Black English (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Robin Hamilton]

[Somehow I earlier contrived to send this directly to James Landau rather
than to the List. Here it is.  Again.  Apologies to both the List and JAL
for this mis-step.  RH.]

> [BAE] is nothing more than a phonetic variation of Plebian English, with a
> notable amount of vocabulary not shared with other variations of either
> Patrician or Plebian English.
---
>    - James A. Landau

Black American English (or should I  say, some varieties of BAE?) does have
one feature -- the use of the stop in place of the fricative -- which brings
it closer to (working class Dublin) Irish than to any other current speech.

I found this out when I first encountered cant poems from Dublin in the
1780s, and it turned out that "The Night Before Larry was stretched" was
originally, "De Nite afore Larry was stretched."

This form is apparently pretty much widespread in Southern Irish dialects,
but more marked with regard to Dublin, even in the present day.  It's been
argued that this is because of the influence of (Irish) gaelic (as opposed
to Scots gaelic, which is different in this area), but why it should be more
marked in Dublin, and why it should be a feature shared by Black American
English ...

Thoughts, anyone?

Robin Hamilton

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