How Language Changes Start and Spread Essay

According to Geneva Smitherman, in her book Talkin and Testifyin, standard English as we know it today flourished in the eighteenth century to fill the void left by the decline of Latin (186). African American Vernacular English, or Ebonics, also formed to meet a specific need. Contrary to popular belief, Ebonics rose out of 19th Century southern slave culture, not out of repeated use of “sloppy” speech. Slaves who were strictly oppressed by their masters were not allowed to peaceably assemble or meet with each other for any purpose. Such freedom, slave owners feared, could foster coercive ideas amongst their slaves. Slaves, therefore, needed a language that would allow them to communicate with each other in a clandestine manner. Ebonics rose to meet this need (Smitherman 19). Using Ebonics, slaves were able to communicate behind their masters’ backs and form a unity that was instrumental in the perseverance of African American culture through the unspeakable trials of slavery.

The documentary "Talking Black in America" explores the evolution of African American English from its origins among the descendants of American slaves to its place in contemporary Black culture. The film sheds light on the speech patterns, linguistic structures, and cultural influences present within the Black community. Through the stories of African American individuals across the United States, the documentary showcases the struggles of living through oppression, segregation, and the ongoing fight for equality. It also delves into the complexities surrounding African American speech and the challenges of language-based discrimination that Black culture continues to face today. I found the history of African American English to be quite

According to “Do you Speak Americans: Episode 1,” “African American middle men captured slaves that had different languages causing African Americans to form pidgin.” African Americans had to learn a new style in order to communicate with each other; this is an example of code-switching in earlier parts of history. Code-switching did not stop here, but continued into the new land. According to “Do you Speak American: Episode 4,” “Slaves had to pick up English from their owners; if they didn’t, then the slaves would have be beaten.” Slaves had to forget their African language and their pidgin in order to stay alive in America. Do you believe the intention was for them to forget their own language, or was the intention for them to adapt to American standards? Their intention was not to forget their own language, but to adapt to their new

(1) The use of natural dialect can be seen throughout the slave narrative interviews through words and phrases used that were common during the period of slavery, but are not used today. One example can be seen in the dialect used by former slave Mama Duck, “Battlin stick, like dis. You doan know what a battling stick is? Well, dis here is one.” Through incomplete sentences and unknown words the natural dialect of the time can be seen. Unfamiliar words such as shin-plasters, meaning a piece of paper currency or a promissory note regarded as having little or no value. Also, geechees, used to describe a class of Negroes who spoke Gullah. Many examples can be seen throughout the “Slave Narratives”

The legislation had denied the slaves of any formal education and perhaps this is what contributed to their strong oral language tradition. Up to the early 1700’s the southern Black population never exceeded 15%, by the 18th century the population rose to 40%. (Wood, 1974).

For example, back in slavery time, African Americans “had to quickly adapt to the English language of their masters” (Ettlinger). This adjustment has altered blacks in the south to adapt the way the English language is spoken in the south. Moreover, the word drawl is often confused with the morpheme word “draw.” If the letters “ers” is added, we not only get a completely different word (drawers), but it becomes plural in the case of drawls. Though the words sound similar, there is a huge difference in their

“Around 1858, over 400 slaves from Africa were brought to Georgia none of them knowing how to speak the English Language.” (Smitherman, 1994, p10) Being that these two groups merged together they adapted each other’s language whether it was correct or incorrect. On the East Coast of America, “the Blacks spoke a different degree of Ebonics”. (Lewis, 1996, MSN) In 1744 The New York Evening Post read, "Ran away...a new Negro Fellow named Prince, he can't scarce speak a Word of English" (Fisher, 1996, MSN) In 1760 an ad in the North Carolina Gazette read: "Ran away from the Subscriber, African Born, speaks bad English."(Stoller,1996, MSN) In 1734, the Philadelphia American Weekly Mercury read: “Run away; he’s Pennsylvania Born and speaks good English," These articles show where each person came from and what there English was like. It is obvious that masters kept tabs on how well their slave could talk. It was one of the ways that the masters could identify their slaves when they had many of them. They also used the slaves that new good English to translate or explain what the other slaves were saying. In the Mid 1800's slaves tried to use their language to help them escape from slavery. They would sing spirituals, which their masters could not understand. Harriet Tubman and many others communicated in Ebonics, which their masters couldn't

On August 20th, 1619, nearly four centuries ago, the first Africans were brought to their foreign home, America, and the implementation of systematic oppression served to eradicate their identity had begun. The inhabitants of Africa, unconsciously traded in their cultural customs such as religion beliefs, knowledge, and language for the formalities of the Western world, leading to the oppression of African people. Language and diction being one of the core building blocks of society, has become a hidden weapon in the war of Racism, as a method to oppress those seen as an “other.” Through religion, mass media, and politics, diction has become a silent weapon used to attack the Black community. In order to adequately understand the negative implications of diction, the analysis of the origins of language is necessary.

It is arguable that African American English is a dialect of contemporary American English. While AAE is different and is easily distinguishable from Standard American English, the two dialects still share similarities and are forms of vernacular English. As AAE stems from and shares many linguistic patterns with Creole and other African languages, it is possible to argue that AAE is in fact not related to contemporary American English at all. However, I feel that the different influences on language are simple markers of regional variation and not enough to fully

African American vernacular traditions have been around for many centuries and still cease to exist in their culture. The vernacular traditions of the African Americans started when slaves were existent in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. It is believed that the slaves spoke a mix of Creole and partial English, in which they had to create in order to communicate between them discreetly. The vernacular traditions originated from the way the slaves lived their lives and their creativity. The relationship between the slaves and their masters, were very weak because the master’s believed that the slaves were inferior to them. It is believed that African American

Spoken language has developed throughout millennia and has changed in so many ways, even though English may not have

The next four lines describe how language changes. The change in language is compared to a river. The change, like a river eroding a landscape, takes time. In order for a river to change course it must erode away land for years upon years. In the same way, a language slowly evolves. New words and pronunciations may change its course. Not only can spoken words change the course, but gestures and written language can change it as well.

James and Lesley Milroy’s ‘Linguistic Change, Social Network and Speaker Innovation’ was published by Journal of Linguistics in 1985. The article is one of several publications by the Milroys which draw upon Lesley Milroy’s fieldwork in Belfast during the 1970s (see, for instance, Milroy & Milroy 1978, 1992, 1993; L. Milroy, 1987; J. Milroy 1992). I will first present a summary of the Milroys’ methodology and key findings. Secondly, I will examine the strengths of the paper, focusing on their appropriation of Granovetter’s weak-tie theory and the correlation between network strength and two different kinds of language change. Finally, I will evaluate the weaknesses of the paper, with a specific focus on the lack of empirical evidence,

Most young children develop language rapidly, moving from crying and cooing in infancy to using hundreds of words and understanding their meanings by the time they are ready to enter kindergarten. Language development is a major accomplishment and is one of the most rewarding experiences for anyone to share with a child. Children learn to speak and understand words by being around adults and peers who communicate with them and encourage their efforts to talk.

are used by a lot of people aged 12 - 18, it is quite possible that in