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Office, E.E. African American Vernacular. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/61207 (accessed on 22 October 2026).
Office EE. African American Vernacular. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/61207. Accessed October 22, 2026.
Office, Encyclopedia Editorial. "African American Vernacular" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/61207 (accessed October 22, 2026).
Office, E.E. (2026, October 21). African American Vernacular. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/61207
Office, Encyclopedia Editorial. "African American Vernacular." Encyclopedia. Web. 21 October, 2026.
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African American Vernacular
EditAfrican American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a systematic variety of English associated historically with African American communities in the United States, characterized by distinctive phonological, grammatical, and lexical patterns [1][2]. Its grammatical features include specific patterns of copula absence, habitual be, and tense and aspect marking, which follow rule-governed constraints rather than representing random departures from standardized English [1][2]. AAVE exhibits internal variation across speakers and contexts and is studied as a linguistic variety shaped by historical development, language contact, and the social dynamics of African American speech communities [1][2].
African American English
Language variation
Sociolinguistics
Grammatical variation
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References
- Green, L. J. African American English: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2002. https://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/classes/sum08/myths/green02.pdf
- Wolfram, W. The Grammar of Urban African American Vernacular English. In The Handbook of Varieties of English; Kortmann, B., Schneider, E. W., Burridge, K., Mesthrie, R., Upton, C., Eds.; Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin, Germany, 2004; pp. 111–132. https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9783110197181_A19971649/preview-9783110197181_A19971649.pdf
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