Analysis of questionaire of Black English Vernacular and Standard English

This analysis is from the questionnaire I made in order to gain more of an understanding of white British British ethnic individuals, understanding of black English and standard English, the audience had the opportunity to drop out of the questionnaire if they didn't want to answer any of the questions.

I have recently conducted a questionnaire in order to get primary research of how people's opinions are in association with standard English and Black English vernacular. The questionnaire I produced was given to a group of people ageing from 19 to over 40. Although this was a huge age gap to use, I decided to make it that big so my audience was enlarged and I could get more of an understanding on what people felt with the change in language. One thing I noticed straight away was that from a younger age of 19, the volunteers who decided to answer the questions had a lack of understanding on what 'Black English' actually was. This instantly bought up my opinion that people of a younger generation aren't as educated in languages and accents as what the older generations are. In total i I asked 20 people and from the questionnaire and analysis, I have found that 10 people were aged 19 to 23, 2 were aged 24 - 27, 2 were also aged between 32 to 35 and a total of 6 were aged 40 or over. To whom were all White British, This wasn't purposely but just a coincidence although made my feedback more towards the attitudes of how white British Ethnicity's thought of Black English Language.

When asking the audience if they still think Black English is still standard English, I received many mixed opinions on the matter, while 16 answered no they wasn't the same and 4 answered yes they were the same. The question asked for their opinion and summarising what the feedback was, the reason why 80 percent said no was due to Black English saying words differently and making up words which is suited to their surroundings. This was an important finding as it gives me understanding to why so many people have said no but also could be due to stereotypes. While the other 20 percent said yes and that black English was still standard English, their replies were because that is what society happens, it changes and the language changes.

I then asked the audience to what extend does the accent override in children TV shows, the reason I asked this question as I think the media plays a big part in children understanding of language change and accent. The audience had an opinion to chose from British, American, Australian, Afro - Caribbean and Irish, to all 100 percent of the answers came back American and British. This lead me on to thinking that society is picked and chosen to what they want children to know best as when turning on a children's channel, mainly all of the shows are of the British or American Accent. 

The next question I asked was based to the individuals surrounding when growing up. The question I asked was if you could live in any society, would you chose to live in a mixed ethnic society, all white society or not bothered. The feedback was mixed, but with the majority saying they would rather live in a mixed society. This was because they would enjoy the new cultures of fashion, food and art, but also because it meant they would be able to understand more of the accents and new words and phrases used. The feedback was also so everyone could be themselves and not feel segregated from other ethnicity's. It was also clear that people from the questionnaire felt strongly that with the society being mixed, it would mean that people would have better understandings of religions and way of life. Therefore the answers were'nt just all about language but everyday life. Lastly people said they wanted differentiation. Reasons why people said no to multi-ethnic societies was because of the lack of understanding of accents and the easier of change with accents if more people with many accents were in one place. 

For this research I thought it was important to know the answers of 'Has English language change of the good or the bad?' with 12 answering worse, 4 saying its stayed the same and 4 also saying for the better, from analysing this data, it was clear that the opinions were mainly because of the colloquialism, change in many accents, words being made up, English becoming more common and influences from TV shows such as the only way is Essex. This plays a big part in why language has changed because this show in particular plays up on stereotypes, also changing the dialect of the people on the show which influences people from Essex to speak with the same dialect, showing that English language has changed for the worse as it caused bad stereotypes for the people living in Essex especially, over the past 10 years. the reason as to why people said worse was because of words being made up, certain attitudes towards another ethnic group causing people to want to speak like them and it is more common and slang.

Finally I asked the question, 'Do you think its socially correct or incorrect if people change the language ad spelling of words in order to fit their ethnicity, when 16 replied with it being incorrect and 4 saying yes its socially correct, The views for incorrect were because; they shouldn't be able to change the language as we follow standard English for a reason as that is what your taught in school, therefore you should follow that same example through your life. Secondly this is why people think Black English Vernacular language isn't the same as Standard English as the views were that Black English many change their words and phrases therefore giving the understanding that they don't follow standard English, this is why it is socially incorrect. The views for Correct were because we live in an evolving society where things change every day so why should language make this process stop?.

