African American Vernacular English

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African American Vernacular English (AAVE), also called African American English, Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV), or Black Vernacular English (BVE) is a variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of the English language, particularly American English. It is also known colloquially as Ebonics. Its pronunciation in some respects is common to Southern American English, which is spoken by many African Americans in the United States and by many non-African Americans. AAVE shares many characteristics with various Creole English dialects spoken by black people in much of the world.citation needed] It has sometimes been suggested that AAVE has grammatical structures in common with various West African languages, but this is disputed.citation needed]. Speakers of AAVE are often bidialectal and, like with any form of language, age, status, topic, and setting influence the use of AAVE. For example, AAVE is used more often when discussing abstract concepts, such as feelings, or when speaking to members of one's own peer group.citation needed] There are many literary uses of this variety of English, particularly in African-American literature.