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The Language Caste System:

Is Black English Substandard English?

This all too familiar conversation was shared with a group of students recently: Aww, Mrs.
Johnson. You jes want us to talk white cause you talk white. I aint gon be no sellout!
Sadly, these are statements I hear way too often in the classroom, and they come mainly from
my adolescent African-American males. I dont know when speaking according to the mores of
Standard American English(SAE) become a racial issue or why our African-American youth are
falling into the trap of thinking that says to them that being smart, or speaking well equates as
being/acting white and being dumb and sounding ignorant equates to being black. I never
thought about language or how a person chooses to talk as being a race issue. I grew up in a time
when we were encouraged to speak correctly, that is to adopt Standard American English (SAE)
as the proper way to speak. I was told that knowing how to speak this way would allow me to
advance farther in life, that knowing how to talk proper would open more doors for me. I had
teachers who would penalize us students for using dialects other than the standard. My high
school English teacher would take two points off our grade for each language faux pas she would
hear us say both in the classroom and the hallway, so we learned to stay within the rules of
correct grammar usage as stated by the SAE rulebook. Its true that knowing how to speak the
language of the majority population has opened some career doors and opportunities for me to
move up, yet I still have a penchant for using my home languagethe language I grew up
hearing my grandmother and other non-educated, not so stridently trained people speak. I didnt
look down on them because they didnt speak the standard but rather enjoyed their rhythmic,
expressive communication. I just never saw the differences as nor was told that the way I spoke

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was talking white. After reading about the origin of African-American English (AAE) in our text
as well as in other journals and articles, I see the language/dialectical choice issue as more of a
class standard as opposed to a race issue.
As I understand it, according to my African American male students, choosing to speak
according to the benchmark or standard of the language is to step out of ones societal place or
class. The person who chooses to speak a standard dialect is perceived by his or her peers as a
sellout to other members of their identity group. That person is perceived as a deserter by those
who choose to continue speaking societys interpretation of the substandard way of speaking.
The ones who speak SAE are often perceived as thinking they are better than other people in
their racial group or class just because they choose to use the standard dialect. Some are not even
seen as being Black. President Obama has even been dismissed by some of the younger groups
as not being really black because he articulates his words when he talks. They say, He dont
even talk like us. The dialect war is an ongoing conflict.
According to the text, Most regional dialects of the United States are largely free from
stigmaThere is, however, a social dialect of North American English that has been a victim of
prejudicial ignorance. This dialect, African American English (AAE), is spoken by a large
population of Americans of African descent. The distinguishing features of this English dialect
persist for social, educational, and economic reasons (Fromkin 443).
After looking into this angst the majority has toward this dialect, I find it nonsensical.
Research shows that many of the phonological sounds spoken by AAE speakers come from the
British settlers. For example, speech patterns from the four main migrations are engrafted in
AAE dialects. A few features are the pronunciation of [O] in caught and bought, the low fronted
[a] instead of back as in farfah or fatherfahthah, that also includes the deletion of

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syllable final [r], and lastly, the compensatory addition of [r] after a final schwa in words such as
Cuber for Cuba (Dialects 4).
Further investigation shows that the New England dialect and New York English affected
AAE in these two ways: one, since the Dutch, who settled in Nieuw Amsterdam, had no
interdentals, the interdentals became t,d as in dese, dat, and dem instead of these, that , or them;
the second way in that it too used the once high class [r]-less pronunciation of words so prevalent
in AAE (Dialects).
Perhaps the biggest influence on AAE was that of the Cavaliers who fled from south and
southwest England with their indentured servants and settled in Virginia. They brought with
them their south England drawla drawing out of the vowels), and they brought phrases as
aksed (instead of asked), and aint (instead of isnt). Some of the other features of their dialect
was the Southern drawl that cause vowels to become long or diphthongalized: house=ha:wse,
eggs=ai:gz; some words even contain trip thongs: flowers=[fla:ierz]; more would be the loss of
final t, d after another consonant: an(d), tol(d), yall for you all, and finally, the first syllable
accented rather than the second in words such as guitar, July, police, elope, or insurance
(Dialects).
I was shocked to discover these facts, especially the point about the pronunciation of aksed. I
thought for years that this was a strictly black thing. I have worked for years to school students
on the correct way to say that word so as to not look and sound ignorant. I read in a book by Eric
Jerome Dickey once how the college-educated brother was correcting his dropout brother on
how to properly say the word. He told him to just imagine he was telling someone that he or she
was going to get his ass kickedass-k. I thought how cool. Now I learn that this is a Tidewater
North Carolina dialectal. Ill still correct it, but I feel better knowing its not a black thang.

