Date:  Sat, 5 Feb 1994 07:47:06 -0600

From:  mftcf[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UXA.ECN.BGU.EDU

Subject: Re: AAVE variation and ADS in Toronto



On Fri, 31 Dec 1993, John Baugh wrote:



>

> Most of my African American informants from across the U.S. make

> the greatest ethnolinguistic distinction between "urban" and "rural"

> black speech. Guy Bailey did some intersting work between College

> Station and Houston that looked at this "rural" vs. "urban"

> contrast. Nearly all of my informants lived in cities, but they too

> had strong stereotypes regarding "country talk" which was often

> equated with black folk speech in the South.

>

>

I'm teaching Richard Wright's NATIVE SON. One character in that novel,

an elderly preacher clearly cast as an Uncle Tom type, speaks in a "dialect"

with /ai/ flattening = "ah", /r/ loss in your as "yo." Also /r/ loss in

Lord as "Lawd." None of theother African American American characters

have these features, although there is copula deletion and an occasional

"done" aspect. I thought my Af. Am. students would identify the preacher

as "country" but when I asked there was a long silence and then one

(these kids are from the Chicago area) volunteered "Southern."

I wonder if others are aware of stereotyped features in the African.

American speech community.



By the way, later this semester we're doing "Huck" and "Their Eyes were

watching God"; both use literary dialect in ways I think present

interesting problems. We'll see what happens.



Tim Frazer