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ethnography
Author(s): Tamara Mose Brown and Erynn Masi de Casanova
Source: Ethnography , June 2014, Vol. 15, No. 2 (June 2014), pp. 208-231
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.
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Ethnography
i>SAGE
Vernacular English in
ethnography
Tamara Mose Brown
Brooklyn College, USA
Abstract
Ethnography is often described as the translation of culture, yet there has been
discussion of actual linguistic translation in ethnography. Many ethnographers enga
research across divides of language that require them to make decisions about how
represent the language of their informants. The privileging of academic Standard En
creates dilemmas for ethnographers whose subjects speak stigmatized languages. B
on an analysis of 32 book-length ethnographies about African Americans (reviewe
the American Journal of Sociology between 1999 and 2009), this article answers t
questions of how ethnographers typically deal with language difference in their te
particularly when research takes place across dialects of the same language, and w
language matters in the production of ethnographic texts.
Keywords
ethnography, language, linguistics, AAVE, African American Vernacular English, B
English, anthropology, culture, representation, insider/outsider
Corresponding author:
Tamara Mose Brown, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Department of Sociology, 2900 Be
Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11210, USA.
Email: tbrown@brooklyn.cuny.edu
American communities in o
choosing not to discuss thei
of participants' AAVE speec
sample do little to discuss th
the sociolinguistic choices o
analysis that was eventuall
important as it clarifies fo
the researcher and particip
researchers have a privilege
who are relatively subordin
ethnographies we reviewed
their publications. This negle
call for more language reflex
how social class is reproduc
Basil Bernstein's work). Altho
writing and the similarity of
tion of habitus, Basil Berns
and teacher/student relatio
pant through language fram
nication' (Sadovnik 2001: 61
perpetuate inequality.
Urban ethnographers parti
their participants when the
ance and a means of markin
inequality, urban ethnograp
participate in the same raci
Appendix 1 for location of
avoiding inaccurate translatio
as we explain in this article
rapher represents the 'other'
Methods
Results
Table 1 shows how authors of African American ethnographies talk (or don't
about language. Of the ethnographies, 50 percent show the participants speaking
African American Vernacular English: exemplifying the grammar, syntax, an
pronunciations associated with this dialect of English. Yet only 16 percent of
ethnographies included any discussion of how language was transcribed in the tex
with some of these citing Black English as a standard used to present particip
authentically. While more than 90 percent of the ethnographies contain larg
tions of text representing participants' speech (verbatim quotes or narratives), it
surprising that only two ethnographies contain a dedicated language section w
AAVE grammar, words and pronunciation are addressed in detail. Most of
authors did not inform readers of their own proficiency as AAVE speaker
listeners).5
These findings suggest that, in general, ethnographers of African American life
are giving short shrift to AAVE and its representation in the text, and only min
imally addressing transcription of participants' language. The exclusion of such
discussions calls into question the researcher's competency as a cultural and lin
guistic translator, creating a lack of transparency in authors' decisions. We turn
now to discussions of several of the reviewed ethnographies, which were analyzed
Pattillo-McCoy provides ex
depended on the interactional
AAVE with her participants,
more about how she felt her
study. One section of the bo
language is important for uni
She gives an example of how her
in their community and how th
selves (Pattillo-McCoy 2000: 9
to show how language divides ar
blacks inhabit, even African A
(Pattillo-McCoy 2000: 9). The p
non-standardized transcripti
then, that Wacquant would
accent, maintaining the pho
does not do this. By includin
story being told, the author e
leged position as a writer of
Occasionally, Wacquant prese
legitimacy as an AAVE 'insider
himself as both the privileg
raphers tend to study, and thu
read as lacking humility when
ence between them and their
In their co-authored book An
and sociologist Pierre Bourdi
being represented by the dom
researcher, as potentially ha
ital that is fraught with colon
complexities of such vernacu
privileged researcher and the
such as Standard English) a
English. Yet how can a distinct
syntax, grammar, and seman
how do AAVE semantics, gra
made aware of the back-and-
'reality' being presented in an
out reflexive consciousness a
of language to one or two pa
the ethnographies we exami
trained or expected to addres
Moving forward
Language matters because it
categories that maintain soci
and writing across linguistic
inequality and have choices, a
lisher, about how to present t
and 'less than'. In searching
typically deal with linguistic d
participants, we focused on eth
United States. There was a div
same national language as eth
research subjects' language in
sion fraught with ethical, tec
Acknowledgements
We are especially grateful to Ph
Jooyoung Lee, and Gregory Smith
this article. We are indebted to A
Thanks also to the audience of a
this article were initially presented
for their substantive comments.
Notes
References
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Abrahams R (1972) Stereotyping and beyond. In: Abrahams RD and Troike RC
Language and Cultural Diversity in American Education. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Pre
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Atkinson Ρ (1990) The Ethnographic Imagination. New York: Routledge.
Baca Zinn M (1979) Field research in minority communities: Ethical, methodological
political observations from an insider. Social Problems 27(2): 209-219.
Bailey G (2001) The relationship between African-American Vernacular English and w
vernaculars in the American South. In: Lanehart S (ed.) African American English:
of the Art. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing, pp. 53-92.
Baugh J (1983) Black Street Speech: Its History, Structure, and Survival. Austin: Univer
of Texas Press.
Author Biographies
Tamara Mose Brown is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Program Director of
Caribbean Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY. She is author of Raising Brooklyn:
Nannies, Childcare, and Caribbeans Creating Community (NYU Press, 2011).
U.S. Region
€0
■■
EastEast
Coast: 33%Coast: 33%
■■
Midwest:
Midwest:
34% 34%
■■
South:
South:
13% 13%
Appendix 2