Жданова Е. В., Еромянц И. С., Чудин А. Г.

 

Жданова Е. В.,  Еромянц И. С., Чудин А. Г.

 (г. Донецк, ДНР) 

AFRICAN-AMERICAN SLANG IN MODERN MUSIC 

So, in modern society the phenomenon of African-American spoken language is enough actual. Sociolinguists note that from the interaction between different social groups occurs penetration of this linguistic phenomenon in various spheres of life. Especially it is shown in youth cultures. In this way we can understand what African-American spoken language is, how it developed and how it is used now, we can trace features of development of English language and its state nowadays. During the 18th century schoolmasters taught pupils to believe that the African Criminal Cant (which by this time had developed into slang) was not the correct usage of American and slang was considered to be taboo [1, p. 16]. According to investigations 80% of African Americans speak African-American spoken language. Nowadays this culture is well known due to the achievements of African-Americans in sport, politics, science, and especially in cinematography and musical sphere. That’s why as a subject of our work we chose American songs, where the current situation of English language is widely displayed. In modern society most of mass medias are affected with African-American language, this slang has got a big effect on modern English. Also American version of English language has o lot of words, phrases, which came from African-American. The manifestation of this you can see in modern music, especially in rap. In vocabulary rap is a fast easy kick. Rappers are present-day poets, because they not only write but also perform their songs. These “smiley” have a straight mouth and smiling eyes, suggesting a cultural difference in reading emotions. [5, p. 7] Our work is devoted to the usage of African-American language in songs. The most prominent representative of this culture is 50 Cent. During the research we had some difficulties with the translation of his songs. They were mostly in phonetics, grammar and lexical. In the words of the songs all characteristics of African-American spoken language are represented.

So, among phonetic should be noted such particularity as reduction.

We can divide it into few groups:

- Reduction ending “ing”:

Crackin` – cracking (Get crackin’ in the club when you hear the shady).

Feelin` – feeling (you was feelin' quite brisk).

- Reduction of letters -d, -t, -k, -s, -p:

night – nigh`(t), want – wan`(t), thick – thic`(k), wizard – wizar`(d), map – ma`(p), just – jus`(t), about –`bout, mind – min`(d), doubt – doub`(t), bust – bus`(t), hood – hoo`(d), shout – shou`(t), knot – kno`(t), quick – quic`(k).

Another feature of African-American slang is a specific pronunciation of “-th-“. In different parts of the word it sounds in different ways. For example:

At the beginning of the word it sounds like “d”.

In the middle of a word it sounds like “f”.

At the end of the word it sounds like “v”.

Also all these peculiarities influence the translation resulting in missing nouns, verbs, incorrect word order, negative constructions and some others.

“My pockets is in shape” – instead of is – are (‘У меня много денег’), “why you hurt your friends” – missed verb do (why do you hurt…) (‘почему ты обидел своего друга’).

From this analysis we see that rap-songs are expressive representatives of African-American dialect. It’s important to remember that the sub-cultures language used by young people reflects their individual self-expression.

 

REFERENCES

1. Dumas, Bethany K. Is Slang a Word for Linguists? / Bethany K. Dumas, J. Lighter. – American Speech. – Vol. 53:1. – 1978. – p. 5–17.

2. Major, C. Dictionary of Afro-American Slang / C. Major. – Intl Pub., 1970. – 128 p.

3. Pavlova, N. V. Slang as a Part of the English Language / N. V Pavlova, Y. A. Kuleshova // English, 2003. – №32. – p. 5–10.

4. Youth-Slang [Электронный ресурс]. – Режим доступа : http://mccrindle.com.au/resources/whitepapers/McCrindle-Research_Word-Up-03_Youth-Slang_Mark-McCrindle. 53-67

5. Wenner, M. Americans and Japanese Read Faces Differently / M. Wenner. – Live Science (May 10, 2007.) Retrieved December 8, 2007.