American culture. Often there has been an energetic and clashing interaction of black culture with the rest of American culture. (Mildred, et. Wis, 1977)
In American music both song and dance, some argue, often include Africanisms. African polyrhythms are the foundation of jazz, with its intricacies, repeated themes, syncopations, embellishments, and improvisations. As with African music, performers have the freedom of individual interpretation and embellishment. American songs, particularly spirituals, some point out, show traces of Africanisms in rhythm and vocal style. American music includes spirituals, jazz, and rock. Black musicians have given modern American music its form, its direction, and its “soul”. American dances which feature a combination of active head-and-hand, body-pelvic movements are suggestive of African dance. It is said that the American Charleston is nearly identical to an Ashanti ancestor dance. (Mildred, et, 1977)
Part 5 Conclusion: AAVE & Appellations and Music & Dance
African American English is important to African American people. Whether they celebrate or criticize it, it is the evidence of what they have been through. The speaker who relies on its most vernacular form represents his or her social world and the encroachments of racism and class inquities. The successful adult who claims an allegiance to standard, “good” speech uses language as proof that the escape from racism is successful and over. The teenager who confronts and confounds the world with language games and verbal usage that celebrates the dialect is recognizing its power. And the college student and computer specialist who uses elite speech when working and AAE when theorizing and plotting to overtake the world evokes home. African American English is part and parcel of social, cultural and political survival. It is about ideas, art, ideology, love and memory. (Morgan, 2002: 7)
Generally speaking, the degree of exclusive use of AAVE decreases with the rise in socioeconomic status, although almost all speakers of AAVE at all “socioeconomic levels readily understand Standard American English”. Many blacks, regardless of
socioeconomic status, educational background, or geographic region, use some form of AAVE to various degrees in informal and intra-ethnic communication. The use of AAVE, as with the use of SAE (Standard American English), can also be a conscious choice. The level of usage of any dialect is subject to the speaker’s volition. In certain situations, speakers of AAVE may deem it more appropriate to use SAE, and in other instances (most likely among other African Americans) use AAVE. (Answers) Appellation is a name of meaning, a name of social status, and a name of self-identity. African Americans are still in pursuit of a most appropriate appellation which would endow them with a sense of dignity, pride and identity.
As slaves and later second-class citizens, they were victioms of wrongdoing for several hundred years. But they do have greatly molded American culture. The vastly disproportionate contributions of African Americans to music, sports, film, language, and fashion are a large part of the reason for America’s cultural dominance. (Godless, 2003)
Generations of slaves arrived in North America and the Caribbean with little else but their rich customs and diverse forms of cultural expression. These persisted for centuries, in spite of brutal attempts to suppress them, eventually evolving into complex new art forms—art forms now celebrated, and imitated, the world over. Yet today the influence of African-American folklore on art, music, film, literature and religion remains largely unacknowledged, says Anand Prahlad, a professor of English at MU and editor of the new three-volume Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. “There is a real public void when it comes to knowledge of African-American culture in our society,” Prahlad says. “America’s cultural identity is so defined by elements f African-American folklore, yet Americans are ignorant about the roots of those elements.” (Illumination Fall 2006, 2006)
In a word, no matter how they were badly treated in history though not fairly enough even nowadays, we cannot ignore their great influence on American culture, and they have struggled bravely to maintain their own racial heritage in Africa and gain their pride and status in America.
非裔美国人的英语与称谓及音乐与舞蹈 种族认同及文化影响
