African American Vernacular English: phonology Discussion

As we saw, AAVE shares a basic sound system with most varieties of English. However, the rules for the combining of these sounds differ in notable ways. In fact, phonological markers of AAVE are noticeable features to the ears of those who speak other English varieties.

Historically, vowel systems of English have been known to systematically shift, with a whole chain of vowels moving uniformly in one direction or other in vowel space. Recent research by William Labov and his associates has shown that there are two major ongoing chain shifts affecting the vowels in American speech: the Southern Shift and the Northern Cities Chain Shift (Labov 1994). However this same research has proposed that African Americans are not participating in these chain shifts. This proposal is supported by several studies. For example, recent research conducted in Detroit by the author of this entry revealed that most AAVE speakers in the sample had vowel pronunciations quite different from what would be expected if they were participating in the Northern Cities Chain Shift. For instance, he observed [diɪd]  for [dɪd] for [gɪt] for [gεt] for [kiɪdz] for [kɪds],[wiɪn] for [wɪn] and [nɪks] for [nεks]. These patterns indicate that the lax front vowels of the AAVE speakers in the sample were raised and tense, contrary to NCCS patterns that involve the lowering of [ɪ] and [ε].

Another interesting characteristic of the AAVE phonology is the nasalization of vowels in words such as [mãn] (for man). Nasal vowels in these environments are reminiscent of the fact that vowel nasality is phonemic in a number of African languages.