African American Vernacular English

African American Vernacular English (AAVE), variety of American English spoken by a large proportion of Black Americans. Many scholars hold that AAVE, like several English creoles, developed from contacts between nonstandard varieties of colonial English and African languages. Its exact origins continue to be debated, however, as do the relative influences of the languages involved. AAVE is not as extensively modified as most English creoles, and it remains in several ways similar to current nonstandard...