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The George Washington University

People’s General Disapproval of Black Vernacular Language

Perpetuates the Harms of Language Barriers

Bailey Fischer-Columbo

Robin Marcus

UW: Black Speech in Public Space

22 November 2013

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AUDIENCE ANALYSIS

         The following paper is purposed to continue the

conversation of language barriers between Standard English and

Black Vernacular Language. Considering the current public

opinion, structure, and use of Black Vernacular Language will

help drive this discussion. The findings are directed towards

those who are intellectually curious about Black Vernacular

Languages but have hesitations towards “slangs” and their use.

This audience probably assumes that variations of Standard

English are incorrect and just slang.

This audience is a small group, 20-40 people, of closely

associated people in an academic setting (such as a classroom) so

after the paper they could productively discuss the topic. The

average member of this audience is younger in age and currently

in some level of schooling (probably high school or undergraduate

at a university) with limited exposure to language in technical

terms. The following certain demographics of the audience are not

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needed to be one specific way, but would be most helpful if each

category had different representation: gender, sexual

orientation, religion, and economic status. However, it would be

most helpful to have a roughly equal representation of these

categories, such as a roughly even number of males to females.

The race, ethnicity, and cultural background particulars are

also not absolute, but the paper is geared towards those with a

limited understanding and exposure to Black Vernacular Language.

So, because more Blacks will have more exposure to Black

Vernacular Language those well versed in the subject are not

preferred, but because not all Blacks have background knowledge

on Black Vernacular Language a certain race is not excluded. This

rule of thumb applies for concerns of ethnicity and cultural

background as well.

      This audience is targeted for one central reason: to

continue the conversation over the implications of language

barriers. The paper will include several linguists to present

multiple aspects of Black Vernacular Language from the social

stigma to its structure to analyze and understand current Black

Vernacular Language.

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INTRODUCTION

When I was born my umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck

several times which restricted air travel and hindered vital

developments. I was later diagnosed with apraxia which is

basically a disorder between transmissions from the nervous

system to the brain, especially apparent in motor skills. Most of

those diagnosed with apraxia fully understand the requests made,

but are unable to make their body move accordingly. The common,

and often only, fix to this is to completely relearn these sills

that come innate to others. Frequently in these diagnoses extreme

brain damage is inflicted, but fortunately in my situation only

my speech was impaired.

This complication was not visible until I was about three

years old and still could not speak. This delay was not alarming

because I had created a way of communication: my own sign

language. Okay, not an entire language but I could tell my

parents I wanted a lot of macaroni and what else does a kid

really need. When I did not grow out of this stage my parents

thought a doctor check up would be appropriate, and several

specialists later we found out why. Of the dozens of doctors and

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psychotherapists I saw not one delivered positive news. The

general prediction was I would never be able to speak in public,

I would say a few sentences in front of my immediate family,

would be extremely socially introverted, and probably barely

graduate high school. Thankfully this did not discourage daily

speech therapy lessons. I essentially had to learn how to talk

from the very beginning at age four. Speech therapy consisted of

eight years of pronouncing words, letter clusters, and singular

letters. My tutors tried every trick in the book from using candy

to help demonstrate how to make the sound of letters to reading

sentences backwards, but the results were not promising. It was

not until after 5th grade I was able to drop my enrollment in

speech therapy completely after I ‘magically learned how to read

after break’. Frankly I think the teacher was just hopeless of my

ability to learn the last few letters I struggled with, an

attitude she did not hide.

This environment had introduced me to all different patterns

of speech: mispronunciation, inability to speak, different verb

tenses, half verbal communication. When I first observed these

different speech patterns I was simultaneously being taught my

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different way of speaking was incorrect, and so I simply assumed

all variations of what I was being taught was incorrect. From

MidWest colloquialisms of ‘y’all’ and ‘ain’t’ to accents, if

speach was not this one specific way, it was wrong. ‘Slangs’, as

I had been taught they were, were not mentioned again in an

academic or informational atmosphere until my University Writing

class freshman year of college. Briefly referred to in class was

what I had always known as slang: Black Vernacular Language. As

the class progressed it was obvious Black Vernacular Language was

a large part of Black Culture and calling it slang was grossly

insulting.

