Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English - Hardcover

Rickford, John Russell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 047132356X ISBN 13: 9780471323563

Publisher: Trade Paper Press, 2000

Synopsis

In Praise of Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English

""Spoken Soul brilliantly fills a huge gap. . . . a delightfully readable introduction to the elegant interweave between the language and its culture.""
–Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown university

""A lively, well-documented history of Black English . . . that will enlighten and inform not only educators, for whom it should be required reading, but all who value and question language.""
–Kirkus Reviews

""Spoken Soul is a must read for anyone who is interested in the connection between language and identity.""
–Chicago Defender

Claude Brown called Black English ""Spoken Soul."" Toni Morrison said, ""It's a love, a passion. Its function is like a preacher’s: to make you stand out of your seat, make you lose yourself and hear yourself. The worst of all possible things that could happen would be to lose that language.""

Now renowned linguist John R. Rickford and journalist Russell J. Rickford provide the definitive guide to African American vernacular English–from its origins and features to its powerful fascination for society at large.

About this title

Review:

In 1996, an America Online poll about Ebonics sparked more responses than did its survey on O.J. Simpson. And that's just a taste of the controversy and debate that Black English has provoked over the years. Called "Spoken Soul" by Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land, the dialect of African Americans has been lauded, derided, questioned, and discussed for decades, but never so comprehensively and fairly as in this historic, sociologic, and linguistic overview and analysis by John Russell Rickford (the Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University) and Russell John Rickford (a journalist, formerly of the Philadelphia Inquirer).

They discuss the attitudinal impact of socioeconomic factors, as well as the effect of generation and gender. They look at the place of black vernacular in literature and family, identity and culture, education and politics. And they track previous debates, from Paul Laurence Dunbar's considerations in the late 1800s to the black intelligentsia of the Harlem Renaissance to the issues raised by the civil rights movement of the 1960s to the recent Ebonics discourse.

Part 2, entitled "This Passion, This Skill, This Incredible Music," takes a close look at the richness of Spoken Soul, as recorded in literature (both black and white), from John Leacock's 1776 play The Fall of British Tyranny to DMX's rap lyrics of today. They look at the language of preachers and comedians, actors and singers, and scores of writers, and then they delve deeper, into the components of the living language, examining the vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and history of the black vernacular. And finally, the Rickfords discuss the role of Spoken Soul in terms of African American identity. The result? A thoughtful, erudite, and provocative narrative that lifts the discussion of Black English out of the knee-jerk negativity that arose from the Ebonics controversy of 1996 and into the loftier and more appropriate realms of linguistics, literature, and culture. --Stephanie Gold

From the Back Cover:

"Rich and powerful—and funky and bold—dissects black writing and speech, its grammar and history, its controversy, and the media coverage of it. . . . A book that’s truly da bomb."—Geneva Smitherman

"The language, only the language. . . . It’s a love, a passion. Its function is like a preacher’s: to make you stand up out of your seat, make you lose yourself and hear yourself. The worst of all possible things that could happen would be to lose that language."—Toni Morrison (1981)

Claude Brown called it "Spoken Soul." Legendary author James Baldwin referred to it as "incredible music." Writers from Paul Laurence Dunbar to Toni Morrison and Alice Walker have employed it to fully convey the experiences of black America.

In Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English, scholar and linguistics expert John R. Rickford and journalist Russell J. Rickford offer a fascinating, definitive history of the use of Black English in literature, the performing arts, religion, and everyday conversation. The Rickfords also explore America’s love/hate relationship with Black English and its role in our ongoing dialogue about why and how race matters.

From our embrace of Black English as the language of jazz, funk, hip-hop, and rap, to the media-fanned furor surrounding proposals to use Ebonics as a springboard to teaching Standard English, Black English is as deeply rooted in America’s politics as it is in America’s culture. The Rickfords scrupulously show how education, the media, and society have been affected by the power and tenacity of Spoken Soul.

If you love words or are interested in the connection between language and identity, Spoken Soul will intrigue and enlighten you.

"Spoken Soul brilliantly fills a huge gap. . . a delightfully readable introduction to the elegant interweave between the language and its culture, its admirable linguistic structure, its multifaceted history, and its potential use in education."—Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown university
"Spoken Soul provides a profound portrait of the power, passion, and poignancy of Black English beyond the Ebonics controversy and the perplexing paradox of linguistic prejudice."—John Baugh, Stanford University, author of Black Street Speech

In Praise of African American Vernacular English
"It possesses a pronounced lyrical quality which is frequently incompatible with any music other than that ceaselessly and relentlessly driving rhythm from poignantly spent lives."—Claude Brown (1968)

" . . . this passion, this skill, this incredible music." —James Baldwin (1978)

"Three qualities of Black English—the presence of life, voice, and clarity—testify to a distinct black value system."—June Jordan (1985)

"That mainstream English is essential to our self-preservation is indisputable. . . but it is not necessary to abandon Spoken Soul to master Standard English, any more than it is necessary to abandon English to learn French or to deprecate jazz to appreciate classical music."—John R. Rickford and Russell J. Rickford (2000)

About this edition

• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 047132356X
• ISBN 13: 9780471323563
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288