you’ve probably seen this list floating around the tl, lets talk about it.

so it’s a list of words that are supposedly AAVE. (you’ll see why it’s supposedly later) to actually understand this we need to look at what AAVE actually is. AAVE is African American Vernacular English and is a term that was commonly used in academic settings (socio/linguistics-

-now in an academic setting AAL (African American Language) is also very commonly used. both are better than terms that people may be more familiar with, “ebonics” (ebony+phonics), “blaccent,” or “hood/ghetto talk.” for obvious reasons, these are inappropriate/offensive.-

it’s commonly seen as “bad english” but it’s actually a full fledged dialect of the english language. there’s many theories on its origin, many speculate it began in the south. however due to racism’s impact on black history, it’s very difficult to find the exact origin of AAVE.-

AAVE is a very real dialect, and even like english, can vary depending on region. the issue with this list is it isn’t all AAVE. many people have pointed out that lots of the terms overlap with slang terms, terms from gay culture, common words, and/or informal english-

-contractions. that being said, points can be made for both sides. but when it comes down to who can say what, im not sure. i’m white, so it really isn’t 100% my place to speak. many other people have recognized that these words have been used more often in pop culture/slang-

-but not many understand the origin. another point that can be made is how languages evolve from other languages, like latin/greek roots in english. as i bring this thread towards a close, i am obviously very interested in linguistics, and i am open to learning more about this-

- topic. please do discuss and feel free to share any interesting sources on this!!! anyways i’m starting to get tired and i hope this doesn’t flop