English in Africa: History, Influence, and Features
English in Africa
Africa has over 1000 languages. It needs a link language even more than India, and English provides it. Sixteen countries have retained English since decolonization. English creoles are spreading rapidly in the markets and bazaars of West Africa. Perhaps 200 million people speak them. Standard English is taught in African schools. Good English spelling and grammar is vital for a future career in law, medicine, or government.
Trading Connections
The English language was probably first heard in Africa in the 1530s, but it was not until decades later that British ships came regularly in order to trade in spices, ivory, and slaves. Most of these trading enterprises were financed by merchant companies.
- The Guinea coast was one corner of the famous North Atlantic triangle between Africa, America, and Europe, with a constant trade of slaves, sugar, and industrial products.
- The European trading companies built forts on the coast or on islands near the coast, which were abandoned, sold, captured, or exchanged frequently.
- European presence was minimal, and its influence did not reach far into the hinterland. The Europeans normally did not travel inland but waited for African traders to bring their merchandise to the coast.
The Slave Trade and Language
The slave trade emerged at the beginning of the seventeenth century. When the slave trade was outlawed in Britain and the United States, there were over four million black slaves in America. To make rebellion difficult, people of different African language backgrounds were brought together in the ships.
Ebonics
In the United States, “Black English Vernacular”, the language used by lower-class blacks in urban communities, is thought to be spoken by 80 percent of present-day black Americans. The remainder uses a range of varieties influenced by the standard language, reflecting a gradual process of integration and the rise of a black middle class.
Jive
The history of Black English in the United States is complex, controversial, and only partly understood. Records of early speech forms are rare. Information is clearer after the American Civil War, when the slaves received civil rights for the first time. There was a widespread exodus to the industrial cities of the northern states, and black culture became known throughout the country, especially for its music and dance. Jive talk is the language of the black jazz musicians who went to Harlem, the pinnacle of Black city. Many of their words and phrases have passed into the language.
Some Grammatical Features of BEV
- No final –s in the third person singular form of the present tense (he walk, she come)
- No use of the forms of the verb be in the present tense, when it is used as a “linking” verb within a sentence. (They real fine, If you interested)
- The use of the verb be to mark habitual meaning, but without changing its grammatical form. (Sometime they be asking me things)
- Use of been to express a meaning of past activity with current relevance. (I been known your name)
- Use of be done in the sense of “will have”. (We be done washed all those things soon)
- Use of double negatives with the auxiliary verb at the beginning of a sentence (Won’t nobody do nothing about that)
AAVE Grammar
a) Omission of the –s possessive suffix (so you got teacher pencil)
b) mines for mine
c) Ain’t for didn’t in negation
d) Double negation (you ain’t got no cash money)
e) Absence of be in structures containing: predicative adjective (he crazy anyway), predicative nominative (she a nurse), predicative phrase of place or time (we on tape), verb + -ing (he gettin’ cripple’)
f) Invariant be
g) I’m gonna reduced to I mana, I mon or I ma
h) Stressed been to indicate action or state in the remote past
i) Use of done to emphasize the completed nature of an action (he done did it)
j) Absence of subject relative pronoun (that’s the man come here).