scholarly journals Ambitionz az a Ridah: 2Pac's changing accent and flow in light of regional variation in African-American English speech and hip-hop music

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Steven Gilbers
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
Hip Hop Music

scholarly journals Regional Variation in West and East Coast African-American English Prosody and Rap Flows

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 713-745
Author(s):  
Steven Gilbers ◽  
Nienke Hoeksema ◽  
Kees de Bot ◽  
Wander Lowie
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
East Coast ◽  
American English ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
African American English ◽  
Hip Hop Culture

Regional variation in African-American English (AAE) is especially salient to its speakers involved with hip-hop culture, as hip-hop assigns great importance to regional identity and regional accents are a key means of expressing regional identity. However, little is known about AAE regional variation regarding prosodic rhythm and melody. In hip-hop music, regional variation can also be observed, with different regions’ rap performances being characterized by distinct “flows” (i.e., rhythmic and melodic delivery), an observation which has not been quantitatively investigated yet. This study concerns regional variation in AAE speech and rap, specifically regarding the United States’ East and West Coasts. It investigates how East Coast and West Coast AAE prosody are distinct, how East Coast and West Coast rap flows differ, and whether the two domains follow a similar pattern: more rhythmic and melodic variation on the West Coast compared to the East Coast for both speech and rap. To this end, free speech and rap recordings of 16 prominent African-American members of the East Coast and West Coast hip-hop communities were phonetically analyzed regarding rhythm (e.g., syllable isochrony and musical timing) and melody (i.e., pitch fluctuation) using a combination of existing and novel methodological approaches. The results mostly confirm the hypotheses that East Coast AAE speech and rap are less rhythmically diverse and more monotone than West Coast AAE speech and rap, respectively. They also show that regional variation in AAE prosody and rap flows pattern in similar ways, suggesting a connection between rhythm and melody in language and music.

‘Where all my bad girls at?’

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyhanna Yoo Garza
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
Gender And Race ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Performance Challenges

This article examines the polyvalence of racial(ised) representations in K-pop performances. The analysis of K-pop star CL’s (2013) song and video ‘Nappeun gijibae’ (‘The bad girl’) demonstrates how the artist projects an assertive femininity by embodying and localising the Bad Bitch: a sexually agentive figure of womanhood from US hip hop. CL’s use of African American English and conventionalised hip hop tropes helps resignify gijibae, a pejorative Korean term for women. By shifting between decontextualised styles invoking a different time and place, CL is able to build a kind of chronotopic capital that transforms fragmented styles into an empowered cosmopolitan femininity. However, although CL’s performance challenges Korean gendered norms in its use of local linguistic resources, her selective appropriations of US Black and Chicanx cultural signifiers reproduce narrow images of racialised femininities and reify a hierarchy of valuation along lines of gender and race.

I'm the illest fucka

English Today ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Shinhee Lee
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Tv Commercials

ABSTRACTAn analysis of African American English in South Korean hip hop. English is rarely used in face-to-face terms in South Korea, but the use of English in commerce and entertainment is not such a rarity. The presence of English expressions in advertising and pop lyrics is no longer considered extraordinary. Lee (2006) reports that 83.75% of 720 South Korean TV commercials use some type of English, and only 16.25% of advertisements rely exclusively on Korean. Pop music is another discourse space in which English is fairly frequently used, occurring in more than 50% of pop song titles. A detailed analysis of the frequency of English in South Korean pop music (SK-pop) is reproduced.

Assessing hip-hop discourse: Linguistic realness and styling

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 671-698
Author(s):  
Valentin Werner
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Mass Movements ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Structural Levels ◽  
Rap Artists

Abstract This study provides a corpus-linguistic take on hip-hop discourse (as represented in rap), relating to one of the most influential cultural mass movements to date. To this end, a custom-built corpus of lyrics by US-American rap artists (LYRAP) was compiled, containing performed hip-hop discourse over a 25-year period. This material is used to test the alignment of hip-hop discourse with African American English in terms of morphosyntax, and to determine the amount of styling present in the lyrics. In addition, a comparative perspective with pop lyrics (as represented in the LYPOP corpus) is established, and highly characteristic lexical and discourse features of hip-hop discourse are identified. The analyses suggest that “linguistic realness” (in terms of conveying a street-conscious identity) is created on multiple structural levels, but that different artists style their lyrics to various extents to achieve this realness, and that a complete congruence of African American English with hip-hop discourse cannot be traced.

Addressing African American English in Early Literacy Assessment and Instruction

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Patton Terry
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
American English ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
African American English ◽  
Literacy Assessment ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Speech Language Pathologist ◽  
Early Literacy Assessment

Abstract Determining how best to address young children's African American English use in formal literacy assessment and instruction is a challenge. Evidence is not yet available to discern which theory best accounts for the relation between AAE use and literacy skills or to delineate which dialect-informed educational practices are most effective for children in preschool and the primary grades. Nonetheless, consistent observations of an educationally significant relation between AAE use and various early literacy skills suggest that dialect variation should be considered in assessment and instruction practices involving children who are learning to read and write. The speech-language pathologist can play a critical role in instituting such practices in schools.

Zero Marking of Past Tense in Child African American English

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Lee ◽  
Janna B. Oetting
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American English ◽  
African American English ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Grammatical Function

Zero marking of the simple past is often listed as a common feature of child African American English (AAE). In the current paper, we review the literature and present new data to help clinicians better understand zero marking of the simple past in child AAE. Specifically, we provide information to support the following statements: (a) By six years of age, the simple past is infrequently zero marked by typically developing AAE-speaking children; (b) There are important differences between the simple past and participle morphemes that affect AAE-speaking children's marking options; and (c) In addition to a verb's grammatical function, its phonetic properties help determine whether an AAE-speaking child will produce a zero marked form.

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