An African-American Linguistic Enclave: The Settler English of Sinoe County, Liberia

摘要当前关于黑人英语白话地位的争论(Bev)与美式英语的白人非标准变体(Bev是与他们趋同还是背离他们？)决议要求对Bev的历史有更丰富和更全面的细致入微的了解。利比里亚定居者英语(LSE)，是那些非裔美国人的祖先在19世纪移民到利比里亚的人的语言，是关于Bev早期阶段的活跃信息来源。在利比里亚，与美国南部腹地联系最紧密的定居者社区是密西西比州锡诺县的定居者--在非洲，1838年由来自纳切斯的定居者在那里建立。此外，在锡诺定居者的整个历史中，定居者一直抵制与非定居者的融合。因此，无论是美国人的根基还是西诺移民的后移民历史，他们的演讲都是研究伦敦政治经济作为非裔美国人语言飞地的最佳选择。本研究使用了来自中国的社会语言学访谈数据作为语法分析的基础。它还试图尽可能详细地确定锡诺的原始定居者和他们的伦敦证交所的美国过去的细节，并最终将这种演讲种类与Bev联系在一起，无论是过去的还是现在的。

ABSTRACT The current debate as to the status of Black English Vernacular (BEV) vis-a-vis white non-standard varieties of American English (is BEV converging with them or diverging from them?) requires for its resolution a richer and more fully nuanced understanding of the history of BEV. Liberian Settler English (LSE), the speech of those whose African-American ancestors immigrated to Liberia in the nineteenth century, lives as a vibrant source of information about BEV's earlier stages. Within Liberia, the Settler communities with the strongest tie to the American Deep South are those in Sinoe County, Mississippi-in African having been founded there by Settlers from Natchez in 1838. Further, throughout their history of the Sinoe Settlers have resisted integration with non-Settlers. Thus, both the American roots and the post-immigration history of the Sinoe Settlers make their speech the optimal choice for the study of LSE as an African- American linguistic enclave. The present study draws on data from sociolinguistic interviews from Sinoe as the basis for grammatical analysis. It also seeks to determine with as much detail as is possible the particulars of the American past of Sinoe's original Settlers and their LSE and, ultimately, to relate that speech variety to BEV, both past and present.