This topic interested me because I have been on the

discriminated side of a language barrier but never heard any

discussion of the ‘slangs’ beyond the judgment. From as long as I

can remember I have been frequently questioned about my speech:

“why do you talk like that?” “Are you from somewhere else?” “Are

you British” (this one I still do not understand). It was never

just the questions, though. I recognized the automatic confusion

on everyone’s face when I spoke in front of a class. I was well

aware of the whispering during my presentations as to ‘why I just

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a word that way’ or ‘what did she even say’. Even though I was

taught the same language as those around me because I pronounced

my words slightly differently, I used different verb tenses; I

was always the wrong one. I had always seen the negative

connotation between language barriers, and experienced the

frustration of such. These reasons influenced my interest in

Black Vernacular Language.

To further facilitate the conversation of Black Vernacular

Language and its interactions with society I have used research

from various scholars and linguists over different aspects of

Black Vernacular Language. I first began gathering incidents that

concerned Black Vernacular Language in the social sphere to

identify its social connotation and hostilities. From here I

found it necessary to dedicate a primary portion of research to

understanding the structure of Black Vernacular Language. Knowing

the structure of Black Vernacular Language proved to be important

in answering many claims towards Black Vernacular Language about

its capricious nature. These findings lead to what is a major and

ironic start of language barriers. I used several language

studies of differing methods and articles from different

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geographic locations to collect a well versed repertoire of data

of which to observe Black Vernacular Language.

WHAT PLACED BLACK VERNACULAR LANGUAGE IN SOCIAL CONVERSATION

In the early 1990’s Oakland Public Schools of California

began to notice an extreme learning gap between Black students

and White students. Superintendent Carolyn Getridge documented

her findings in 1996 revealing over half of the students enrolled

in Oakland were Black; the honor program of the school only had

37% Black students; the Special Education program consisted of

over 70% Black children. This stark disparity amongst the two

races prompted action on behalf of Oakland. Oakland passed

legislation to incorporate Black Vernacular Language into the

school system to ameliorate the difference in speaking patterns

between Black and White students (Rickford 26). An honest

initiative, the legislation passed only pertained to previously

credited Vernacular Language (Rickford 27). Several reporters

skewed information claiming that Oakland was allowing slang to be

taught in schools, thus disqualifying education because the

public disliked Black Vernacular Language in a professional

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setting (Rickford 47). The intense news coverage led to a

dramatic increase of research of Black Vernacular Language

decades to follow by linguists and language scholars.

To propose this legislation was a bold move of Oakland

Schools with two important outcomes. Pushing for fundamental

changes in the teaching curriculum helped to gain quick media

attention which began to open the conversation of language

barriers in a public setting. Even though most of the attention

was negative because this topic had been so disregarded in years

prior any conversation was beneficial, and actually led to more

research in the field. The second important consequence was the

symbolism behind the action. When Oakland Schools decided to

include an alternative to Standard English inside the classrooms

they stopped exclusively privileging one language and subsequent

culture and inherently created a more equal atmosphere. This

action began to effect schools nationwide.

PUBLIC OPINION: from its debut, where has Black Vernacular Language been

since?

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Perhaps the most dangerous, and fascinating, feature of any

language, is the automatic connotation it carries. James Baldwin

wrote an article for the New York Times “If Black English Isn't a

Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” evaluating all a language can

reveal by its pronunciation. Baldwin equates the power of a

language to a political tool of power with the ability to tell

one’s class, socioeconomic status, job field, and history.

Baldwin gives the example of French variations across different

countries and though the ‘common’ language is French, those from

Senegal to those in Martinique are not speaking the same language

(Baldwin 1).

Is that true for every language? Perhaps no to this extreme

but in a study by Andrew C. Billings, “Black English speakers are

rated as ‘less credible’ than speakers of Standard English,”

hostilities amongst variations of common languages are verified.

Billings conducted a test between Black English and Standard

English to reveal which one was better perceived. The questions

surveyed 20 standards, such as intelligence, likeliness,

attractiveness, etc, to poll which language was more liked:

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Standard English won all 20 standards as overall more credible

(70).

