The Change And Influence Of Afican American English In The Period Of Slavery Plantations (1619-1865)

Slavery plantation constituted a most critical period in American history, including the acquisition and development of African American English. The Pidgin English prevailed in the American negroes during that stage of history was finally creolized. In the present study, I will discuss the historical background from two fronts, i.e. Chesapeake and South Carolina, respectively representing the upper and lower regions of American South, relating to the initiation, formation and linguistic features of the American Negro English that had a great influence on the early American culture and psychology of American black people later on.With a steady progress in the early period of American history, I have found that the totacco plantations in the upper South and the rice plantations in the lower South diverted in developing the different African American English. Although both regions were associated with the same original social English language, the upper south pidgin turned out to be the Creple, while the lower south dialect became Gullah. In later years, the rise of cotton plantation further popularized Gullah into a written language of the present Creoles/Thus, the Creoles represented a unified language originated from different cultures of American black populations during the early years of slavery plantations.The African American English had not only its own developing back-ground, it also maintained itself with the distinctive language features and a separate system. Its uniqueness in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary represents"a specialized social culture"evolved under a special historical condition. The negroes inherited Gullah from their ancestors and used it to communicate with their white counterparts. After a prolonded exposure, Gullah indeed had some definite impact on the main speaking English in America. Regardless of the influence of Negro English was largely restricted to those southern states of America where a great population of Black Americans resided, their used phonology and lexicology had greatly enriched the American culture and linguistics in general.Among the various culture factors in a developing society, language undoubtedly plays the main role to characterize the people. The Creoles, with its expression in culture, has a deep historical imprint from the early years of slavery plantations in the American South. Studying the development of the Creoles, we can see that the early African American English has not only had influence on the ways of expression both in plantation period and later years but also we will be able to understand the culture, emotions, traditions and psychology of the American Blacks.