This book focuses on one of the most persistent and controversial questions in modern sociolinguistics: the past and present development of African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Despite intense scrutiny of the historical and current development of AAVE, a number of issues remain unresolved. Most prominent among these is the development of African American English during the antebellum period and the trajectory of change in twentieth-century AAVE. This book addresses both of these issues by examining an unparalleled sociolinguistic situation involving a long-standing, isolated, biracial community situated in a distinctive dialect region of coastal North Carolina. This unique environment provides a venue for dealing with questions of localized dialect accommodation and ethnolinguistic distinctiveness in earlier African American English. The conclusions drawn challenge the Creolist, Anglicist, and neo-Anglicist positions with respect to the history of AAVE and offer insights into the development of African American speech in the twentieth century.

Contents: Series Editor's Preface. List of Figures. List of Tables. Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Issue in the Development of African American English. 3. Defining the Enclave Dialect Community. 4. The Social History of Mainland Hyde County. 5. Morphosyntactic Alignment in Hyde County English. 6. Vocalic Alignment in Hyde County. 7. Consonantal Alignment in Hyde County. 8. Intonational Alignment in Hyde County English. 9. The Individual and Group in Earlier African American English. 10. Beyond Hyde County: Te Past and Present Development of AAVE. References. Index.