LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AND SOLIDARITY AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS

Sastika Seli

LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AND SOLIDARITY AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS

Sastika Seli

Abstract

This article aims to explain the language phenomena in sociolinguistics. namely, Ianguage maintenance and solidarity. Language maintenance is the phenomena u'here the speakers of the language maintain to use the language without affected by other languages nearby. This language maintenance may be influenced by solidarity inside the language community. The analysis derived from my previous research of "English spoken in Oakland and Atlanta in movie Romeo Must Die and Beauty Shop". The phenomena were drawn from the context of the movies where the speakers used African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) in their daily communication. African American is a minority language community in America compared to native speakers of American English. With a good solidarity among the black, they were not realy influenced by English used by the white American although there is still a language contact among them. They tend to make a gap betrveen their communitr and the outsider. Besides. their culture also influences the language maintenance among them. Rap and Hiphop culture is everyr.vhere in this rvorld. It is also one of the reasons why AAVE is not only used by African American as the minority but also used by' many peopie as the fan of these music genres. It creates more solidarity inside the community. This is also the reason African-American still use their AAVE in everyday communication in everv situation with other different language speakers, too.

Keywords

Language Maintenance, Solidarity, African-American Vernaqular English

Full Text:

PDF

References

Besters, Dilger, J. 2009. Language Policy, and Language Situation in Ukraine: Analysis and Recommendations. Franfurt: Peter Lang

Gilchrist, A, M, Bowles, and M. Wetherell. 2010. ldentities and Social Action: Connecting Communities for a Change. Community Development Foundation. 2-48

Gumperz, John J. 1997. Language and a Social ldentity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Holmes. Janet. 1995. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. New York: Longman Publishing.

Jackson, K. 1995. American is me. Stanford: HarperCollins e-book.

McKay, S. L., and Hornberger, N. H. 1996. Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Olson. James Stuart. 1979. The Ethnic Dimension in American Histoty: Volume One. New York: St. Marlin's Press.

Rickford, J. R and R, J. Rickford. 2000. Spoken Soul, The Story of Black English. New York: John Willel & Sons Inc.

Saville-Troike, Murriel. 2006. Introducing Second Langage Acquisition. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press

Seli, S. 2011. Black English to Spoken in Beauty Shop and Romeo Must Die: A Case Study. Master Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University.

Spolsky. B. 1998. Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University press.

Sullivan. M. 2001. "African-American Music as Rebellion: From Slavesong to Hip Hop," Discoveries 3.22 pp 2t-39.

Wardaugh. Ronald. 1992. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. oxford: Blackwell.

Williams. J A. 2015. The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop. Cambridge: Cambridge University press. Intemet source: http://atl anta.areaconnect.com/stati stics.htm