The African American Vernacular English Vocabulary

            Many African Americans speak a form of english that is a little different from the Standar American  English. We will see these difference in Vocabulary, Grammar and Pronunciation. In this post we are going to deal with vocabulary. 

AAVE does not have a different vocabulary than from the Standar English. We can find the same vocabulary as in Standar American English but some words are particulary forms of African American Vernacular English. 

       According to Patrik Tretina in her book  African American Vernacular English: A New Dialect Of The English Language, the vocabulary or lexicón can be divided into two sections: words that came directly from Africa and loan- translations words, which I will explain what they mean later.

The words that came directly from Africa were brought by the slaves during the United States trade. These are some examples:

Elephant, 

Jazz, 

Oasis,

Sorcery banana,

Banjo,

Goober

Loan- translations words, aslo known as calque, are compound words  which are introduced into the language through the tranlations of the same concept in english.  An example of this type of words will be:

Bad –eye that means  ‘nasty look’

Big- eye that means    ‘ greedy’

Also we can find words which have both African American English and Standar English meaning, for example the word kitchen, which in AAVE not only means the place where you cook in but also the hair at the nape of the neck. 

Finally here are some words collected from several sources: 

AAVE                                               Standar American English

The can                                                Jail

Smoke                                                  Weed

Blunt                                                    Getting High

Jack                                                      Phone

Homeboy                                             A good friend

Fresh                                                    New

A' ight or i-ght                                    Ok, All right

Type                                                     Very 

Crib                                                      Home 

Bounce                                                 Leave

Celly                                                     Cell Phone

Krunk                                                   Exciting

Wifey                                                    Main Girlfriend

Daddy                                                   Main Boyfriend

Scred                                                     Scared

Sources:   

- Green, Lisa J. African American English. Cambridge: Cambridge  University Press, 

2002

- Patrik Tretina. African American Vernacular English: A New Dialect Of The English Language. Scholarly Research Paper.

- http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/aave.html#vocab-hce

Suggestions: 

 http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=african-american%20vernacular

Sandra Romero Ferrández