Overall I personally think from evaluating my questionnaire that the status of Standard English has dropped due to the fact that many of the people speaking English are from all around the world and due to communication errors, people then bring in different words in order to understand. The attitudes towards BEV I think have been mainly negative during this process to find information on the views of this topic, I personally think one of the main causes of this though is to do with the media and society as of 10 years ago the media wasn't as big meaning people couldn't be influenced by this, whereas now, my whole target audience for this questionnaire are the main age range for users on social media and have grown up with being around the media. I think that this has also made me understand that Black English Language hasn't been given as much creditably as it should have, I think this because people have negative attitudes towards this type of English language when really they were influenced and taught through standard English backgrounds but changed through society and generations, meaning there should be no problem with language change and dialect as that is what happens when people migrate and move to different parts of counties or areas. 

Black English Vernacular

Black English" can refer to two different language varieties: (1) the type of English used by people of African and Caribbean descent who live in Britain; (2) the language of African-Americans in the United States. This is usually called Black English Vernacular or BEV for short. "Black English" in both senses has its historical roots in a creolised form of English which dates back to the time of slavery. Creoles are languages which evolve from Pidgins when the pidgins become first languages for some or all of their speakers. Black English Vernacular has a somewhat different history (and is a different language) from British Black English."

Ebonics pronunciation includes features like the omission of the final consonant in words like 'past' (pas' ) and 'hand' (han'), the pronunciation of the th in 'bath' as t (bat) or f (baf), and the pronunciation of the vowel in words like 'my' and 'ride' as a long ah (mah, rahd). Some of these occur in vernacular white English, too, especially in the South, but in general they occur more frequently in Ebonics. Some Ebonics pronunciations are more unique, for instance, dropping b, d, or g at the beginning of auxiliary verbs like 'don't' and 'gonna', yielding Ah 'on know for "I don't know" and ama do it for "I'm going to do it."

Here is will show some of the theories used when researching into Black English Vernacular:

The Anglicist Hypothesis was set forth by dialectogists including Hans Kurath (1949) and Raveb McDavid (McDavid and McDavid 1951) in the mid-twentieth century.  It was the reigning hypothesis for until the mid-1960s.
According to the Anglicist Hypothesis, development of African-American Vernacular English followed the same path as the language of other immigrants would.  The theory suggests that when slaves were brought to the U.S. from Africa, they initially spoke a number of different languages.  However, by being exposed to English, they began to learn it.  As slaves had children, their native languages were preserved less and less.  This patter is visible in the modern day as well -- many children of immigrants speak their parents' native language barely or not at all, and their children will not be exposed to it at all.  In this way, it is thought that through a couple of generations the slaves' native languages all but died out in the United States.  They were replaced by the regional or social dialect of English that surrounded them at the time. 

The Creolist Hypothesis was the first major alternative to the Anglicist Hypothesis.  This hypothesis suggests that African-American Vernacular English developed from a creole language that was a result of the early contact between Africans and Europeans. 
A creole is a language that develops due to contact between two groups who do not know each other's language.  This happens in two steps.  First, a pidgin is created.  A pidgin is a pseudo-language, usually developed for the purpose of allowing groups with different languages to trade, that includes a combination of both languages.  Pidgins are usually narrow, specialized, and not really grammatical.  However, it is possible for a pidgin to continue to develop into a functional language.  This usually happens with the next generation, who grow up hearing the pidgin and learn it from an early age.  The resulting language is known as a creole.  A creole is a fully-formed language that does follow grammar rules.

The Neo-Anglicist Hypothesis maintains that the earlier African-American Vernacular originated based on the British dialects that were brought to the U.S.  However, in contrast with the Anglicist Hypothesis, the Neo-Anglicists do not maintain that modern features of AAVE can be traced to British dialects.  Instead, they believe that at some point, the African-American Vernacular diverged from the other dialects and became more diverse.  This started a process of further diversion, reinforced by the solidification and unification of the African-American community.  This more insular community of practice resulted in further innovation of features that were unique to AAVE and the African-American community, rather than just holdovers from its history with British English dialects.  

