identifies a number of features which are new or intensifying in urban
AAVE.
Table 10.2 Some of the differences between urban and rural AAVE, by feature
Source: Adapted from Wolfram (2004c)
There is a growing body of research which focuses on what Morgan and
DeBerry (1995) claim is another dimension of variation within and
between AAVE communities by looking at the way that African American
youth active in Urban Hip Hop culture must choose among grammatical,
lexical and phonological variables which identify them as aligned with
either the West or East coast. In a similar way, Wolfram and his students
(2007: 8) have looked at features such as /r/ deletion in postvocalic word
final position (mother, manager) to establish that supra-regional features
of AAVE are subject to regional influences.
Baugh draws attention to wider implications of terminology and labels:
Ebonics suffers from several definitional detriments that can no
longer be dismissed ... I therefore hope that these remarks expose
some of the scholarly and educational perils of attempting to adopt
Ebonics as either a technical linguistic term or as an educational
philosophy, at least as long as multiple and contradictory definitions
[exist]. Just as a house that is divided cannot stand, linguistic