African American Vernacular English

AAVE is found in all the major cities in America and John R Rickford, the author of African American Vernacular English, says that it is often claimed that nearly 80 per cent of all African Americans speak AAVE to some extent. The features include -

Deletion of the auxiliary, absence of third person singular ‘s’ - This feature is thought to be the most common of AAVE and cannot be found in any other American or British dialect. The absence of third person singular it also typical and is not found in British English, demonstrating the clear difference between the two.
AAVE: "He say he not ready to get married, he just got out of a five year relationship."
BrE: "He says that he is not ready to get married, he just got out of a five year relationship."

Multiple negation – This feature is not only typical of AAVE but it can also be found in the speech of MLE in Britain. It is mainly used in colloquial speech and among the working class, demonstrating how it has an element of covert prestige as many of these people use it to ‘fit in’.
AAVE: "She don't believe nothing I tell her."
BrE: " She doesn't believe anything I tell her."

The use of ‘aint’ – This colloquialism and contraction of ‘am not’ ‘is not’ ‘are not’ ‘has not’ and ‘have not’ is common in both African American Vernacular English and Multi-cultural London English. It is considered to be informal and non-standard and suggests that both of these languages use it to diverge against standardised forms. Thus, demonstrating it is used to gain covert prestige, but not prestige itself.
AAVE: "I ain't there yet."
BrE: "I am not there yet."

Generalisation of ‘is’ and ‘was’ – This is again used in both AAVE and MLE, it is another indiactor of a lower social class as the middle and upper classes would not usually make this grammatical error. It could demonstrate a lack of education, though it also is used to gain covert prestige for some people in these classed. For instance, youths tend to use it to ‘fit in’.
AAVE: "We was watching television."
BrE: "We were watching television."

Media example – Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Will: I guess you was listening!

Other main examples which are generally used to gain covert prestige are –

Final ‘ng’ pronounced as ‘n’ AAVE: "Hey, I'm not messin' with nobody of them dudes in Seattle."
BrE: "Hey, I'm not messing with any of those dudes in Seattle."

Media Example – Jay Z
‘Hangin’ ‘bustin’

Media example – Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Jazz: I'm starvin'

Loss of pronunciation of ‘th’AAVE: "She give dum the money."
BrE: "She gives them the money."

Media example – lyrics
‘Give dem da money’

Therefore, it is clear to see that African American Vernacular English is not standard when compared to British English. Howeverm it is also apparent that some features are similar or the same to those seen in MLE. Thus, as these are typical of the lower and working classes it is also apparent that these language features are used to gain covert prestige as those using them may feel they will never gain enough status to be able to use standarised American or British English.