From its historical development to its current context, this is the first full-length overview of middle-class African American English.

Offers a set of diverse analyses of traditional and contemporary work on language structure and use in African American communities.

First published in 1999, Mary Pattillo’s Black Picket Fences explores an American demographic group too often ignored by both scholars and the media: the blac

This authoritative introduction to African American English (AAE) is the first textbook to look at the grammar as a whole. Clearly organised, it describes patte