Black English

Also found in: Thesaurus, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Related to Black English: Ebonics

Black English

or Black English Vernacular

1. See African American Vernacular English.

2. Any of the nonstandard varieties of English spoken by black people throughout the world.

Our Living Language In the United States, Black English usually refers to the everyday spoken varieties of English used by African Americans, especially of the working class in urban neighborhoods or rural communities. (Some linguists use the term African American Vernacular English.) It is an error to suppose that Black English is spoken by all African Americans regardless of their background. In fact, the English spoken by African Americans is highly varied—as varied as the English spoken by any other racial or ethnic group. · Sometimes Black English is used to refer to other varieties of English spoken by black people outside of the United States, as in the Caribbean and the United Kingdom.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Black′

(or black′) Eng′lish,

1. a dialect of American English spoken by some members of black communities in North America.

2. any of a variety of dialects of English or English-based pidgins or creoles spoken by black people.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun

Black English - a nonstandard form of American English characteristically spoken by African Americans in the United States

AAVE, African American English, African American Vernacular English, Black English Vernacular, Black Vernacular, Black Vernacular English, Ebonics

American English, American language, American - the English language as used in the United States

gangsta - (Black English) a member of a youth gang

Mentioned in ?

References in periodicals archive ?

The treatment of Balotelli - a son of Ghanaian immigrants who was adopted by an Italian family - is reminiscent of the chilling abuse that black English players were subjected to back in Viv's day: monkey chants, bananas being thrown on to pitches, and threats of violence.

BALO HELL; CITY HERO'S RACISM NIGHTMARE

Bridge: A Cross-Culture Reading Program--Context Analysis Categories of Organization Ideas, Themes & Concepts Reading Booklets black characters; black folklore also called (One through Five) toasts or oral epics; literature (fiction); idiomatic expressions used in some black communities; black cultural traditions are expressed in the stories; humor represented in each story to entertain the reader; use of language from the 1970s (e.g., hip you to that, you dig); focus on linguistic and cultural expression; bridging children from BE to SE; stories provided authentic representations of Black English, black life and black culture.

Instructional technologies designed by and for African Americans: an examination of several works

(1997) "Children's perceptions of Black English as a variable in intraracial perception".

Reactions to African-American Vernacular English: do more phonological features matter?

Her earliest publications were the children's books she wrote and edited in the late '60s and early '70s including His Own Where (HarperCollins Childrens's Books, January 1971), the first American novel written wholly in Black English. With Soldier, Jordan returns to the realm of children, whom she classifies as the most universally powerless group of people on earth, and beginning with herself, gives them voice.

June Jordan's True Grit

"Black English" was once looked upon as a lewd, detestable, inconsequential language, but now it's hip, accepted into the mainstream and commercialized.

How the new generation changed black and white America

But such literary allusions cannot hope to compete with the film's animated pastiche of classic homecoming-football-game movies, slapstick humor and sight gags, Motown and Busby Berkeley production numbers, jazz, r&b and funk performance, black English, sytle and dance.

School Daze

Ince would become the first black English manager in the Premier League and Alexander said: "This is significant because people will read something into it.

GUV'NOR HAS GIVEN BLACK BOSSES A NEW GOAL IN LIFE

But he will never forget the sickening chants in the Bernabeu, one of the greatest stadiums in the world, which started up every time a black English player touched the ball.

Football: THE BIG INTERVIEW: SHAUN WRIGHT-PHILLIPS - I'm glad racist fans abused me IF IT HAPPENS AGAIN, UEFA MUST GET TOUGH; REAL BETIS v CHELSEA Tuesday, 7.45pm

Rickford offer a fascinating, definitive history of the use of Black English in literature, the performing arts, religion and everyday conversation.

round up corner

A great deal of the confusion had nothing to do with the abstruse wording, but rather, was due to the popular press and media's misapprehension and use of the appellation "Ebonics" as being a synonym for the phrase or appellation "Black English ".