However, research in the years that followed found that in many of its important features, African American Vernacular English was becoming not less, but more different from other dialects.
quote by William Labov
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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This African American Vernacular English shares most of its grammar and vocabulary with other dialects of English. But it is distinct in many ways, and it is more different from standard English than any other dialect spoken in continental North America.
quote by William Labov
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Who's To Blame
Oh Mother Ghana; Mother Ghana
What has happened to you?
What has happened to your culture?
They say we've fold arms against 'Vernacular' language
Instead opened arms wide to 'English' language
Oh Mother Ghana Mother Ghana
Why?
At school, we are taught the things we do not know
By the 'English' language
Why not 'Vernacular' language?
Oh Mother Ghana, Oh Mother Ghana
Where is your true identity as pure African?
Where is your pride as true Ghanaian?
Oh Mother Ghana, Oh Mother Ghana,
Day after day
When we put on the uniform as students
We are forbidden to speak 'Vernacular' language
Instead the 'English' language
Why Mother Ghana, why Mother Ghana?
When we speak 'Vernacular' language; your culture,
They say: 'Speak English' someone's culture!
When we speak 'English' that someone's culture
They say: 'Abrofosem; speak vernacular language' your culture!
Oh Mother Ghana, Oh Mother Ghana
Who's to blame?
'English or Vernacular language'
Oh Mother Ghana; Oh Mother Ghana.
poem by Francis Julian Zewu
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To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.
quote by Thomas B. Macaulay
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Well, American dialects have been studied for a hundred years or so.
quote by William Labov
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The African-American experience is one of the most important threads in the American tapestry.
quote by Bill Frist
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Gertrude Stein is interviewed on American poetry
and there was the knocking on the door
that we were expecting
and it was the man
that we were expecting
with the questions we were expecting
to which answers were expected
by those who expect answers
as if life were like that
which for writers it is not
yes, tea was drunk
and after tea the tape recorder set up
so that what I said
I would continue to say
somewhere else
even when I changed my mind
here and nowhere else
and he said Ms Stein
what do you think of American poetry
and we said well it's American
and it's poetry
that's as it should be
and really that's all there is to say
and the man looked disappointed
so we asked him did he read poetry
and he said poetry no I dont read poetry
but my editor does
so I said it's really about Americans
living their lives
that's what American poetry is really about
because Americans move around
and so their words move around and
words in English have lost their intensity
but American words are always on the move
and they are more intense
yes, Americans living among Americans
and talking to their neighbours
if it's not about that
it's not really American poetry at all is it
if it's not about that
then why bother writing poetry
and the man was asking about a rose
being a rose being a rose and we said
for a hundred years the rose
has not been red in poetry
but now for the first time in a hundred years
the rose is red again
and the man looked at his watch
and said thank you Ms Stein
and was switching off his tape recorder
and a month later that
was what we said
in a magazine much read
by Americans who mostly
are not poets no very few but we said it
we know that this is so
because we read it there
and we think that really
that was all there was to say
because that was all we think
is really important
about American Poetry
that the words move like Americans move
and that is exciting for a writer
and that is the important thing about
American Poetry
poem by Michael Shepherd
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One of the biggest things I understood in a program like that was that it allowed more young African American scholars to do field research in the Caribbean and in Africa than had ever happened before in the history of the country and since.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
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In fact, the Harvard study data indicates that 70 percent of African American children attend schools that are predominately African American, about the same level as in 1968 when Dr. King died.
quote by Bobby Scott
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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American Without Tears #2
December 1965 in caracas
When arnie laflem took a piece of the pie
When he packed up the casino chips, the iou and the abacus
And switched off the jukebox in a a fool such as i
He was a leg man who was open to offers
But he couldnt get her off his mind as he passed the tourist office
And as he entertained himself singing just like sammy davis junior
He toyed with her trip to miami
For money like that
He could have sweet talk in her ear
Now they dont speak any english
Just american without tears
It was an idea that he dangled on his knee
And nursed it like his coffee cup
When he couldnt find any other way
It always seemed to come to him
While the day was dipping down
And sun was like a lightbulb
Being swallowed by a clown
He took her for everything
He took her for his only one
He took her out of coventry and over to idaho
But the war wound that he carried home
Wasnt really visable
When bullets were forgotton
She lived dowdry, down, and miserable
And she seemed to be crying for year after year
And says, you dont speak any english
Just american between tears.
