Whoa! What a nice thing I came by to share with y’all. My friend, the dedicated professional, linguist and English teacher Carina Fragozo, from English in Brazil had invited me to post an article on Black English (Text in Portuguese) and before it came out, I had been working on it for quite a while and you can check it out right now by clicking HERE.
This article is a summary of my work with Black English. Another part of it can also be found on AFRICAN AMERICAN VERNACULAR ENGLISH.
But I am not going to make it too long. Don’t go anywhere before you like our pages on Facebook and get the feel of what it is!
Carina Fragozo’s Facebook Page is English in Brazil
Rodrigo P. Honorato’s Facebook Page is English Black Friday
Don’t be a stranger! Come back as often as you can. English Black Friday is for you to learn English through Black American culture, music, comedy, and so much more. For more about Black Language, click on ALL ABOUT BLACK LANGUAGE
Thank you for coming out and showing your support.
This material has been selected, adapted, analyzed, and put together by Rodrigo P. Honorato.
G’day Rodrigo,
I first saw this article on English in Brazil, made a comment and you responded to me. I then found your site (I don’t do Facebook as matter of principle!) and had a look around. Great work! I too am interested in how dialects and accents come about and find it a fascinating thing. I would even venture that many black speakers of AAVE actually operate in a diglossia, where they speak AAVE at home or in their communities, but are able to switch to standard American English when required (e.g. in an office job or talking to their local MP). I suspect also that it’s going further away from standard English as a distinct cultural marker for the black community, similar to what we see in places like Jamaica.
Given all of this this, when I started learning Portuguese (initially Brazilian but now European) just over 3 years ago, I became fascinated by the differences between these variants. Some people like the differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese to be similar to those between US and UK English. But I think it’s actually a fair bit more than that. As an Australian, I would liken it to being similar to the difference between Australian English and Scottish or Irish English. I have no trouble understanding most Americans, Canadians or English folk I come across, but Scottish and Irish people are a different matter. I have to listen in closely and it’s a challenge. A BBC Scottish television news broadcast, I’d have no problem with, but I think I’d have difficulties if I was to walk into a pub in suburban Glasgow.
It’s a similar thing for me now with Brazilian Portuguese. I can understand the RTP Portuguese news quite well these days, but every now and again, I watch Brazilian movies that I record off the tv. The majority of them are set in favelas or poor communities and the speech is just too slangy and quick for me to understand most of the time. I get dejected but then, in stages throughout the movie, there will be scenes where someone is addressing an audience or speaking in a more formal context. All of a sudden, the type of language changes, slows down, is less full of giria and I can understand much more, making me think that things aren’t so bad after all.
Anyway, great site and very interesting content.
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Wow. I wish I could have met you before. Thank you very much for the compliments. I, too, love languages and English is definitely my number 1 passion. Please, do not hesitate to correct anything that I might have written incorrectly. Your comments and suggestions are very welcome.
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Yeah, no wuckers, mate. (Oz slang. No wuckers = no wuckin’ furries = no fuckin’ worries = não problema, pá, vou fazer isso). From what i can see, your english looks pretty good.
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