grammar and vocabulary, because after I say "Mah name is Nikki, it's qwaht nahce to meet you" they instantly put me in the "below 100" IQ crowd in their minds.

Just ask Chosen, he gives me shit about the way I talk constantly.

But I digress. My point is, the way anyone talks is just a dialect/regional thing. You can't lump all of any group of Americans, let alone on a racial basis, into any category of speech, because we're all so fucking different. Quit trying to label everything black or white. There's too much gray out there.

Oh, and Malikom...thanks for the videos. That was quite interesting!

...I love languages and dialects. It's so fascinating to me.

 

He is from Philadelphia and a uniquely melodic communicator (rap artist before actor).

So what you hear when he speaks is a rhythmic brand of Philly-flavored urban-english? Whatever it is, it obviously works, huh?

 

Yea, I know (Fresh Prince). And I love the way he talks.

 

Maroon,

I think I understand what you're saying. Do you mean that, for example, you hear the TV, and there are two people talking and they're both speaking regular english. But, you can tell one is black and one is white, just from the way they sound.

Now, I'm not saying that all black people sound like that, but sometimes you can tell. Sometimes you can't.

Is that what you mean? That you can tell a black man speaking when he does because of accent or pronounciation or whatever? Not by ebonics or the slang he's using?

I agree, but I don't have any reasoning for it...

 

Yea, this is exactly what I meant and was wondering where it was coming from. A lot of African Americans talk in a very distinct way. If I was just listening with my eyes closed, I'd be able to tell which one's black. But it cannot be racial since a lot of blacks speak standard English, for ex., if I listened to somebody like Condoleeza with my eyes closed (if I didn't recognise her by her voice), I wouldn't be able to tell if that person was black or white. But if I heard, for instance, Jesse Jackson speak, I'd be able to tell.

 

Interesting post...

I think you make some good points. But I do think many people outside of North America probably think that an African American dialect/ accent exists. Especially places that aren’t that exposed to American culture. Most of those people will base their assumptions on films, where black people are often typecast as rappers or hardened criminals who talk 'street'. So if you go to many parts of the world and ask someone how a black American speaks...a lot will probably add a 'yo' amongst other slang terms...To me it’s not too different to people saying someone speaks with a British accent. Now if anyone who has been to the UK will attest the isn’t really a British accent. There are regional accents and hybrid versions of these... But a lot of Americans assume everyone speaks 'Queens English'(How the queen speaks), All proper...and upper class. When in fact very few people speak like that. Heard a Newcastle accent (Geordie), think some Americans would dispute it was even English!

So even though an African/ American accent/ dialect may not necessarily exist, I think most of the world probably thinks it does.

 

And I speak like everyone.

 

Thanks, malikom, for the videos, very helpful.

 

John McWhorter has two excellent chapters devoted to the "Ebonics" / Black English dialect (inception, permutations, etc.) in his book "Losing the Race". It's incredibly interesting, with far too much history to get into here.

 

But you are not a african american man but an african man, right? ;-)

 

Yea, dossou, you maybe speak like everyone, but not everyone can speak like you.