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Part of
World Englishes on the Web: The Nigerian diaspora in the USA
Mirka Honkanen
[Varieties of English Around the World G63] 2020
► pp. 91–228

Chapter 6
African-American linguistic resources in diasporic Nigerian repertoires

Article outline
  • 6.1User types
    • 6.1.1User type I: Consistent experts
    • 6.1.2User type II: Inconsistent experts
    • 6.1.3User type III: Occasional users
    • 6.1.4User type IV: Minimal users
    • 6.1.5User type V: Non-users
  • 6.2AAVE features and practices
    • 6.2.1Authenticity issues
      • 6.2.1.1Controversial identities: “Reppin where am from faithfully”
      • 6.2.1.2Reactions to expert usage of AAVE: “We NIGERIANS don’t talk street”
    • 6.2.2Styleshifting into AAVE
      • 6.2.2.1Rap battling: “The music of hope. .and by the way its black”
      • 6.2.2.2Accommodation to one’s interlocutors: “Whatcha been up to homie?”
      • 6.2.2.3Fictional narratives: “Shes Ghetto and She’s got it all!”
    • 6.2.3Verbal markers
      • 6.2.3.1Habitual or iterative invariant be
      • 6.2.3.2Perfect done
      • 6.2.3.3Remote past been
      • 6.2.3.4Futurate finna
      • 6.2.3.5Futurate I’ma
    • 6.2.4Lexical and orthographic AAVE features
      • 6.2.4.1Spelling: “They call each others Doggs .. or is it dawgs?”
      • 6.2.4.2Lexis: “This is not hate! This is Real Talk!”
    • 6.2.5Practices of minimal usage: “Like my African american brothers go say”
    • 6.2.6Highly popular features
      • 6.2.6.1 Ain’t and other issues of negation: “I use the word ‘aint’ because i can”
      • 6.2.6.2Second-person plural pronoun y’all : “t’sup y’all?”
      • 6.2.6.3Augmentation with ass : “Is their sacral bone fractured or what?”
  • Notes