Honey she said to me will you turn down the radio.
You havent slept a wink since we came to havana
When youre gonna get the strength to go over to florida
All you ever listen to is the voice of america.
It was the story of a young english puppet
Who took up with a soldier boy
And thought she would profit.
Just like me she found out what true love is about
Anyway shes in new orleans it would never work out
Oh she seemed to be crying for year after year
Now you dont speak any english
Just american between tears.
Just american without tears.
For you seem to be crying year after year
Now you dont speak any english
Just american without tears.
Just american without tears.
song performed by by Elvis Costello
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Out of 30 years of Second City I was probably the third African-American with the main stage cast. I was surprised when I first heard that. I think part of the reason that improvisation has never been popular with African-Americans is that it isn't popular in the inner cities.
quote by Tim Meadows
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It appears that the present-day form of African American English is not the inheritance of the period of slavery, but the creation of the second half of the 20th century.
quote by William Labov
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I think, though, as African-American women, we are always trained to value our community even at the expense of ourselves, and so we attempt to protect the African-American community.
quote by Anita Hill
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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American Without Tears
Outside in new orleans the heat was almost frightening
But my hotel room as usual was freezing and unkind
On tv they prosecute anyone whos exciting
So I put on my overcoat and went down to find
In revlon and crimpelene they captured my heart
To the strain of a piano and a cocktail murderess
She was singing that its too late, I agreed with that part
For two english girls who had changed their address
[chorus]
Now it seems weve been crying for years and for years
Now I dont speak any english, just american without tears
Just american without tears
One had been a beauty queen and the other was her friend
They had known rogues and rascals and showbiz impresarios
While the boys were licking hitler they had something to defend
>from men armed with chewing gum and fine nylon hose
By a bicycle factory as they sounded the siren
And returned into the dancehall she knew he was the one
Though he wasnt tall or handsome she laughed when he told her
Im the sheriff of nottingham and this is little john
[chorus]
At a dock in southampton full of tearful goodbyes
Newsreel commentators said cheerio, g.i. brides
Soon theyll be finding the cold facts and lies
New words for suspenders and young girls backsides
Now Im in america and running from you
Like my grandfather before me walked the streets of new york
And I think of all the women I pretend mean more than you
When I open my mouth and I cant seem to talk
Now it seems weve been crying for years and for years
Now I dont speak any english just american without tears
Just american without tears
song performed by by Elvis Costello
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and regional; it's not one particular set of sounds.
quote by Carlisle Floyd
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I'm not saying that there weren't other inherent problems with the score that couldn't have been overcome with a bit of remixing, but why did they ask me to do it, and why did Griffin ask me to do it this way, for a film that had nothing to do with American vernacular?
quote by Michael Nyman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Many parts of the granite statues were found, the most important of which had features close to Ramses II. The statue needs some restoration and weighs between four and five tons.
quote by Zahi Hawass
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Third culture kid
I'm a third culture kid-
a hidden immigrant;
I seem to fit in;
I've got blonde hair,
white skin and an English accent;
to look at me
you'd never realise where i've been;
that part of me is South East Asian,
American, Scottish, African, Australian;
I grew up in Hong Kong
but went to school in the United Kingdom;
first in Scotland, then in Kent;
my parents are both South African,
my boyfriend's from Spain
and my father works and lives in Bahrain-
to look at me you'd think I fit in
but i'm a third culture kid, an alien;
I just live in Britian!
poem by Danielle Moffat
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Research to me is as important or more important than the writing. It is the foundation upon which the book is built.
There is no way that we know what is going on between the African American and the Asian American. We don't understand what an Indigenous American is. We don't understand what a Latino American is.
quote by Edward James Olmos
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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An important aspect of the current situation is the strong social reaction against suggestions that the home language of African American children be used in the first steps of learning to read and write.
quote by William Labov
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