The Real Trouble with Black

Language^110

It is not the Black child’s language which is despised: It is his

experience.

James Baldwin, “Nobody knows my name” (1985b)

A white face goes with a white mind. Occasionally a Black face goes

with a white mind. Very seldom a white face will have a Black mind.

Nikki Giovanni, attributed

Grammar: Resistance is Futile

AAVE has been the focus of formal study for some 40 years, so that there
is no lack of material available for anyone who is interested in learning
about it. While there is not space to look into that wealth of information in
this chapter, a short summary of crucial features of Black language
(referred to here primarily as African American Vernacular English,
AAVE) will be helpful when considering the speech communities that use

these languages in a larger context.^2
The features of AAVE that distinguish it from other varieties of
American English have to do with phonology and the grammatical or
syntactic structures, as seen in Table 10.1. However, there are other
aspects which are more markedly different. Most important are AAVE’s
prosodic and rhetorical features (Alim 2004b; Alim and Baugh 2007;
Baugh 1983; Green 2002a; Rickford and Rickford 2000; Smitherman
2000, 2003a, 2003b, 2006), in particular, concepts (such as style) which do