African-American Vernacular English

African-American Vernacular English^[a] (AAVE) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians.^[2] Having its own unique grammatical, vocabulary, and accent features, AAVE is employed by middle-class Black Americans as the more informal and casual end of a sociolinguistic continuum. However, in formal speaking contexts, speakers tend to switch to more standard English grammar and vocabulary, usually while retaining elements of the non-standard accent.^[3][4] AAVE is widespread throughout the United States, but is not the native dialect of all African Americans, nor are all of its speakers African American.^[5][6][7]

As with most English varieties spoken by African Americans, African-American Vernacular English shares a large portion of its grammar and phonology with the rural dialects of the Southern United States,^[8] and especially older Southern American English,^[9] due to the historical enslavement of African Americans primarily in that region.

Mainstream linguists maintain that the parallels between AAVE, West African languages, and English-based creole languages are existent but minor,^{[10][11][12][13]} with African-American Vernacular English genealogically tracing back to diverse non-standard dialects of English^[14][15] as spoken by the English-speaking settlers in the Southern Colonies and, later, Southern United States.^[16] However, a minority of linguists argue that the vernacular shares so many characteristics with African creole languages spoken around the world that it could have originated as its own English-based creole or semi-creole language, distinct from the English language, before undergoing a process of decreolization.^[17][18][19]

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