If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?

Black English is spoken by many Black people in North America. It was developed when African people were enslaved during the Atlantic slave trade, beginning in the late 17th century. By the time of Baldwin’s New York Times essay, cultural and scholarly debates over “the use, the status, or the reality” of Black English had been occurring in the United States since at least the 1920s and probably centuries before (Paragraph 1). Many linguists argue that Black English is a language variety because it “is systematic in phonology (sounds), morphology (structure of words and relationships among words), syntax (sentence structure), semantics (meaning), pragmatics (context), and discourse patterns” (“African American English.” Oxford Bibliographies). However, as Baldwin argues in his essay, some deny Black English the status of a language to further the goals of anti-Black racism.

The question of what to call Black English has been—and continues to be—argued, including names such as Ebonics (a blend of the words ebony and phonics), African American Language (AAL), African American English (AAE), Black English, and Black Language (differentiating it from white mainstream English) (“