Saundra
Wells
AFS 2010
Blog #2
African Elements in African American English/ Questions Africanisms
in African American Names
Although
Africans were forced to come to America to serve the inadequacy of the early
settlers, the traditions instilled within them from their country was not
erased from their minds or souls. They were not allowed to practice traditional
rituals and or ceremonies that they were accustomed to, they still found ways
to communicate and be in touch with their roots. In chapter 3 the author Asante
critiques the earlier scholars like Melville Herskovits, Janheinz Jahn not
because of the methods they utilized to explain about the African language bit
for the interference caused by their methods. The opinion of author Asante was
that the African language was misinterpreted because the knowledge of earlier
scholars was thorough enough to conclude that the language that Africans spoke
here in America was understood enough to the conclusion that they (Africans)
were not speaking English.
The
misunderstanding of the Gullah language by white American linguists was proved
by the study of the language in comparison to their African origin. In chapter
3 Asante highlights the findings of American Linguist Ambrose Gonzales as
misunderstanding the Gullah language in his citing that the words spoken by
Africans were English words perhaps mispronounced or spelled wrong. These words
indeed were of African origin, Gonzales was not familiar with the African
language. These findings were pointed out by linguist Lorenzo Turner, who
believed after extensive studies of the African language compared to the English
language was similar due to Africans not forgetting their roots or cultural in
which they were born in. The belief that “no displaced people have ever
completely lost the firms of their previous culture”. The basics of speech from
the African culture was intertwined with the new world and language they were
forced to live in, and with that alterations were made in order to survive.
Although earlier
writers preferred African verbal communication in African American language,
the communication style is clearly up to the individual and thus verbal
expressions may vary. The development of Ebonics was believed to be one’s
stress of the past tense verbs. In the videos for instance code switching the verbalizations
were noted to be switched as to how you speak with family at home and how your
language is changed when you speak out in the public. The idea that the
language is modified for many African Americans being what is described a
cultural thing. The belief that in order to be taken seriously you would need
to adapt to speak properly in a professional atmosphere as opposed to speaking “slang”
with your friends, which sometimes is not acceptable in certain social
situations. This was in coordination with the adjustment of the atmosphere in
which you find yourself in. The slaves found themselves in a new world and
changes forced upon them, for example their names were changed primarily
because their names given to them in their culture could not be pronounced. The
modification of one’s speaking has had history over many decades, the changing
of the way a person communicates at one time was “Ebonics” in the 70’s, then “black
English” then “African American vernacular English”. In the AA English the
topic of Ebonics was one that was analyzed as to who actually taught blacks how
to speak from the beginning, this was in conjunction with author Asante
statement of how we as blacks modified language of our ancestors and present
day blacks. The video Ink spot viewed that the speaking of proper English viewed
an African American as speaking like you are white. The influence of Ebonics
and or AAV English has had impact on the African American speaking patterns
today, just as Asante reflected that the language we speak depends on the area
in which we are in. We again tend to modify our language to adapt to the
situations we find ourselves in.
In chapter 4
the naming practices of in the African culture was one that had meaning for
example: the Africans who arrived in Colonial America especially in the deep
South continued to give their children African names, giving the child a sense
of their ancestry roots and maintaining their cultural integrity a well as a
link to their African roots. The naming of African children was a traditional
process, one that appeared to be a simple process, for example a child rather they
are male or female was named after the day of the week they were born. The names
that were given eventually was translated in to the English language. For
example a female child born on a Friday was named “Phibba” which translated
into English as Phoebe.
The process
of giving a name to a child was of great importance because it was believed that
the child’s personality was a result of the name that was given to them at
birth. This itself takes a lot of thinking and analyzing of a person to choose
the right name to identify how they turn out in life.
The terms on
page 93-105 I found to be interesting because of the usage in our language
today, for example the term bad-mouth is still used today especially among
older adults meaning someone that is not speaking nicely. The term biddy is a
word still used to day to describe a small child or very small adult for the
most part it is used today as a description of a female. Again the word chick
is still synonymous with today’s language, it used to describe a female when a
person is speaking slang in today’s language. So the languages that was
utilized in our ancestors native land
was thoroughly intertwined with the English language, and with that being said
I believe that African Americans are superior as to the development of this
country.
