Listen Up!
Nejv book by NCSU professors looks at black speech
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
A new book by two N.C.
State University linguists chal
lenges a half-century of soci
olinguistic theory and takes a
hew look at the history of the
controversial English dialect
Ebonics, also known as
African-American Vernacular
English (AAVE). The book,
titled "The Development of
African American English,"
>as written by Dr. Walt Wol
fram, William C. Friday distin
guished professor of English,
and Dr. Erik Thomas, associate
professor of English. The book
w as scheduled to be released in
England last month.
1 It asserts that African
American speech is derived
both from British-based
dialects, which would have
been adopted by blacks as they
were enslaved and brought to
colonial America, and vestiges
t>f an African-based Creole lan
guage markedly different from
British-based dialects.
Based largely on research
ponducted in Hyde County,
N.C., Wolfram and Thomas call
into question the dominant lin
guistic theories of the past 50
years. The book concludes that
earlier African-American
tpeech was much more region
al. but that it coexisted with
language roots from its African
heritage.
A team of researchers from
N.C. State conducted about 150
interviews of African Ameri
cans and whites in Hyde Coun
ty, a small, rural county of
mostly marshland that is home
to some of the earliest settle
ments in North Carolina. Euro
pean-American and African
American communities settled
there as early as the turn of the
1700s. A distinguishing lin
guistic characteristic of Hyde
County is the Outer Banks
dialect, a recognized, Euro
pean-American dialect studied
in Wolfram's previous work on
Ocracoke Island, and exempli
fied by pronunciations such as
"hoi toid" for "high tide."
"Limited in-migration and
population growth and the rela
tively stable co-existence of
white and black families make
Hyde County an ^eal laborato
ry," Wolfram said. "Listening
to older African Americans in
Hyde County can tell you what
black speech was like; listening
to younger African Americans
there can tell you where it's
going."
Listening to one 87-year
old African American fropj
Hyde County sounds a lot like
listening to an older white per
son from Hyde County, "hoi
toids" and all. Wolfram and
Thomas learned. Wolfram said,
however, thai there are vestiges
of African influence present
that almost no white people in
Hyde County would ever use
while speaking: for example,
the absence Qf an "s" attached
to a verb after a third-person
singular noun, as in the sen
tence "The dog always bark at
noon."
If older African Americans
and older whites in Hyde
County sound similar, the
speech of younger Hyde Coun
ty African Americans couldn't
be more different. Wolfram and
Thomas assert. That's because
black speech became strongly
identifiec^with a sense of black
identity in the 20th century.
Wolfram said. Simply put.
younger blacks don't necessar
ily want to sound like whites.
"One of the ways African
Americans have become
increasingly black is by disas
sociating themselves from local
white speech." Wolfram says.
"Young African Americans
from Hyde County don't sound
like Hyde County folks.
Instead, they sound more like a
national norm of what African
American speech is supposed
to sound like."
Wolfram and Thomas
believe that one of the major
ways black speech norms in the
20th century have been trans
mitted is by interregional con
tact anting African Americans.
"In effect. African-Ameri
can speech in Hyde County
turned away from local, rural
norms toward the norms of
African-American English
found in other settings through
out t|je United States, particu
larly urban contexts." the book
states. "It is now well estab
lished that there is a core set of
AAVE structures regardless of
where AAVE is spoken in the
United States. This generalized
core of features seems to he the
norm that younger African
American speakers are turning
to as their vernacular model at
the same time they are moving
away from the Hyde County
regional dialect norms."
Current research of an iso
lated pocket of African Ameri
cans in the Appalachian Moun
tains of North Carolina ?also
supports Wolfram and Thomas'
thesis. African Americans
sound a lot like whites, but use
vestiges of African speech that
aren't present in white speech.
Wolfram said. Moreover,
blacks use these same African
vestiges in both Hyde County
and in the mountains. Wolfram
believes these people have not
had any contact, so only his
new theory would explain their
speech similarities.
The book was supported by
the National Science Founda
tion and the William C. Friday
Endowment.
File Photo
A new book claims that the speech patterns of a pocket of Southern African Americans is sim
ilar to that of whites and is partly derived from British dialect.
Sheriff
from pane AI
mary because a number of
Barker supporters joined the
race in order to cut the vote
and give Barker an easy victo
ry.
Citing their acrimonious
past. Barker said that Schatz
man's statements concerning
the Glenn case are purely
political.
"He will do and say any
thing to get his name before
the people." Barker said Tues
day.
To buoy his point. Barker
cited a letter he said Schatz
man has sent to all of his
deputies, a letter detailing
ways Schatzman would
respond to several issues at
the department. In the letter,
Barker said. Schatzman vows
to end reverse discrimination
within the department. Barker
believes that to be a veiled
criticism of Barker's decision
to appoint an African Ameri
can to head the Forsyth Coun
ty Detention Center several
years ago. Barker says no
reverse discrimination exists
and that all of his employees
have their positions because
they work hard and are quali
fied.
Schatzman said he did
send out the letters but only
after Sheriff's Department
employees wrote him a letter
detailing problems at the
department. He said his vow
to end reverse discrimination
was not aimed at any one per
son and is part of his plan to
end racism, of all kinds, with
in the department.
"Racism is bad any way
you see it," he said.
; The sheriff said he made
the decision to put the
deputies back on active duty
dfter launching and complet
ing an investigation of his
own. When asked who was
interviewed as part of the
investigation and other details
abj>pt his probe. Barker
refused to elaborate.
"I came to the conclusion
that my people had done noth
ing wrong." Barker said.
Barker said there was also
a need to have the two men
back on the streets because
budget issues have handi
capped him from finding
deputies to replace the two on
the streets.
Barker said the deputies
had their hands full with
Glenn. He said that Glenn was
on cocaine at the time, which
gave him the strength of "five
or six people." Barker also
said that Glenn picked up one
of the deputies and body
slammed him to the ground
and reached for the deputies'
guns more than one time dur
ing the incident.
"(Glenn) is lucky to be
alive after trying so very hard
to get the officers' guns,"
Barker said.
But witnesses to the Aug.
19 incident tell a different
story. Many who live along
the street where Glenn was
pulled over watched the scene
from their porches. They say
Glenn put up little resistance
and that the deputies beat him
repeatedly with heavy flash
lights.
Barker said that a "small"
flashlight was used on Glenn
by one of the officers but only
after Glenn allegedly body
slammed a deputy.
Barker said he anticipates
that Keith will find that no
wrongdoing by the deputies
took place.
"If it turns out I am wrong,
then they will be terminated,
but I am not looking for that to
happen," Barker said.
Schatzman said Barker's
personal investigation should
have taken a backseat to the
SBI's findings and the DA's
determination. Schatzman
added that by jumping the gun
and not distancing the depart
ment from the investigation.
Barker has left himself and the
department vulnerable to crit
ics.
"When you do that, you
always leave yourself open to
criticism." Schatzman said.
Bill Tatum. the president
of the local NAACP, said that
he believes Keith and Barker
have been in communication
and that's why the sheriff
made the decision Zo put the
deputies back on the streets.
Barker denies that.
Regardless, Tatum said the
decision shows that blacks
still do not get the same level
of respect given to other races.
"It shows me that there is a
lack of respect for African
Americans in incidents of this
nature."
? File Photo
A witness to the incident who it a friend of Nokia Glenn
describes what happened to local Muslims.
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