What are some formal properties of African American language?
The Story of English: Black on White”
Write 2-3 pages (at least 500 words. Write double spaced in essay format. Cite Haviland with page numbers and refer to the video by its title.
Below is the video guide (again) and the essay question for this assignment.
Video Guide
The video illustrates many of the topics in Chapter 5 on Language and Communication.
- What are some formal properties of African American language? (Descriptive Linguistics)
- How and where did African American English begin? How has the language changed through time? (Historical Linguistics and Culture Contact)
- How do class, race, gender, age, occupation, and region influence the talk of the social groups in the video? (Sociolinguistics)
- How do speech patterns relate to identity and educational issues?
5. In what ways are issues about how we talk political?
- What are your reactions to the local context of the video? (Philadelphia in the past)