The Sociology of African American Language

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Charles DeBose

   Pages 1-26

3. Linguists as Visionaries

   • Charles DeBose

   Pages 27-39

4. If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It: Toward a Policy of Full Recognition of African American Language

   • Charles DeBose

   Pages 40-54

5. A Language Planning Approach to African American Language

   • Charles DeBose

   Pages 55-67

6. What’s in a Name?

   • Charles DeBose

   Pages 68-84

7. Where did African American Language Come from?

   • Charles DeBose

   Pages 85-104

8. Language in the African Diaspora: The Case of Samaná English

   • Charles DeBose

   Pages 105-124

9. The Language Situation in the African American Speech Community: The Status of Variety X

   • Charles DeBose

   Pages 125-141

10. Cross-Over: From African American to National and World Culture

    • Charles DeBose

    Pages 142-154

11. Ebonics and Black School Achievement: The Language Difference Hypothesis

    • Charles DeBose

    Pages 155-176

12. The Grammar: We Be Following Rules

    • Charles DeBose

    Pages 177-206

13. The Standardization of African American Language: Just do it!

    • Charles DeBose

    Pages 207-223

14. Back Matter

    Pages 224-237

    PDF

The current state of knowledge of African American language is examined from a broad, multidisciplinary perspective that includes its structure, history, social role and educational implications, as well as the linguistic scholarship from which it derives, as a case study of language planning. A diverse array of topics including Hip-Hop culture, the Black Church and the Ebonics controversy are unified by a pervasive theme of latent conflict between academic knowledge and 'real world' knowledge of Black language.

• community
• culture
• knowledge
• Nation
• sociology

'...the work makes good recommendations for next steps that linguists and activists can take to raise the status of AA and hopefully make education language policy and culturally relevant pedagogy easier to implement.' - Julia Deak, Current Issues in Language Planning

• California State University, USA

  Charles DeBose

CHARLES DEBOSE is Professor of English at California State University, East Bay, California, USA. His scholarly interests include sociolinguistics, pidgin and creole linguistics and language planning and policy, especially as it informs the academic achievement of African American children. He is an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

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