Plantation English in America: Nonstandard Varieties and the Quest for Educational Equity

• Published in: Research in the teaching of English Vol. 41; no. 4; pp. 465 - 472
• Main Author: Baugh, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Urbana National Council of Teachers of English 01.05.2007
• Subjects: African Americans; American English; Appalachia; Black athletes; Black Dialects; Cultural heritage; Diachronic Linguistics; Educational Research; English; English as a second language; English teachers; Equal Education; Forced labor; Hawaii; Human trafficking; Language Usage; Language varieties; Misconceptions; Nonstandard Dialects; Rural Areas; Sexually transmitted diseases; Slave trade; Standard Spoken Usage; STD; Stereotypes; Hawaii; New York; San Francisco California; United States > US
• ISSN: 0034-527X; 1943-2348

In this article, the author shares his experience growing up speaking African American Vernacular English in school and his observations about nonstandard American plantation English. The author's amateur linguistic observations about nonstandard American plantation English gave rise to immediate dialect comparisons between African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Hawaiian Pidgin English (HPE). Although the Oakland Ebonics controversy attempted to draw strong linguistic parallels between vernacular African American language usage and the acquisition of English as a second language, the author thinks that there are closer linguistic (and educational) parallels between HPE and AAVE situations. However, the plantation vernaculars that emerged in Hawaii and the Southern U.S. have been greatly misunderstood by linguists and educators, to say little of the politicians and pundits who routinely criticize the nonstandard speech of Hawaiians and African Americans who lack fluency in Standard English. Regardless of racial background, speakers of nonstandard English frequently encounter misconceptions about their intellectual ability as well as other stereotypes that devalue the ways in which they use language. Here, the author hopes that these observations may help to clarify the historical relevance of plantation English on the education of many students residing in diverse American communities, including rural Appalachia, America's inner cities, and the islands of Hawaii.