The ability to portray so much just by speaking allows room

to create biases for one language over another, as Baldwin and

Billings discuss. These biases allow people to preference one

language to another, and everything that is tied with that

language: culture, history, class. Thus by picking one language

is to exclude the other languages and further establish a

language barrier through lack of acceptance.

IS THE PUBLIC TRUE?The majority is correct is a very dangerous standard to support

absolutely, but often has some validity. If there is so much

hostility toward Black Vernacular English specifically, is there

a reason behind it? Linguists knew the answer to deciphering the

anger against Black Vernacular Language was not simple and needed

to be fully analyzed as any other language: by book. The widely

accepted definition of a language remains: an effective

communication between groups of people. This definition sorts

evaluating a language into two standards: one, there has to be

some sense of a pattern in order to continuously use the

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language, and second, there has to be mutual acceptance amongst

that group that uses it. When applying this definition to

considering Black Vernacular, it achieves these two criteria

through its structure and current use.

        As in any language Vernacular speakers must follow a

specific set of codified rules to correctly speak Vernacular. The

two best avenues to compare the two are via verb tenses and

pronunciation. Linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum explicates the use of

verb tenses in his article “African American Vernacular English

is not Standard English with Mistakes” (46-47). Pullum focuses on

the verb “be” because it is “the most popular myth about

Vernacular is that is involved the misuse of the copula,” (45).

Pullum explains the “be” verb in Vernacular as the copula,

including tneses: be, being, am, are, is, was, and were (44). To

decide if the copula should be kept or omitted, address

accordingly: kept if it bears the stress/accent; kept if it is at

the end of the phrase; kept if in perfect tense; kept if copula

is negated; kept if shows habituation; kept if used in first

person singular; kept if in past tense. Pullum outlines the

copula in this manner to help understand reading Vernacular:

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James be happy.”

According to his list of rules this sentence demonstrates James’

is habitually happy and is currently happy. The Standard English

version of this example is “James is happy right now.”

Though the “be” verb is the most recognizable difference between

Black Vernacular Language and Standard English future and past

tenses are subordinate uses, but equally as important. In

Language in the Inner City by William Labov, explains the grammatical

and phonetic distinctions of future and present tenses. In the

future tense, Labov writes, ‘will’ and ‘going to’ are the most

altered (24). In the use of ‘will’ often times the whole verb is

used to indicate future, but the final ‘l’ is frequently dropped

to denote future tense. The use of ‘going to’ is condensed in a

similar way in the future form to: “gonna, gon’, ‘on’, and gwin,”

(25). Labov then explains similar to the future tense, the past

tense verbs are altered and pronounced accordingly (26).

The past tense decreases the amount of times ‘t’ or ‘d’ are used

and words ending in ‘ed’ are pronounced under the same rules

(Labov 25-27). Labov gives examples to (the first word is how the

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word is said; the second and third are the Standard English) (25-

27):

pass = past = passed                        pick =

picked

miss = mist = missed                      loan =

loaned

Labov chose these words to show the first column is said without

the ‘t’ or ‘d’ sound but means the same tense as the other two

columns (25). Labov’s grammatical dissection of Black Vernacular

Language makes it obvious that there are many rules with in Black

Vernacular Language, including correct and incorrect ways to

speak that bind it to a standard, even though the differences are

sometimes inaudible to the ear.

The other prominent side to differentiating between Black

Vernacular and Standard English is pronunciation. To counter the

common misconception of Black Vernacular Language as bad English,

linguists John Algeo, Thomas Pryles, and William Labov explain

the verbal side to Black Vernacular Language. In “The Origins and

Development of the English Language” John Algeo and Thomas Pryles

examine the usage of endings and their implications. Algeo and

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Pryles explain the ‘s’, ‘sk’, and ‘the’ of words. Words that end

in ‘s’ are typically dropped and give the example, often to imply

the pattern of habituation:

Vernacular: “He hear you” Standard English: “He

hears you.”

Another unique aspect to Vernacular is or “sk” in words. Found

most prominently amongst children when words end in ‘sk’ they are

said as ‘x’. The example of this rule is seen in the word ‘ask’:

Written as: ‘ask’      pronounced as ‘axe’.