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One ironic fact that surfaced in my research was the fact that the upper class southern dialects
and the dialects of the coastal southern areas were influenced by the English spoken by West
Africans. I found this incredible. Even the southern drawl has been attributed to the speech
patterns of the Africans brought to the 13 colonies. These facts offer the perfect segue to the
topic of Black English.
Black English is one of four categories of AAE: African American Vernacular English, Inner
City English, Black English, and Ebonics. Despite it being an offshoot of mainly the mainstream
dialects and vernaculars, it is still viewed as a language generally used in casual and informal
situations, and is much more common among working class people. Some critics attempt to
equate its use with inferior genetic intelligence and cultural deprivation, justifying these incorrect
notions by stating that AAE is a deficient, illogical, and incomplete language (Fromkin 443).
This last statement offers some insight into why my black male students embrace the idea that to
use a standard-ish dialect of the language removes them from their peers and in some cases their
families. Most of them grow up being bombarded with language that debases their existence,
with test scores that identify them as deficient, with being classified as the subpopulations in
their schools, and being portrayed as menaces to society in the media, so they see not need to
speak a dialect that vilifies them. What I would like for them to know and understand is that
whereas there are syntactic differences that exist between dialects, there is evidence that AAE is
as syntactically complex and as logical as SAE (Fromkin 445).
Even though linguistic research shows that there are similar phonological and syntactical
similarities in all dialects, there are a few that significantly set AAE apart from others. Some of
the more pronounced syntactic differences in AAE are spoken across class lines in the African
American communities, the main ones being the use of the verb Be. The deletion of the verb

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be is prevalent. Statements like he nice, he cute, she gon do it, she beautiful can be heard in
board rooms as well as in homes. Its a standard for African Americans of all education levels.
One of the reasons for the deletion is the West African languages had no use of the linking verb
to be or generalization of one form for it (Dialects). The other culprit is what the text calls the
habitual Be. This syntactical phenomenon is also a West African language crossover that
places emphasis on aspect rather than tense (Dialects). The use of the habitual Be also crosses
class lines within the race. It is not uncommon to hear statements like They be late all the time
or He be getting on my nerves! being spoken by groups from all walks of life.
Although I concur with this portion of the explanations/information in the text, I came across
a few lines that I disagree with. In the section There Replacement on page 446, there are some
statements listed that are not correct. The statement Aint no one going to help you would, in
truth, be stated Aint nobody gon help you. Im sure the authors did some intense research to
arrive at their findings; however, one has to live with it and even speak it to know the true flow
of the language.
I hate that our African American school-aged males tend to be the main AAE
speakers and feel that speaking it and it only qualifies them as a .bonafide member of their
race. What I dislike even more is how some groups have watched AAE evolve into Ebonics
and tout it as a means to improve African American student achievement. I fail to see how
this is a legitimate claim when all of the state tests are written in Standard American
English, which for many minority students is their second language. On one hand I can see
how groups see no harm in fostering this language dialect, but I along with Glenn
Singleton, the writer of this piece, Are We Talking Ebonics Here? see a more insidious
ulterior motive behind supporting it:

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Moments after the Oakland School Board announced its intention to recognize Ebonics as an official
language of African-American students, celebrities and common folk throughout the world felt the
need to voice their dissenting opinions. Ironically, moments before this historical announcement,
few people had anything to say about Oakland's--or any other predominantly black school district's--
pedagogical strategies. One must wonder why Oakland's decision is so important to the U.S. Senate
and our Commander in Chief himself. . .Unfortunately, the debate among the less-informed critics
has been focused on whether Ebonics is truly a language and not on the fact that African-Americans,
by and large, continue to perform at the bottom of their class in Oakland, Washington D.C. and here
in Palo Alto. Intellectuals and politicians would prefer to ponder so-called world-class standards,
rather than commit resources and research to developing interventions specifically aimed at
improving African-American student achievement. Finally, John and Jane Q. Public continue to
ignore the disparity of educational funding, facilities and fame which typifies Oakland, Detroit,
Baltimore and New Orleans as they suggest to Oakland that they function like "good" districts. Are
we talking Ebonics here? . . . So here we sit at another historic crossroads--a genuine and rare
opportunity to improve teaching and learning for those children who, categorically, have never been
successful in school. Whether or not we believe in Ebonics as the key to improve African-American
student achievement, we must recognize that society will advance only when our least-served, least-
productive citizens become educated, employed and hopeful. Thus, let us quickly transgress this
superficial Ebonics debate and thoughtfully attend to the real issues. Because it is not about
legitimizing Black English in Oakland; it's about African-Americans throughout this country
acquiring the powers of language. It can't be about exclusive bipartisan politics any longer; it must
be about equitable education. Finally, we must shift our focus from closed-minded adults refusing to
relinquish power to innocent children struggling to seize that power. An educated, empowered
Oakland child is the key to our collective future (Singleton)
Singleton, like me, sees how trapping these young people in a mode of only
knowing one language and especially one that is not seen as an acceptable, handicaps
them in the academic arenas and disallows them to advance in society.
The research required for this essay has really opened my eyes to reasons why
some of my students feel the way they feel about the use of language and whats proper
for them. It has helped me to see the language barrier through their eyes, and it has
allowed me to learn additional information about the roots of my native language. I just
hope I can now share this information with these young men to enlighten them and
hopefully spur an incentive to want to step out of their comfort zones.




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Works Cited

Dialects, Linguistics 201 American. "The Dialects of American English." 26 March 2011.
pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/.../AmericanDialects.htm . 26 March 2011.
<http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu>.

Fromkin, Victoria. "An Introduction to Language." Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams. An
Introduction to Language. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011. 442-468.

"King James Bible Online." 27 March 2011. The Official King James Bible Online. 27 March 2011
<http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/.>.

Singleton, Glenn. "Are We Talking Ebonics Here?" The Palo Alto Weekly (1997).