Product Description

In Praise of spoken soul

the story of black english

"Spoken Soul brilliantly fills a huge gap. . . . a delightfully readable introduction to the elegant interweave between the language and its culture."–Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown university

"A lively, well-documented history of Black English . . . that will enlighten and inform not only educators, for whom it should be required reading, but all who value and question language." –Kirkus Reviews

"Spoken Soul is a must read for anyone who is interested in the connection between language and identity." –Chicago Defender

Claude Brown called Black English "Spoken Soul." Toni Morrison said, "It’s a love, a passion. Its function is like a preacher’s: to make you stand out of your seat, make you lose yourself and hear yourself. The worst of all possible things that could happen would be to lose that language."

Now renowned linguist John R. Rickford and journalist Russell J. Rickford provide the definitive guide to African American vernacular English–from its origins and features to its powerful fascination for society at large.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #364039 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.com Review
In 1996, an America Online poll about Ebonics sparked more responses than did its survey on O.J. Simpson. And that's just a taste of the controversy and debate that Black English has provoked over the years. Called "Spoken Soul" by Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land, the dialect of African Americans has been lauded, derided, questioned, and discussed for decades, but never so comprehensively and fairly as in this historic, sociologic, and linguistic overview and analysis by John Russell Rickford (the Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University) and Russell John Rickford (a journalist, formerly of the Philadelphia Inquirer).

They discuss the attitudinal impact of socioeconomic factors, as well as the effect of generation and gender. They look at the place of black vernacular in literature and family, identity and culture, education and politics. And they track previous debates, from Paul Laurence Dunbar's considerations in the late 1800s to the black intelligentsia of the Harlem Renaissance to the issues raised by the civil rights movement of the 1960s to the recent Ebonics discourse.

Part 2, entitled "This Passion, This Skill, This Incredible Music," takes a close look at the richness of Spoken Soul, as recorded in literature (both black and white), from John Leacock's 1776 play The Fall of British Tyranny to DMX's rap lyrics of today. They look at the language of preachers and comedians, actors and singers, and scores of writers, and then they delve deeper, into the components of the living language, examining the vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and history of the black vernacular. And finally, the Rickfords discuss the role of Spoken Soul in terms of African American identity. The result? A thoughtful, erudite, and provocative narrative that lifts the discussion of Black English out of the knee-jerk negativity that arose from the Ebonics controversy of 1996 and into the loftier and more appropriate realms of linguistics, literature, and culture. --Stephanie Gold

From Kirkus Reviews
A lively, well-documented history of Black English with particular focus on the recent Ebonics controversy. John Russell Rickford (Linguistics/Stanford Univ.) and Russell John Rickford, a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, dispel myths that Black English is simply substandard English. Too many people took the Oakland, California school board's decision on Ebonics to be ``one more spirited attempt at multiculturalism.'' The authors contend that Spoken Soul, the dialect of African-Americans, is rich and potent, with a distinct, consistent pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar largely derived from African roots. For example, the ubiquitous ``be'' fills in the gap for a missing past and present continuous verb in standard English, and ``teses'' is a correct plural for ``tests'' to avoid a triple-consonant ending. Though they agree that all African- Americans must master standard English for survival in school and success in the business world, they emphasize the value of Spoken Soul as a linguistic tool not only among black people, but in society at large. Culling examples from the work of such acclaimed writers as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Maya Angelou, they show how even writers who had ambivalent feelings towards Black English employed it to enrich American literature. Preachers, lyricists, and comedians still use it. How then can educators teach their students standard English without debasing a rich oral linguistic tradition? They must, insist the authors, develop an awareness and appreciation of Spoken Soul. They must avoid thinking of Black English as ``bad English'' or ``lazy English.'' They must learn its distinct grammar and pronunciation so that they can contrast it with standard English. Only then will they be equipped to teach the masses of black youngsters the language skills they need to survive in the larger world. A polemic that will enlighten and inform not only educators, for whom it should be required reading, but all who value and question language. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From the Back Cover
In Praise of spoken soul

the story of black english

"Spoken Soul brilliantly fills a huge gap. . . . a delightfully readable introduction to the elegant interweave between the language and its culture."–Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown university

"A lively, well-documented history of Black English . . . that will enlighten and inform not only educators, for whom it should be required reading, but all who value and question language." –Kirkus Reviews

"Spoken Soul is a must read for anyone who is interested in the connection between language and identity." –Chicago Defender

Claude Brown called Black English "Spoken Soul." Toni Morrison said, "It’s a love, a passion. Its function is like a preacher’s: to make you stand out of your seat, make you lose yourself and hear yourself. The worst of all possible things that could happen would be to lose that language."

Now renowned linguist John R. Rickford and journalist Russell J. Rickford provide the definitive guide to African American vernacular English–from its origins and features to its powerful fascination for society at large.

Customer Reviews

A book everyone should read
This book was meant for every teacher, journalist, voter, politician, mother, writer, speech-giver, and person interested in language usage. It is a very smooth read with the rigor and content of a scholarly work and the clarity and craftsmanship of a New York Times bestseller. It would be a perfect book for a Freshman seminar or to read on a warm summer afternoon.

This book has five sections. The first section is the introduction.

The second section is for everyone interested in Speech Communication, Rhetoric, Writing, Rhetorical Style, Code-switching and Genre analysis--folklore, prayers, writers, music, poems, etc. In addition to discussing discourse level topics, it also introduces phonological and syntactic markers of the different speech varieties. It also describes the difference between hip-hop slang and the systematic language variation in sound, grammar, and rhetorical style that characterize AAVE.

