Query on AAVE

[Herbert Stahlke]

Larry,

Check Huang, Xiaozhao, A study of African-American
vernacular English in America's "Middletown": evidence
of linguistic convergence. Lewiston: E. Mellen Press,
2000.  Huang compares a teenage and a fiftyish
population from '83 and '93.  His early '80s samples are
tapes of AA speakers in their 50s that are archived at
the Ball State Center for Middletown Studies.  His
early '80s teenage samples are from films in the
Middletown series that was broadcast on PBS in 1980 or
81.  He has some striking findings on language change
over that ten year period.

Herb