Living, Learning, Teaching (with) Language:

African American English Speaking Discourse Community

(Discourse Communities of My Life)

Many of the research in linguistics for individuals similar to me has been of the African American
discourse community, but I have a unique African American background. Therefore, I have discovered
that Im part of two discourse communities; Broken English and African American English speakers. I will
explain that in each community there are sub-communities, like family and friends. I will explain how
each community and sub-community is represented in dialect, syntax and phonology and how it reveals
my own true language. A great way to explain each part of the language is to include examples to
compare and contrast which will make my language more clear to understand. Finally, I will describe the
grammar I was taught in my youth and the expectations I have for my future grammar.
My original dialect began with my parents, who are immigrants from Haiti which would
categorize that dialect as Broken English. Broken English is a derogatory term for people who are foreign
that do not follow the standard English rules as their dialect. (Kperogi, Framework of Broken English)
Dialect is the way a person speaks based on the words they choose and how they say the words.
(Lawless, Learn English Language) Since I was born in America this would make me a Haitian American,
but for dialects sake I am part of the African American discourse community which is the way that many
African Americans speak. The African American English speakers or AAE speakers for short, are
researched as poor or an income of 15,000 dollars or less and living in inner city conditions of the north.
In the AAE communities, the construction of vernacular varieties, there is differential social marking of
structural features, so that one linguistic variable might be much more heavily weighted than another as
a vernacular dialect marker. (Wolfram, Journal of Linguistics, 245) There are certain things that the AAE
community does that distinguishes themselves from the rest of discourse communities For instance the
habitual form of be, like my feet be hurting, but most communities like the AAE uses yall which is a
compound word of, you all.
Certain words like, yall, requires correct pronunciation or phonology in certain dialects, but in
mine it isnt really used. Phonology is the way to pronounce words based on discourse community, like
yall in the AAE discourse community. Most AAE speakers do not pronounce the g in the end of ing
words, for instance swimming would be translated to be to swimmin and the IPA translation of the
word would be swImIN. Creating the silent g in the end of words is researched as, case of syllablecoda cluster reduction (e.g. wes en) or unstressed nasal -ing fronting (e.g. swimmin) in marking a
vernacular language variety. (Eugene, What is Phonology?) The other commonly used pronunciation
used by me and other members of the AAE community is der or there, the IPA transcription would be
DEr. This doesnt change the meaning off there only the pronunciation of the word which elaborates
on the purpose of phonology, the different ways to pronunciation a word. A study of AAE speakers of

northern inner city environments pronounced the word garbage as Gaw-bish, I pronounce it garbage.
This small words just displayed the huge power the phonetics has in everyday life.
A word can be spoken in a discourse community but within that community, the lexicon or
definition of the word is important. James Pustejovsky explained lexicon as the meanings of words
somehow reflecting the deeper, conceptual structures in the system and the domain it operates in.
Pustejovsky understands that lexicon is more of a vocabulary list than just a jumble of random words
because it included a meaning behind every word used in the language. My social group uses language
that is deemed as unprofessional and inappropriate to the professional discourse community but within
my social community some phrases are terms of endearment. For instance, my friend and I would greet
it other by shouting out, Hows my hoe? This is seen as vulgar or deeming but with the lexicon of the
phrase is, How is my confidant, friend, companion? In my social group the term Is not insulting but
declares to the world the status of a friend and therefore and glad to hear from a confidant that I am
their hoe.
In the AAE discourse community and many other discourse communities the syntax of the
sentence is very important to understand the speaker of the community. Specifically in the AAE
community some utterances are, simple infinitive with same subject, noun phrase complement,
infinitive with different subject, unmarked infinitives and the list goes on. I will focus on just a couple
and acknowledge if I obey or not, most les I will disregard because I am not in that degree of income
that research is studied in. Most AAE speakers use tag question which is clauses added to the end of
the main clause that are all positive or that contrast positive and negative relationships between
clauses. These do not include single word tags, such as okay or please. This is one of the syntax
regulation that I have ignored since I was aware of my language. I have continued to use prepositional
stacking throughout my speech like yall, but this stacking is commonly used in other communities. I do
use utterances in my language that introduce the main clause of a sentence like, let, lets or lemme.
(Washington and Craig, The Complete Syntax Skills 4)
My past dialect started as I was growing an my parents were advocates for education so my
original dialect never matured. I was told to listen to the teacher or the text, if the text as I began to
read more often than the average I remember the chants in school like, dont ask a question after a
question or aint aint a word because of these chants I grew into another discourse community
which was the educational discourse community. This community has many regulations that I am
always getting familiar with. As I moved from California to Virginia teachers would not correct students
in their dialect but the western educators would which was a surprise since I was always anticipated a
correction in my dialect when I made a mistake.
I anticipate that in the future that my language will grow into many other dialects and someday
become part of the educational discourse community. I hope that since that I am majoring in English and
obtaining a teaching license than I will be able to meet their criteria and be a professional teacher. The
educational discourse community has a high vocabulary and educational jargon to be part of this
community I have to succeed on college. This includes speaking and writing in standard English grammar

and be well informed in the subjects that are presented to me. Even though the educational discourse
community is hard to join but my opportunities dont limit things community to me.
Even though my past and first dialect was broken English that grew into the African
American dialect my phonology, syntax and lexicon makes my language unique like the rest of the
world. I will always identify myself with these two discourse communities because Broken English is part
of my families journey to America and AAE is the foundation of my social life and help shape the dialect
that I have today. The different dynamics of both dialects makes my speech who I am today and explains
so many things. For instance, when I write a paper I have a lot of clarity issues because both dialects are
clashing against one another.

Sources
Kperogi, A. Farooq. (2012). Broken English, Pidgin English and Nigerian English. Framework.
www.nigeriaenglishsquare.com
Lawless K. Laura. (2005-2012). What is Dialect. Learn English Language.
www.elearnenglishlanguage.com
Loos, Eugene E. (2004). What is Phonology? Glossary of Linguistics Terms. www.sil.org
Pustejovsky, James/. (1991) The Generative Lexicon. Computational Linguistics. Pages 150 -160
Washington A., Julie and Holly K. Craig (1994) The Complex Syntax Skills of Poor, Urban African
American Preschoolers to Young Adulthood. Language Speech and Hearing Services in School.
Volume 25.
Walt, Wolfman and Jannekke Van Hofwegen. (2010). Coming of Age in African American English: A
longitudinal study. Journal of Sociolinguistics