African American Vernacular English (
AAVE), also called African American English, Black English, Black Vernacular, or Black English Vernacular (
BEV), is a type variety (dialect, ethnolect and
sociolect) of the American English language. It is known colloquially as Ebonics (a portmanteau of "ebony" and "
phonics"). With pronunciation that in some respects is common to
Southern American English, the variety is spoken by many blacks in the United States. AAVE shares many characteristics with various Creole English dialects spoken by blacks in much of the world. AAVE also has pronunciation, grammatical structures, and vocabulary in common with various West African languages. Ebonics is not merely just the use of urban or "slang" words, but rather it is the manipulation and transformation of the English language (ie, In the sentence "I want to have sex with a chickenhead", a slang word is used, but the speaker is not using ebonics.)