Jose Hustle’s Been Had Polo
YouTube sensation, Jose Hustle.
Written by guest bloggers LaShaya Howie and Akintoye Moses.
We BEEN considering how to break down the linguistic features of African American English. BEEN contemplating the oral tradition of boastin’ and braggin’ within the African American experience. The bottom line, is that we BEEN in need of an examination of the complexities of how we, as African Americans, have BEEN using language in profound ways. Read more…
Written by guest blogger Simanique Moody
In many cultures, proverbs are used to counsel, impart wisdom, and motivate others. The beauty of proverbs is that while their use and interpretation reflect universal human experiences, they also carry localized meanings and frames of reference unique to individual cultural groups. Proverbs allow community members to orally transmit knowledge and cultural values to one another. Read more…
Music Monday: African American English Goes Global
Singer Joy Denalane.
Written by guest blogger Casey Wong
From Jamaica, France, Puerto Rico, Japan, to Palestine, to almost every continent on Earth, hip-hop has gone global. Joy Maureen Denalane, born to a German mother and South African (Xhosa) father in Berlin, adds a new twist to the global spread of African American English (AAE) and culture. Read more…
LMFAO DJs Redfoo and SkyBlu (son and grandson, respectively, of Berry Gordy, founder of Motown record label)
An eclectic mix is topping the Billboard Charts this week and everything from pop to electro-hop songs seem to reflect features of African American English (AAE). Now don’t get us wrong, we’re not claiming artists such as Lady Gaga are native AAE speakers! But we do argue that many of the artists we hear on the radio are influenced by African American music and language. Highlighted here are features commonly associated with AAE. Keep in mind, these features are not exclusive to AAE, and can be found in other non-standard dialects of English spoken across regions and social groups.
Let’s take a look at the lyrics: Read more…
Happy Birthday to you MLK!
Sometimes, we should let words speak for themselves:
Talk to the Hand, Or Should We Say, Hands?…Black Sign Language
We know some, but not all, African Americans use African American English (AAE), an expressive and nuanced dialect of American English. The same applies to the deaf community. As is the case for the hearing population in the U.S., the historical segregation in American communities and schools have played a major role in linguistic differences found between blacks and whites in the deaf community. Read more…
Music Monday: It’s Nicki’s Time Now
Rapper Nicki Minaj
This week we’re going to focus on the new queen of hip hop, Nicki Minaj. Nicki’s been all over the airwaves in 2010, lending verses to an array of tracks alongside the likes of Drake and Eminem. She recently had the highest-selling 1st week ever for a female rapper with the debut of her first album, Pink Friday, on November 19th.
Onika Tanya Maraj, or Nicki Minaj (as she is better known), was born on December 8, 1984 in Trinidad. She came to the US around the age of 5, where she was then raised in Queens, NY. Read more…
Decode This: Happy Holidays from Word!
We at Word. want to wish all of you a happy holiday. Thanks for reading our blog and showing us love in 2010. As we enter 2011, we want to offer our holiday reading list (very last minute stocking stuffer). The readings we have chosen are accessible to many. It’s nice to see that we can suggest books that help us to educate ourselves about African American English (AAE), and the political, social and educational issues surrounding those who speak it.
“The book is packed with the stories from my life that are the foundation of my lyrics… But it always comes back to the rhymes. There’s poetry in hip-hop lyrics–not just mine, but in the work of all the great hip-hop artists, from KRS-One and Rakim to Biggie and Pac to a hundred emcees on a hundred corners all over the world that you’ve never heard of. Read more…
The Black Bible Chronicles Revisited: Word from the Author
As we approach the holiday season and church seats get filled with worshippers, we thought that we would revisit one of out most sort after posts from April 22, 2010, The Black Bible Chronicles.
We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know
In their recently published book, Understanding English Language Variation in U.S. Schools, Anne Charity Hudley and Christine Mallinson add to what we know. This book is for educators, scholars and individuals concerned with the success of all children.
Charity Hudley and Mallison help us to better understand the range of dialects (or varieties of English) that students bring to the classroom and how to embrace and manage these differences.
This is a book for anyone who has ever worked with or interacted with school children and has recognized a mismatch between how some children actually speak and how they are “supposed to speak” in school.
