Editing African-American English (section)

===African-American Vernacular English===
{{Main|African-American Vernacular English}}
African-American Vernacular (AAVE) is the native [[variety (linguistics)|variety]] of the majority of [[working-class]] and many [[African-American middle class|middle-class]] [[African Americans]], particularly in urban areas,{{sfnp|Edwards|2004|p=383}} with its own unique accent, grammar, and vocabulary features. Typical features of the grammar include a [[zero copula|"zero" copula]] (e.g., ''she my sister'' instead of ''she's my sister''),<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Labov|1972|p=8}}</ref> omission of the genitive clitic (e.g., ''my momma friend'' instead of ''my mom's friend''),<ref name="Green 2002 119–121">{{Harvcoltxt|Green|2002|pp=119–121}}</ref> and complexity of verb aspects and tenses beyond that of other English dialects (e.g., constructions like ''I'm a-run'', ''I be running'', ''I been runnin'', ''I done ran'').<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Fickett|1972|pp=17–19}}</ref> Common features of the phonology include [[Rhoticity in English|non-rhoticity]] (dropping the ''r'' sound at the end of syllables),<ref name="Green 2002 119–121"/> the [[Metathesis (linguistics)|metathetic use]] of ''aks'' instead of ''ask'',<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Baugh|2000|pp=92–94}}</ref> simplification of diphthongs (e.g., ''eye'' typically sounds like ''ah''),<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Labov|1972|p=19}}</ref> a [[raising (phonetics)|raising]] [[chain shift]] of the [[front vowel]]s,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Thomas | first1 = Erik | year = 2007 | title = Phonological and phonetic characteristics of AAVE | journal = Language and Linguistics Compass | volume = 1 | pages = 450–475 | doi = 10.1111/j.1749-818X.2007.00029.x }}</ref> and a wider range of intonation or "melody" patterns than most [[General American]] accents.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|McWhorter|2001|pp=146–147}}</ref> AAVE is often used by middle-class African Americans in casual, intimate, and informal settings as one end of a sociocultural language continuum,<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Linnes|1998|pp=339–367}}</ref> and AAVE shows some slight variations by region or city.<ref>Walt Wolfram and Mary E. Kohn, "The regional development of African American Language"; in [[Sonja Lanehart]], [[Lisa Green (linguist)|Lisa Green]], and Jennifer Bloomquist, eds., ''The Oxford Handbook on African American Language'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp.&nbsp;149–151.</ref>