The third section, devoted to illustrating the phonological, syntactic, and evolutionary (linguistic/etymological) systems of AAVE, is written for the lay reader, but it is useful for advanced students of linguistics as well who would like to gain an overview of how the language works. It is very thorough in illustrating the systematic rule system of AAVE, including socio-linguistically predictable frequencies of feature occurrence, and it explains linguistic notions in lay concepts for those without a background in linguistics. It is extraordinarily clear and easy to understand, but theoretically thorough and deep. It is careful to explain the linguistic environments of AAVE rules, and illustrates every point with multiple examples. Nearly every page of the book contains data illustrating the richness of the language being described and the linguistic notions being discussed. The data is presented in a format digestible to the lay reader, but Rickford is careful to preserve all of the information that a linguist may wish to pull out of the data. The last chapter in this section is devoted to historical linguistics. It describes century by century what data is available and how to use it to triangulate a theory of language origin. It explains the anglocentric, creolist, and afrocentric positions on the origins of AAVE. The book then goes point by point through all of the syntactic and phonological characteristics described in the previous two chapters and describes the theoretical positions of all three camps on these points. It is one of the best descriptions, point by point, that I have ever read on the origins of AAVE.

The fourth section deals with the Oakland Ebonics controversy. It explains the issues involved from all perspectives, the history of the issues, the players, and the media issues. Most usefully, it includes information on educational research showing the outcomes of various educational programs for language minorities here and abroad which never got aired during the controversy. It also describes a number of programs which showed substantial improvement in outcomes, but which were discontinued for political reasons. It is a case study worthy of any political science, media, public relations, or educational administration course.

The last section deals with language and identity. It is short, but poignant with many illustrative examples. It touches on important socio-linguistic concepts, but it could be expanded greatly.

The rest of this is intended for instructors considering this for a Freshman survey course. The points are excessively nit-picky and not at all relevant to anyone other than an instructor.

What I wanted more of:

1) more unscripted examples of code-switching and analysis of reasons for it 2)discussion of why the Nova Scotia, Liberian, and Sierra Leone data is so valuable (i.e. comparative method for the lay person) 3) more specific explanation of the "universals" of pidginization and creolization 4)discussion of decreolization. The terms basilect, mesolect, and acrolect with weak explanation of their significance. This is quite uncharacteristic of the book as a whole, which carefully explains or avoids linguistic jargon. 5) more extensive discussion of educational research on literacy acquisition 6) more in-depth examples of comprehension issues. There is a lot of discussion about the work Labov is doing on this, but there is a paucity of examples. (Again, uncharacteristic of the book as a whole.) 7) presentation of more scholarly theory and research on psychology of education and its effects on learning 8) more extensive explanation of network theory, which is mentioned several times but only briefly explained, 9) more information about the differences between regional varieties of Black English in previous centuries, 10) more information about differences between regional varieties of AAVE now. The book shows that variation is extensive along social class and social network lines, however, it gives the impression that there is now little to no regional variation in it. The book could be more overt in stating to what extent they believe this is true.

Spoken Soul is an enlightening and enriching experience.
I found the book to be very enlightening and was quite impressed by the scholarly approach of the authors, particularly their discussion of the origin, history and development of Black English in this country and in the Caribbean area. For example, their explanation of the substitution of ³d² for ³th² in spoken soul, their term for Black English, because there is no ³th² sound in the West African languages used by the black slaves in early America provided a clear basis for this usage that made good sense to me. That explanation dispelled any pejorative notions that this pronunciation was due to some kind of laziness of tongue or simple-mindedness on the part of the speaker. The book is very well organized, well written, and introduces the reader to the many uses to which Black English or spoken soul has been put in music, humor, poetry, novels and the theater. Although it is a scholarly work, it flows quite smoothly and is easy to read. The discussion of Ebonics and the actions of the Oakland School Board is must reading for anyone who followed that controversy. It puts that whole affair and the media¹s role in it in its proper context. I bought a copy for one of my colleagues and another is reading my copy. After finishing the book, I had a greater appreciation of my own home language. The book is must reading for anyone interested in having a better understanding of the multi-layered society in which we live, the beauty and richness of the languages we speak and the contributions speaker of soul have made to the beautiful mosaic that is the United States.

Brilliant
Recommended to my by a colleague, I had my doubts about _Spoken Soul_. Lingustics is intellectually rigorous, and frankly I was a little intimidated. Furthermore, like many Americans, I had always thought of "ebonics" as slang. That "ebonics" (or "African-American vernacular English" - AAVE) is in fact a language, governed by grammatical rules and with a rich history is the subject of _Spoken Soul_.

Written by Stanford lingustics professor John Rickford, _Spoken Soul_ begins with a primer in linguistics. It is testament to the brilliance of Rickford that he clearly and easily explains speech analysis, linguistic syntax and grammatical rules so the layperson can understand. From here, Rickford shows how AAVE is, in fact, a language - going so far as to illustrate its etymology to West African languages (through sentence structure and grammatical rules.) The last chapters of the book - on the controversey of teaching ebonics in schools- was of less interest to me, but certainly relevant to the larger issue of language and power in a society.

The book is a real eye-opener, not only in terms of the broader implications of the power of language (consider for a moment vanishing languages around the world - and the reasons why this is happening), but also testament to the living linguistic heritage of African-Americans. I am a big fan of Richard Wright, August Wilson and Zora Neale Hurston. To understand now that the voices their characters spoke (and that some of my students speak) isn't "poor English" but a language (or dialect if you will) of its own was a profound realization to me. Recommended reading.