This classic text by Geneva Smitherman, pioneering scholar of Black Talk, is a definitive statement on African American Language (AAL). It is an essential read for students of African American speech, language, culture and sociolinguistics, as well as the general reader interested in the worldwide 'crossover' of Black popular culture.

Geneva Smitherman (aka Dr. G) is University Distinguished Professor Emerita in English and Core Faculty, African Studies Center at Michigan State University in the U.S. A linguist and educational activist, she has been at the forefront of the struggle for language rights since the 1970s. She is the author of several books, among them, Talkin and Testifyin (1977), Black Talk (2000), and Talkin That Talk (2000).

Acknowledgements

Foreword to the Routledge Linguistics Classics Edition: She Do It for the Culture: The Deep Structure of Geneva Smitherman's Radical Linguistics of Black Love - H. Samy Alim

1 African American Language: So good it's bad

2 Words and Expressions, Proverbs and Familiar Sayings

3 The N-words

4 Honeyz and Playaz Talkin that Talk

5 "I used to love H.E.R.": Hip Hop, in its Essence and Real

6 "All Around the World, Same Song"

7 "Negro Dialect, the Last Barrier to Integration"?

Notes

References

Discography

Index