For anyone interested in this topic, I'd recommend the Lexicon Valley podcast [0] in general, and two episodes in particular. What Does It Mean to Sound Black?

For anyone interested in this topic, I'd recommend the Lexicon Valley podcast [0] in general, and two episodes in particular. What Does It Mean to Sound Black? [1] featured Columbia professor John McWhorter as a guest, and discussed the "black accent" in terms of phonemes as well as AAVE. Rules Are Made to Be Spoken [2] with John McWhorter now guest-hosting, covers "variationist sociolinguistics", the study of how linguistic cues are interpreted as a signifier of class and socioeconomic status. 0: http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley.html http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley.html 1: http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2016/05/blaccent_is_there_such_a_thing_as_sounding_black.html http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2016/0... 2: http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2016/06/sali_tagliamonte_on_the_unruly_nature_of_the_english_language.html http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2016/0...