Rules of African American English
Phonological Rules
Morphological & Syntactical Rules
- Omission of medial and final /r/
- Omission of several final sounds including /t/, /l/, /d/, /g/ and /k/
- Substitution of /t/ for initial voiceless /th/
- Substitution of /d/ for initial voiced /th/
- Substitution of /f/ for final voiceless /th/
- Substitution of /v/ for final voiced /th/
- Substitution of /b/ for /v/
- Substitution /n/ for /ng/
- Reduction of diphthongs
- Reduction of consonant clusters
- Devoicing of final voiced consonants
Morphological & Syntactical Rules
- Omission of the third person singular suffix -s
- Omission of the -s suffix to mark possession
- Omission of -s as a plural marker for regular nouns
- Omission of to be forms
- "None" substituted for "any"
- Use of multiple negatives
- Past tense marker omitted from regular verb forms
- Past tense marker added to irregular verb forms
- Use of the word "ain't"
- Nonstandard subject verb agreement
- Regular -s plural ending used with irregular nouns
- Use of nonstandard relative pronouns
- "At" added at the end of a where question
- "Them" substituted for "those"
- "Gonna" used to indicate future tense