The Substrate Hypothesis suggests that while earlier African-American Vernacular dialects may have incorporated many features of other regional dialects due to contact with them, it has always differentiated itself in virtue of a strong substrate effect.
In linguistics, a substrate effect occurs when a language is influenced continually by its exposure to or contact with another language, even if this language no longer transfers features to the other language or is no longer in contact with it.  Even after the contact has ceased, it can still have an effect on the way the first language develops later on.
Substrate Hypothesists believe that AAVE has always differentiated itself via the substrate effect, due to possible early contact with creole speakers, even if they themselves never developed a full-fledged creole.  It is believed that contact with creole speakers during the passage of slaves from Africa to North America could have been sufficient to influence the later development of AAVE, resulting in its differentiation from other American dialects of the same geographical area and social stratum. 

Tecnological change with Text messaging

Accent and Dialect

Language can change often and can change to do with society, educational background, generations of families and where about you live in the world. 

An accent becomes a dialect when the differences between it and other speakers of the same language begin to include differences in vocabulary and/or grammar. As long as the differences are principally in pronunciation it is an accent, not a dialect

Dialect is a specific variety of English that differs from other varieties in three specific ways: lexis (vocabulary), grammar (structure) and phonology (pronunciation or accent). English dialects may be different from each other, but all speakers within the English-speaking world can still generally understand them.

Accent refers only to differences in the sound patterns of a specific dialect.  Many of us make assumptions based on the way people speak — judging certain dialects or accents as too posh, harsh, aggressive, unfriendly, ‘unintelligent’ or ‘common’.

I decided to choose three accents from around the world which I could analyse. I chose American English, British and Australian English.

Firstly as I am from Essex I decided this would be a good place to start. from analysing the people around me, I have noticed that mainly females, speak with more of a drag on words. For example, a popular word from the Essex dialect is 'Babe' This word in other regions of London would be said quicker, whereas in Essex, this is said to more like 'Baabbee'. Showing that the word is said slower and longer. Males also talk with this accent but isn't as noticeable. The Essex language has became more popular since the show the only way Is Essex where everyone on the show has the over the top accent, meaning it pays off on its viewers showing how the language has changed through the society. Many people find this accent annoying and think it is fake and put on. This is because it has only became more obvious over the past 2 years.

The second accent I analysed was the American accent. This accent is more stronger than the British accent. They also drag out most of their words. Through analysing the dialect is It also proven that American speakers will say somethings differently to British English language through spelling. For example the word 'Mum' in English is spelt with a U whereas in American they spell mum with an O as it fits their accent. From listening to an audio clip of a female American speaker, I have noticed that they also speak fast and say words in a different way, with the emphasis of the letter 'Z' and 'E'. Although, America has many different areas of accent in the country meaning there are multiple accents and dialects within. From research it is also clear that an American accent from Brooklyn New York City, is a lot stronger than an American accent from California. This is to do with tones and inheriting the accent but also from social class.

The third English accent I analysed was the Australian accent. From research, the Australian accent is most similar to English language (Dialect and accent) in comparison to American. From listening to an audio clip of an Austrian speaker, I have identified the accent from Perth Australia it be of a softer tone, When saying words such as 'oil' or 'Orleans', The emphasis is on the O. The way the Australian accent is pronounced is very similar to the English pronunciation but in some cases to words are said different like in English we pronounce the word 'Water' as w-o-r-t-e-r and in Australian the same word is pronounced as w-o-l-e-r.

Overall all three accents are very similar and are the most common accents for the English language.  It is also seen as stereotypical for the American accent to be featured in most films and children's programmes where as the British accent is usually used to convey money, wealth and a posh society. The Australian accent is usually conveyed in films to do with the water, surfers or its city showing that all three accents are significant in the world of 2015. I also think this is to do with the dialect as although the countries have different dialect for some words and sayings, they're so common and used worldwide that they just become another word to say something else rather than another language having other words for the same thing.