Lastly, Vernacular leads speakers to pronounce words beginning

with “th” as “d”:

Written as: that                  pronounced as: dat

Written as: nothing             pronounced as: nuf’in

      In addition to these aspects of Black Vernacular Language

William Labov of “Language in the Inner City” explains three

other examples of structural differences. The facets Labov speaks

to include the use of ‘r’, ‘l’ and consonants (46). Labov writes

that verbally the letter ‘r’ is not pronounced and the letter ‘l’

is dropped, though Labov chiefly explains these lessons through

examples (47).

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        ‘R’ lessness:   written as = pronounced as

gaurd = god              fort = fought

                    sore = saw                Paris = pass

        ‘L’ lessness:     written as = pronounced as

                    toll = toe                  help = hep

                    fault = fought           all = awe

Labov then writes on what he considers “the most complex

variables in black speech” the letters: t, d, s, z (48). The

problem he identifies with these letters are their role in

consonant clusters, typically at the end of a word: past, rift,

and hold. Of these three examples, each word ends in two

consonants that are supposed to be a cluster, or pronounced

together as a mixed sound: ‘st’, ‘ft’, and ‘ld’. Again, found in

most speech patterns of children, these words’ endings are

mispronounced as, respectively: ‘ss’, ‘ff’, and ‘le’; all

simplifications of the original word (48).

        As noted above, several world renowned linguists have

explained the written, consistent, structure to Black Vernacular

Language, the first component to the common definition of what a

language is. The second prong to the definition is its use, which

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can be answered in Labov’s conclusions. Beyond the obvious

existence of Black Vernacular Language needed to conduct the

studies already mentioned in this essay Labov and Billings

noticed a vital implication of Black Vernacular Language: “both

linguistically and functionally, BE serves all communication

functions,” (68).

The need to understand, or at least be exposed to, the

structure of Black Vernacular Language is to respond the most

common attack against Black Vernacular Language. In the study

from Billings it was proven that the general public has

consistently preferred Standard English to Black Vernacular

Language overwhelmingly because of the way it sounds. When

listening to the language be spoken it often sounds like the

rules are being made up along the way because the listener has

limited knowledge about the circumstance. However, with this

exposure to the grammatical rules of Black Vernacular Language

that misperception is defended.

STRUCRURE: CHECK. WHERE DID PUBLIC OPINION COME FROM?

So, if Black Vernacular Language has structure, if it is

frequently used if it serves the same purpose as Standard

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English, where does the negative stigma keep perpetuating? To

this there are, as expected, several possibilities.

Billings’ explanation coincides with a theory that William

Labov wrote in his book “Inner City Language” which originally

points the blame to the instructors and the students through a

mutual ignorance (Labov 3). This idea addresses the shared

difference in communication betwixt teachers and students: the

teachers were trained to teach to a standard of Middle Class

English against the students’ mother tongue (Labov 4).  This

mutual disagreement and lack of understanding has created a

distinct barrier in the education system that has leaked to

social prejudices against non-middle class English. The true

problem arises when those in, and out, of the education system

blindly assume Standard English ought to be the standard of

speaking and is without flaws because it is taught that way.

In “The Elephant in the Classroom Race and Writing” Arthur

L. Palacas of the University of Akron describes his first

situation with Ebonics. Palacas was a professor at Cleveland

State University of a linguistics class and edited a Black

student’s essay (49) Palacas tried to explain to the student that

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he could not start a sentence with “Being as”, but Palacas said

he could use ‘since’ or ‘because’ (49). Palacas saw the event as

the “White Authority Figure” (Palacas) was “as assault of [the

student’s] person and race” (49). Palacas went to explain why he

found this situation so dramatic: Palacas was not qualified

enough to appreciate the cultural differences and validity of the

student’s paper (50). Palacas claims this is a problem amongst

any white teacher and Ebonics speaking student group and further

to a racial issue (50). The importance of this Palacas’

predicament proves the value of Black Vernacular Language, a

qualified language and the little it is valued in the educational

system. Palacas rationalizes the importance of Ebonics in the

simple argument: because African Americans are humans, Ebonics is

thus inherently legitimate (51).

