Homework #1

Please type your homework, using 12-point font and 1-inch margins.

1. What's in a Name?

Names of both groups of people and their language use evolve over time. For example, America has seen the following (simplified) evolution of terms:

Colored à Negro à Black (à) African American

I put the parentheses around the arrow between "Black" and "African American" because I do not believe that there is a completed transition here. In fact, there is currently some controversy in the Black/African American community as to which term is superior!

The following terms have seen use in an effort to name the language use of many Black Americans:

·Black English ·Black English Vernacular ·Afro American English

·African American English ·African American Vernacular English

Your job:

a) State which terms you typically use to name the people and the language use. Briefly explain your preference.

b) Interview a young (under 30) African American. Ask whether he or she prefers the term "Black" or "African American," and find out why. Then show your consultant the list of language names above, and learn which one he or she likes best (and why). Write up your findings.

c) Same as (b) above, but interview an African American age 50 or older.

2. African Origins of Black English?

On pages 6-7 of Talkin and Testifyin, Smitherman points out nine similarities that Black English has with West African languages in general. She does not, however, give specific examples from any West African languages here.

Your job:

pick one of the 19 West African Languages from the map on page 42 of the McWhorter book. Do a little research and find out whether your selected language actually shows any or all of the nine characteristics that Smitherman points out. Wikipedia can be a good start, but also feel free to use descriptive grammars from libraries other internet sources, or personal interviews with native speakers. Just make sure you tell me where your data come from. You probably won't be able to find data on all nine factors, but do your best and you will be okay.

3. Are these Generalizations of Black English Legitimate?

We have seen some generalizations of the sound system of Black English; see pages 17-18 of Smitherman for a list of some of them.

Your job:

Record a television show whose principal cast members are African American. I recommend either a situation comedy or perhaps a stand-up comedy show. Watch the videotape (at least 15 minutes' worth) and see if you can find examples of any of these pronunciation generalizations that we've talked about in class and seen in the texts. Example:

Richard (older brother, age 19) says "mo" Instead of "more," dropping the final r sound.

You don't get to use the same example more than once, so if Richard says "mo" ten times, that only counts as one piece of data. If a different character says "mo," though, you can use that. Try to find at least 7 examples.

4. Syntactic Traits

On page 130 of the McWhorter book, you see a narrative in Black English about a girl named Shirley. Please read this very carefully (as well as McWhorter's discussion of it).

Your job:

Start from the third paragraph (beginning "When Shirley get home...."), and go through each sentence until the end. For each sentence, please point out if there are any ways in which the storyteller's syntax differs from Standard English. Some sentences may have more than one difference; some sentences may not have any differences. Be as thorough as you can. Use technical terminology to the extent that you can, but don't worry if you need to be a bit informal in some of your descriptions.