Ralph W. Fasold. 1981.

"The relation between Black and White speech in the South."

American Speech 56(2): 163-89.

In this article Ralph Fasold addresses the controversy surrounding the relation between black and white dialects of US English, particularly in the South where the two are most similar, taking an intermediate position in the conflict. He discusses the background of the controversy, identifying two components -- a diachronic issue of the origins of BEV (=AAVE) compared to those of Standard American English (SAE) and Southern White Vernacular English (SWVE), and a synchronic issue, of current differences between black and white varieties.

Following Wolfram (1971), he describes the four possible combinations of the views of these two issues in terms of: [+/-different], [+/- creole origin], explaining where each position fits into the creolist and divergence/convergence controversies. He then claims that differences in methodologies led to such different conclusions, and that the method required involves analysis of substantial tape-recorded data from speakers of comparable socioeconomic groups.

Fasold defines the often-misunderstood notion "feature of BEV" as any structure that can be observed in BEV. This includes (1) features shared with SAE, (2) features not shared with SAE but shared with SWVE (and/or other vernacular dialects), and (3) features unique to BEV. He provides brief but specific phonological, morphological, and syntactic examples of each kind of BEV feature and its relation to white varieties. Fasold discusses in more detail 5 unique features of AAVE: "remote-aspect BEEN", variable possessive -S absence, copula/auxiliary absence, "distributive BE", and final consonant cluster reduction.* In a particularly interesting discussion of the latter, a hypothetical step-by-step process of decreolization is provided which could account for current differences between black and white speech with an historical argument.

Fasold concludes that there are differences between black and white speech in the South but that there are also many similarities. This is interesting for the study of decreolization, he notes, but what is of greater importance is whether these differences put black children at a disadvantage for learning SAE in schools compared to white children speaking other non-standard varieties.

 

[* Simplification of final consonant clusters is of course not unique to AAVE, but Fasold's analysis "revealed surprising evidence that some [Washington DC speakers, aged 10-12 or older adolescents] might not have internalized the standard underlying cluster at all" (176). This would distinguish them from most, perhaps all, vernacular American dialects, and align their phonology with some (but not all) speakers of English-related West Indian Creoles. On this cf. Patrick et al. 1996, also (TD)-Deletion: AAVE and Creole Data. --PLP]