xxxvii 5 Stresses
The black speakers tend to stress the first syllable of a word rather than in the second syllable. Hence, the words police and hotel in BE will be
stressed on the first syllable. 6 Other Phonological Variables
There are some other features which affect the shapes of words in the black speech. There is no distinctive between i and e before nasals
in the great majority of cases. For example, pin is pronounced as pen, tin is pronounced as ten, etc. The written words of Black English refer to the
spoken words of Standard English, as in hosses – horses h
]
:s
c
s .
b. Grammatical Features
The grammatical features of BE are one kind of characteristics that make BE different from other American dialects. The grammar of BE
deviate from SE and it tends to simplify or regularize some of SE grammatical features.
a. Verb
1 Past Form
i. The –ed suffix The –ed suffix, for BE speakers, is often dropped. It seems that
they do not need it, as in “He walk home yesterday,” for SE “He walked
home yesterday”. ii. Irregular verb
xxxviii Irregular verbs in BE tend to be regularized, as in “knowed” for
the past form of “knew”, falled” for “fell”. iii. The used of HAD
Had is used as a marker of simple past primarily among preadolescent, e.g. “We had went there”.
2 Perfective Construction
i. The Used of HAVE Have
, among the black speakers, is not assumed as an auxiliary like been and done. The blacks often omitted this perfect tense
marker. If they use it, they will not contract it to ‘ve. Furthermore, they stress it, as in “I have seen all kinds of gods.”
ii. The Remote Present Perfect of BEEN
A construction with the present perfect been indicates something that begins a long time ago and it still does, e.g.
“She been married.” This perfect tense marker is usually in a stressed tone.
iii. The Complete Aspect with DONE The used of this marker is to emphasize the completed nature of
an action. It normally occurs before the verb in the same position as the auxiliary have and it can usually be seen as an
equivalent of have, e.g. “He done did it” for SE “He’s already done it.” In emphasizing its perfect tense meaning, it is
frequently reinforced with already, as in “She done already cut it up.” It has intents and purposes to be an adverb, functioning
sometimes like already or really, and lost its status as a verb.
xxxix 3
The Third Person Singular Present Tense Marker i. The – s suffix
The verb of BE following the third person singular does not seem to be attached with the – s suffix, as in “She study.” “She
walk.” ii. The Auxiliary don’t
It is frequently used by the blacks to replace does not and it has the part of general pattern involving all present tense verb with
third person singular subject, as in “He don’t go” for SE “He doesn’t go.”
iii. Hypercorrection Form The hypercorrection form is often conducted by the Blacks in
order to make the words correct, as in “She don’t belongs with
them.” They seem to formulate their own rule. They know that – s marks the plural on nouns, so they assume that it also
marks the plural verbs. 4
Future There are three types of future in BE grammar. They are 1
immediate future that means something will be done right away approximately in 30 seconds, e.g. I’m a-do it; 2 post-immediate
future indicates that something will be done soon, e.g. I’m a-gonna do it
; and 3 the future indicates that the execution may be definitely delayed if someone says I gonna do it.
xl In marking the future BE has two markers, gonna and finna
derived from fixin’ to. If gonna can be applied in every type of E future, finna can only be applied in the immediate future e.g.
“He’s finna go” for SE “He’s about to go”.
b. Suffixes
