Black Grammar Quiz

Part I: What's In a Name?
A Chronology of Once Popular Names: Black Dialect -- Black English -- Black Vernacular
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) -- African American Vernacular (AAV)
Ebonics -- African American English (AAE) -- African American Language (AAL)
. . . We Say Black Language (BL)

As you watch and listen to these rhetors, take note of a fave line and say why.

We Say Style Shifting....
NOT Code-Shifting

PART II: 6 basics of black grammar/
Black LanguaGe

After we discuss these elements of Black grammar, you will take a quiz/classroom activity via the google doc.

1. HABITUAL BE
She be trippin.

"Despite the stereotypes, people who use this feature do not use it in all sentences with the be verb, and they do not suffer from a lack of ability to conjugate be. Rather, uninflected be is used only to refer to habitual or regularly occurring actions...Note that Standard English does not have a special form of the be verb to indicate habituality. It uses an adverb or adverbial phrase with the verb to indicate this meaning (We usually play basketball; She often works late)." click here for source

3. 3RD-PERSON SINGULAR-S DELETION
He stay in my DMs.

"Another common feature of AAE is omitting the –s with verbs following a third person singular subject (compare Mainstream English I jump, you jump, we jump, they jump--but in AAE, it is she jump vs in ME, it is she jumps)." click here for source

5. REMOTE PAST MARKER
I been went to the store/ I BIN went to the store.

"This (stressed been) communicates that not only is something the case, and not only is it completed (ie. perfective aspect), but it has been for a long time. example: "he been got a job." meaning: he got a job a long time ago." It is about EMPHASIS. click here for source

2. COPULA ABSENCE
She stupid as hell.

"AAE speakers will occasionally omit any form of the verb to be in sentences that require a form of to be in Standard English. Example sentences would include She going or They hungry. But am and past tense was and were are never left out; thus you would never hear sentences like *I going or *They hungry last night. (The asterisk that precedes these sentences is a convention that linguists use to mark forms that would not be characteristic of a particular speech variety.)" click here for source

4. DOUBLE NEGATIVE
He don't care nuthin about her.

"Also common in AAE is what is called double negatives, as in We don’t know nothing bout nobody." This is common in Shakespeare and the like but is used especially for emphasis in Black Language. click here for source

6. PRETERITE HAD
She had told me that you lost internet in the storm.

"This refers to grammatical constructions that do not use had, but use the simple past: "he had went to work and then he had called his client." The meaning here is: he went to work and then he called his client." This is almost ALWAYS USED IN NARRATIVE, to foreshadow an upcoming story. click here for source

Now take the BL Grammar "Quiz" and see how you do.
Click here or fill out form below. NOTE: All examples are real. LOL!

https://forms.gle/13z26Ub7vAf3TcQe8

Who is eating cookies?
Who be eating cookies?

Part III. More on the Linguistic Features of Black Language

Click here for today's in-class hand-out

Part IV. Review of Homework (click here to edit)