This linguistic variety is commonly refered to as Black English (BE), Black English Vernacular (BE), African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), and Inner City English (ICE).
There have been three primary theories regarding the source of African-American English. These three theories can be named the following:
Proponents of the decreolized creole theory maintain that African-American English arose from a pidgin that was created among slaves from various linguistic backgrounds, primarily from West Africa. This pidgin included features of both the West African languages and English. Over time, this pidgin developed into a creole, and then more recently, became decreolized, and began to resemble English more closely.
Others state that African-American English is a variety of Southern States English, noting that the two varieties have many features in common, such as the Southern Vowel Shift, vowel lowering, and double modals.
Proponents of the unified theory state that African-American English arose from a number of sources, including West African languages and Southern States English, through a variety of evolutionary tracks.
African-American English has a number of phonological features, including:
© 2001 The Language Samples Project