The contraction "eem" (earlier "e'en") began as an intensifier for "isn't" or "doesn't". Lately in Black English, "eem" has itself become a negation, meaning "isn't/doesn't even".
Language Jones episode about an unusual live observation of a Jespersen cycle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CWUZmZd2-k

#linguistics #BlackEnglish #AAVE #negation #JespersenCycle

As always, John McWhorter’s articles about linguistics are right on target. (And as always, I can’t help but wish that he’d think as rigorously when writing about other subjects.)

#Linguistics #JohnMcWhorter #NewYorkTimes #Kriol #English #BlackEnglish #Ebonics #Australia #UnitedStates

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/opinion/language-kriol-australia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-04.zZnS.l49J6l-al3ni&smid=url-share

"It is noteworthy that African American English (AAE) rates in the oracy task
did not directly predict reading outcomes, whereas AAE
rates in the writing task did."

#language #BlackEnglish #dialect #reading #literacy #research

https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/1092-4388%282009/08-0056%29

link to pdf, should writers use they own english by vershawn ashanti young
https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/ijcs/article/id/29866/

i dont do it as often as i used to 20 yrs ago in my writing but i still on occasion pepper My Mama Tongue into my poetry... i certainly do it in my internet posts — "i swair fo gawd" remains my Mama Tongue favorite (should i proly een change my pseudonym to iswairfogawd 🤔 ???)

#BlackMastodon #aave #blackenglish