Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In this video, I interview four experts on African American English: Dr. Sonja Lanehart, Dr. Hiram Smith, Minnie Quartey Annan, and Christopher Hall, to learn what they wish the public knew about African American English. Their responses weren't what I expected! They discussed everything from who speaks it, to what we call it (with discussion of AAL: "African American Language").
In our wide-ranging discussions, 5 themes emerged:
1. Not all Black Americans speak it and not everyone who speaks it is Black.
2. AAE is systematic. It has rules!
3. The fact that it has rules means that you can get it wrong.
4. The reason it is stigmatized is not about linguistic facts, but are because people use language as a proxy for racial discrimination.
5.It has multiple registers, including a formal register (sometimes called African American Standard English, AASE)
Dr. Lanehart's book, The Oxford Handbook of African American Language, is available for purchase here: amzn.to/3tU1mSx
I will add a purchase link for Dr. Smith's book when it becomes available.
More of my interview with Dr. Lanehart is available here: youtu.be/2jncKDySKX8
The Corpus of Regional African American Language can be found here: https://oraal.uoregon.edu/coraal
Other recommended reading:
African American English: Structure, History, and Use: amzn.to/3FWFA2X
African American English: A Linguistic Introduction: amzn.to/343KKNt
The study with the "cookie monster" test: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/1-4020-3232-3_13
T-shirts, hoodies, and mugs here: languagejones.creator-spring.com
Book links above are amazon affiliate links.
In this video, I interview four experts on African American English: Dr. Sonja Lanehart, Dr. Hiram Smith, Minnie Quartey Annan, and Christopher Hall, to learn what they wish the public knew about African American English. Their responses weren't what I expected! They discussed everything from who speaks it, to what we call it (with discussion of AAL: "African American Language").
In our wide-ranging discussions, 5 themes emerged:
1. Not all Black Americans speak it and not everyone who speaks it is Black.
2. AAE is systematic. It has rules!
3. The fact that it has rules means that you can get it wrong.
4. The reason it is stigmatized is not about linguistic facts, but are because people use language as a proxy for racial discrimination.
5.It has multiple registers, including a formal register (sometimes called African American Standard English, AASE)
Dr. Lanehart's book, The Oxford Handbook of African American Language, is available for purchase here: amzn.to/3tU1mSx
I will add a purchase link for Dr. Smith's book when it becomes available.
More of my interview with Dr. Lanehart is available here: youtu.be/2jncKDySKX8
The Corpus of Regional African American Language can be found here: https://oraal.uoregon.edu/coraal
Other recommended reading:
African American English: Structure, History, and Use: amzn.to/3FWFA2X
African American English: A Linguistic Introduction: amzn.to/343KKNt
The study with the "cookie monster" test: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/1-4020-3232-3_13
T-shirts, hoodies, and mugs here: languagejones.creator-spring.com
Book links above are amazon affiliate links.