             Similar to Palacas’ position I was recently in a

conversation in which I was supposed to correct a student’s use

of Black Vernacular Language pronunciation to the Standard

English model. For the past five weeks I have been volunteering

at an elementary school for reading tutoring program. The school

is in a lower income part of town, a block away from government

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housing, frequented by weed and the homeless. Just two blocks

over from the government housing is a strip of corporate offices

and an extreme gentrification attempt. The elementary school is

located in this area to specifically cater to those families of a

lower socioeconomic status, though the school is very well funded

and already encourages high school programs, such as Model UN,

and college plans. In the school is a reading tutoring program

that assesses the students teachers feel need extra assistance in

reading: they are assessed then put on a track to either begin

learning how to read or on the advanced level of reading

comprehension. The students come in twice a week where a tutor (a

volunteer, like myself) is there to teach them that day’s lesson,

which are already planned out from the tutoring program. One day

I had a student, who for this paper’s purpose will be named John,

who was completely new to the program. I was extremely excited to

be his first tutor with the hopes of watching his progress over

the upcoming months. John came in 30 minutes early for his lesson

and went over the tutoring program, then began the lesson with me

reading to John. John picked a relatively advanced chapter book,

paid attention during the reading: asked questions, correctly

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answering plot questions, etc. John was extremely enthusiastic

and focused the entire session, of a rare degree for students

forced to read. After the 10 minute read aloud portion I taught

John the day’s lesson over basic reading comprehension. John then

did the reading exercises, answered the questions correctly, and

then began step three: student read aloud to the tutor. Through

this point John had been extremely good and correct in the

session, and read this book with ease: pronunciation,

comprehension, memory, speed, vowels...over all a good session.

Except John then had to read the dialogue of two characters. Here

John began to mispronounce the word ‘ask’, and instead of saying

‘sk’ he said ‘x’, pronouncing the word ‘ask’ as ‘axe’. I was

instructed to correct John to pronounce ask ‘properly’ and had to

change his mother tongue and say it was wrong.

I then realized the drastic difference in Standard English and

Black Vernacular Language, but neither was better. I had

understood John the entire session, John correctly answered most

questions and loved the session, so who was I to correct his

English. I was barely a part of the tutoring program for over a

month, I am not an expert in English much less linguistics, so

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why did I have to say John was wrong and I was right. This is

where the system only works for those who learn to form to it;

the system greatly discriminates against those who do not know

Standard English and mark them as ‘wrong’ in the educational

system. There is no test to make one language superior to

another: German is not better than French, than Italian, so why

does Standard English get the absolute superiority in education.

It is easy to now understand how Black Vernacular Language

quickly became viewed as wrong when educators were perpetuating

it at such a young age, without explaining why it was better.

Educators do not take the time to tell students their language is

also credible, they simply claim it is wrong. Comparative to

Palasac’s position, educators in general are only taught one way

to teach: with Standard English; not any alternatives and

especially not their importance. This makes for a slippery slope

to quickly fusing Vernacular Languages out of any educational

sphere without reason and fueling discontent for the other

language.

The instructors did possess the action that perpetuated the

barrier between Black Vernacular Language and Standard English;

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however, it was not their fault. Palacas was simply teaching the

way he had been trained to teach, and the way he had been taught

in school. The issue is in the one way system of teaching. The

foundation of teaching, at almost any degree of education, is

rooted in the ability to speak Standard English as the accepted

exclusively as classroom languages and thus eliminate even the

consideration of any other languages. This establishes an

unwavering paradigm that advances only Standard English in the

classroom at the expense of other languages, which leaks to

social influences and begins the framework for language barriers

at a young age.

SO WHERE IS BLACK VERNACULAR LANGUAGE NOW

A unique feature to Black Vernacular Language has always

been its cultural significance. Palacas comment Black Vernacular

Language is the most entrenched in Black culture today as it has

ever bee in years past (31). Palacas explains that Black

Vernacular Language is not just used to literally communicate but

is a culturally binding mechanism to the history of black

citizens.

