seeking AAVE/SAE matched guise speech samples

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 9/6/01 1:31:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time, bergdahl at OHIO.EDU
writes:

> ... and anecdotal evidence from the older generation of linguists, e.g.
>  Raven I. McDavid, attested to the fact that white southerners were often
>  "heard" in the the north as "black" on the telephone.

This makes sense.  Most African-to-be-American slaves were imported into the
Southern US, and the distinct phonetics of the AAVE "accent" could have
arisen from people speaking West African languages learning the "cornpone and
magnolia" English of the US South.  Hence AAVE would be closer to Southern
than to General American.

Is the above correct?

(Hmmm.  We now have another synonym for AAVE: "cornpone and cassava")

I am hardly an expert on dialects, but having grown up in Kentucky I have no
trouble distinguishing Southern from AAVE.  (Also from such unusual dialects
as Mountaineer.  Then there is my brother-in-law, who is from Oldham County.
Every once in a while we have to explain, "No, he's not drunk.  That's the
way they speak in Oldham County.")

I guess many Northerners just are not as familiar with Southern English as
they think they are.

        - Jim Landau (normally tin-eared, but not always)