Is-leveling
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Is-leveling, in some nonstandard dialects of English, is the use of the word "is" in places where standard English has "are" occurring. It is one characteristic of African American Vernacular English (AAVE); for example: "We is brothers."[1]
This usage was widely stigmatised as being a solecism but now may go unnoticed in speech when the "is" is abbreviated, for example; the statement "There's some birds" would likely garner no correction.
[edit] Related levelings
Was-leveling is the use of the word "was" in places where standard English has "were" leading to sentences like:
- "We was at work".
- "Where was you?"
Were-leveling is the use of "were" where standard English has "was".
Often, people who attempt to describe, mimic, and/or mock "was-leveling", do so in a way that would be considered wrong to the common AAVE speaker. For example, the sentences "I were at work" or "The house were built" are grammatically incorrect in AAVE.
[edit] References
- ^ Walt Wolfram; Erik R. Thomas (2002). The development of African American English. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 94 (note 4). ISBN 978-0-631-23087-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=UeySwI85nnMC.
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