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Historically Linguists have always prided Black Vernacular

Language: Walt Wolfram comments on the use of Black Culture and

Black Vernacular Language in powerful orators, and lists:

“Frederick Douglass...William Du Bois, Martin Luther King,

Barbara Jordan and Jessie Jordan” to illustrate his point (103).

Authors John Russell Rickford and Russell John Rickford describe

Vernacular as having “beauty, poetry, and wisdom” like qualities

in everyday talk and that is why is has historically been so

popular (Rickford Rickford 13). As these linguists propose, a

fascinating, and very special, element of Black Vernacular

English is its ability to synthesize multiple components of Black

Culture and act as a unifying avenue. Rickford and Rickford brag

about its popularity in worldly literature and use as early as

1776, but this point of pride is quite contrary to today’s public

negative stigma surrounding Black Vernacular Language (13). From

this negative stigma we have seen a strong discouragement of the

important culture tied to Black Vernacular Language when Standard

English is prioritized exclusively.

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CONCLUSION

My background struggles with communication difficulties and

experiencing the hardships of being on both of a language barrier

sparked my interest in the relationship between Black Vernacular

Language and Standard English. I originally wanted to further

inquire primarily about the public interaction to Black

Vernacular Language but quickly discovered I had to learn more

about the Language before I could analyze its relationship. To

become better versed in Black Vernacular Language I looked to the

most contentious parts of the language: history, structure, use,

etc. All aspects of the language were interesting but one point

stood out.

The most important discovery I made during research was the

ironic perpetuation of the language barriers between Standard

English and Black Vernacular Language. This discovery was the

most important for two reasons: one, it carried much of the

conversation of Black Vernacular Language and two, it was proved.

Much of the research, the structure and history, kept coming back

to the fact that Black Vernacular Language was largely

disqualified. Thus, in pursuing where the discrimination began

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was vital to the conversation. Second, I had read Palacas’ book

late in the week. His claims of assaulting his student’s

character when correcting his paper from Black Vernacular

Language to Standard English really stood out to me because it

was such a dramatic claim. The following week I found myself in

the same situation and actually agreed with Palacas. Regardless

that correcting the student was how I was trained to teach kids

how to read it was difficult to correct something that was not an

actual problem, only problematic because of an outdated system.

This experience also proved Labov’s theory of mutual disagreement

amongst teachers and students a large influence in the problem of

language barriers. When I corrected the student it was obvious he

was frustrated with me, and I was so with the system.

It was this point of disagreement, but silence that truly

fascinated me: how could we fix the issue. If the conversation of

Black Vernacular Language barrier is to continue productively the

next important step would be pursuing attempts to break down the

language barriers. I believe the first place to start in

addressing language barriers would be where they are most steady:

the classroom; however, I do not know how to go about this.

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Equalizing the field of languages is an important step to further

invest in.

Works Cited

"African American Voice and Standard English." The Elephant in the

Classroom Race and Writing. Ed. Jane Bowman Smith. Comp.

Arthur L. Palacas. Cresskill New Jersey: Hampton, 2010. 1+.

Print.

Baldwin, James. "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me,

What Is?" New York Times [New York City] 29 July 1979: 1. Print.

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Billings, Andrew C. "Beyond the Ebonics Debate: Attitudes about

Black and Standard American English." Journal of Black Studies 36.1

(2005): 68-81. JSTOR. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

Fasold, Ralph W. "Ebonic Need Not Be English." Issue Paper (1999):

1-3.Georgetown.   Web. 15 Oct. 2013. Print.

Labov, William, Language in the Inner City: Black Vernacular English.

Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania, 1972. Print.

Pullum, Geoffrey K. "African American Vernacular English Is Not

Standard English with Mistakes." The Workings of a Language

(1999): 53-58. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.

Rickford, John R. Linguistics, Education, and the Ebonics Firestorm (2000):

26-43.Georgetown Publications. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

<http://staffwww.fullcoll.edu/dpeterson/courses/eng100/eng100sp08

/rickford.pdf>.

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Rickford, Russell John. "Writers." Spoken Soul the Story of Black English.

By John Russell Rickford. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000. 13-

15. Print.

Wolfram, Walt. "Black Children Are Verbally Deprived." Language

Myths. United STates: Penguin Group, 1998. 103-11. Print.