AAE

African American English (AAE) is a term used in linguistics to describe a family of English varieties spoken by many African American communities in the United States. It is a dialect of American English, not a separate language, and it encompasses systematic phonological, syntactic, and lexical differences from Standard American English (SAE). The features of AAE vary by region, age, gender, and social context, and many speakers code-switch between AAE and SAE depending on setting.

Linguistic features commonly associated with AAE include habitual be, where the verb be marks habitual aspect (for example, She be working), and copula or auxiliary absence in present-tense contexts (She nice). Other patterns involve consonant and vowel variation, regional pronunciation differences, and distinctive negation forms such as ain’t. It is important to note that there is no single, uniform AAE profile; dialect features cluster differently across urban and rural areas, and across the North, South, and Midwest.

Historically, AAE reflects a history of language contact among West African languages, enslaved Africans, and English in the United States. Development has been shaped by regional dialects, migration, education, and culture. In scholarly and educational contexts, AAE is treated as a legitimate linguistic system with its own rules. Public discourse has sometimes framed it as incorrect English, but linguists emphasize its systematic nature and the speakers’ ability to switch dialects (code-switch) in different situations.

Related topics include African American Vernacular English (AAVE), sociolinguistics, and language variation.