Language in African American Communities is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the language, culture, and sociohistorical contexts of African American communities. It will also benefit those with a general interest in language and culture, language and language users, and language and identity. This book includes discussions of traditional and non-traditional topics regarding linguistic explorations of African American communities that include difficult conversations around race and racism. Language in African American Communities provides:
• an introduction to the sociolinguistic and paralinguistic aspects of language use in African American communities; sociocultural and historical contexts and development; notions about grammar and discourse; the significance of naming and the pall of race and racism in discussions and research of language variation and change;
• activities and discussion questions which invite readers to consider their own perspectives on language use in African American communities and how it manifests in their own lives and communities; and
• links to relevant videos, stories, music, and digital media that represent language use in African American communities.
Written in an approachable, conversational style that uses the author’s native African American (Women’s) Language, this book is aimed at college students and others with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics.
By:
Sonja Lanehart
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 198mm,
Width: 129mm,
Weight: 360g
ISBN: 9781138189690
ISBN 10: 1138189693
Series: Routledge Guides to Linguistics
Pages: 246
Publication Date: 30 December 2022
Audience:
General/trade
,
College/higher education
,
ELT Advanced
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
"Contents List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for English in the Continental U.S. Chapter 1: Talkin and Testifyin Introduction: My Subjectivities and Positionalities Name a Thing a Thing: About Definitions and Naming What to Expect Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry References Filmography Discography Digital Media Chapter 2: A Seat at the Table: What Are You Bringing to the Table Before We Even Get Started? Introduction: Real Talk Linguistic Prejudice Linguistic Shame and Denial Linguistic Pride and Acceptance Contradictions and All What You’re Not Going to Do: Definitions, Naming, and Pet Peeves To HEL—or HEC—and Back: The Messiness of Having the Army and the Navy Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry References Filmography Discography Digital Media Chapter 3: ""Put Some Respeck on My Name!"": Language and Uses of Identity in African American Communities Introduction: How We Gon Play This? Who Do People Say That I Am? A Word on Ebonics What Does It Feel Like to Be a Problem? Say My Name! Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry References Filmography Digital Media Chapter 4: ""Where Your People From?:"" Problematizing Origins and Development Introduction: Controversial History, Development, and Contested Origins The Deficit Hypothesis (Neo–)Anglicist and (Neo–)Creolist Origins Hypotheses Consensus Hypotheses: Substratist, Restructuralist, and Ecological The Divergence/Convergence Hypothesis My Conclusion: PeriodT! Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry References Filmography Discography Chapter 5: What’s Good? A Concise Descriptivist Meta–Grammar of Language Use in African American Communities Introduction: We Bout to Ride Up on This Elephant Why Y’all so Interested in Language Use in African American Communities? Patterns, Systems, and Structure, Oh My! Lexical Level: Word Classes and Word Formation Syntactic Level, Part 1: Verbal Markers Syntactic Level, Part 2: From Multiple Negation to Patterns in Question Formation Morphosyntactic Level: Inflections Phonological Level Speech Events, Discourse, Pragmatics, Nonverbal, and Paralinguistic Levels Where Does This Leave Us? Questions, Discussions, and Further Inquiry References Digital Media Chapter 6: Where Your People At?: Regional and Geographic Variation Introduction: A New Day Is Dawning Gullah Geechee Urban and Rural CORAAL, et al. From Regional to Social Variation Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry References Filmography Digital Media Chapter 7: Where My Shawty’s At? Social and Gendered Variation Introduction: It’s about to Be Lit Up in Here Black American Sign Language, or Black ASL Standards in Language Use in African American Communities Middle–Class Language Use in African American Communities African American Women’s Language, or AAWL Hip Hop Nation Language, or HHNL Sexuality and Gendered Identity in Language Use in African American Communities Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry References Filmography Discography Digital Media Chapter 8: This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Pop Culture, Social Media, and Digital Media Introduction: Whatcha Know Good? Afrofuturism and Ebonics Ya Man, Steve Harvey: Blacktainment Extraordinaire The Queen of Soul to Spoken Soul Black Twitter and Language Use in African American Communities Digital Media and the Performance of Language Use in African American Communities I Refuse to Eat the Cake Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry References Filmography Discography Digital Media Chapter 9: It’s Not the Shoes, Bruh! You Black!: African American Language Use in AmeriKKKa’s Educational ApparatU.S. Introduction: That’s the Way of the World How and When We Enter White Educational Spaces … and Some Definitions We Ain’t Havin It!: Let’s Get on the Good Foot We Come from a Remarkable People The Research: Language and Linguistic Justice for Black Children Language of Black America on Trial: The Ann Arbor ""Black English"" Trial and the Oakland Ebonics Controversy As My Dad Would Say, ""Stop Pussyfootin Roun the Issue:"" Because Racism Questions and Further Inquiry References Filmography Discography Digital Media Chapter 10: ""If You Don’t Know Me by Now …"" Introduction: You Cain’t Do Wrong and Get By Things I Didn’t Discuss that You Might Consider Whatcha Know Good?: What I Hope You Did, Learned, and Hope to Do Questions, Discussion, and Further Inquiry References Discography Index"
Sonja Lanehart is Professor of Linguistics; Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies; and Africana Studies at the University of Arizona, USA. Her scholarship focuses on language and education in African American and Black communities; language and identity; sociolinguistics; raciolinguistics; and critical sociolinguistics from Black feminisms, critical race theory, critical discourse analysis, and intersectionality perspectives. She is particularly interested in African American Women’s Language and pushing the boundaries of research in sociolinguistics, language variation, and education to be anti-racist, inclusive, diverse, and equitable in the fight for social and linguistic justice. Her publications include Sista, Speak! Black Women Kinfolk Talk about Language and Literacy (2002); African American Women’s Language: Discourse, Education, and Identity (ed., 2009); and The Oxford Handbook of African American Language (ed., 2015).
Reviews for Language in African American Communities
This is a splendid book, fully recognizing that language is a social, cultural, psychological, grammatical, homeland-based, and historical package. Language in African American Communities is brimming with the worldview, turns-of-phrase, and even the musical backdrop of our Blacktalk, which is permeated with the feelings, perspectives, and positionalities of its lifelong speakers. You can speak AAL grammatically, but that doesn't mean you can Blacktalk. Sonja L. Lanehart in this book generously presents an introduction to Ebonics as a form of language, action, and social being. Arthur K. Spears, Presidential Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology Emeritus, The City University of New York No one is better qualified to write this book than Sonja Lanehart, the Queen of innovative research and publication on language in African American communities over the past two decades! I wish I were still teaching to take advantage of Sonja's lively personal style, her professional insights and her thought-provoking questions following each chapter! John R. Rickford, J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor of Humanities, Dept of Linguistics, emeritus, Stanford University
