Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English
"Spoken Soul brilliantly fills a huge gap. . . . a delightfully readable introduction to the elegant interweave between the language and its culture."
–Ralph W. Fasold, Georgetown university
"A lively, well-documented history of Black English . . . that will enlighten and inform not only educators, for whom it should be required reading, but all who value and question language."
–Kirkus Reviews
"Spoken Soul is a must read for anyone who is interested in the connection between language and identity."
–Chicago Defender
Claude Brown called Black English "Spoken Soul." Toni Morrison said, "It's a love, a passion. Its function is like a preacher’s: to make you stand out of your seat, make you lose yourself and hear yourself. The worst of all possible things that could happen would be to lose that language."
Now renowned linguist John R. Rickford and journalist Russell J. Rickford provide the definitive guide to African American vernacular English–from its origins and features to its powerful fascination for society at large.
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Book details
- Author
- John Russell Rickford, Russell John Rickford
- Imprint
- Trade Paper Press, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 288
- Formats
- Paperback, Hardcover
- Subjects
- Social Science › Cultural & Ethnic Studies › African American & Black Studies
Language Arts & Disciplines › Linguistics › Sociolinguistics
Language Arts & Disciplines › Communication Studies - Topics
- African American vernacular English · sociolinguistics · language and identity · African American culture · linguistics · language history
- ISBN-13
- 9780471399575 (Paperback)9780471323563 (Hardcover)
About the author
JOHN RUSSELL RICKFORD is the J. E. Wallace Sterling Professor of Linguistics and the Humanities (emeritus) at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1980. His books include African American English, Dimensions of a Creole Continuum, and Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English, co-authored with his son Russell J. Rickford.
Rickford was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017 and inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 2021. He served as President of the Linguistic Society of America in 2015, and Spoken Soul won the American Book Award in 2000. He holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania.
John was born in Georgetown, Guyana.