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Sure, and many rules of AAVE are more consistent. For instance take the following words in standard English: * yourself * myself * ourselves *

Sure, and many rules of AAVE are more consistent. For instance take the following words in standard English: * yourself * myself * ourselves * himself * itself One of these things is not like the other! All of these take the form of possive + "self," except "himself." And sure enough, in AAVE we have "hisself" instead. A more logical, consistent replacement.

csours 9y ago
So when some people think of AAVE speakers as incorrect, it is because they don't use the right wrong way to talk. Linguistics is a weird field.
jtuente 9y ago
To more heavily emphasize the point here consider the feminine possive as well, her/hers: * herself
- bonzini 9y ago
  "her" is both the possessive and the accusative, so it's consistent with either myself or himself. Itself too, since you can consider it a contraction of either "it-self" or "its-self".
weberc2 9y ago
I recall that immigrant populations that don't integrate into the main population for long periods of time have a tendency to learn simplified versions of the original language. If I recall correctly, Old English lost a lot of its ornament when the Norse settled in Britain. EDIT: I'm puzzled by the downvotes. Am I mistaken? If so, I'm happy to be corrected.
- yodon 9y ago
  You are probably thinking of Pidgins and Creoles[0], two very well studied linguistic categories that come about when two or more groups with no shared language come together (Pidgin) and then their children learn the Pidgin as a first language (morphing it into a Creole). AAVE is grammatically and functionally distinct from either a Pidgin or a Creole. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language
vorg 9y ago
You omitted 2 of the reflexive pronouns. Only the 1st and 2nd person forms use the possessive: * myself, ourselves, yourself. All of the 3rd person forms use the personal pronoun: * themselves, himself, herself, itself Does AAVE also use "theirselves" ?
- somecontext 9y ago
  This article http://acrwebsite.org/volumes/7610/volumes/v21/NA-21 http://acrwebsite.org/volumes/7610/volumes/v21/NA-21 claims that AAVE uses "theirselves". A quick search on Twitter suggests that "theirselves" is indeed used by people who use "hisself", but perhaps half an order of magnitude less than "themselves".

csours 9y ago

So when some people think of AAVE speakers as incorrect, it is because they don't use the right wrong way to talk. Linguistics is a weird field.

jtuente 9y ago

To more heavily emphasize the point here consider the feminine possive as well, her/hers: * herself

bonzini 9y ago
"her" is both the possessive and the accusative, so it's consistent with either myself or himself. Itself too, since you can consider it a contraction of either "it-self" or "its-self".

weberc2 9y ago

I recall that immigrant populations that don't integrate into the main population for long periods of time have a tendency to learn simplified versions of the original language. If I recall correctly, Old English lost a lot of its ornament when the Norse settled in Britain. EDIT: I'm puzzled by the downvotes. Am I mistaken? If so, I'm happy to be corrected.

yodon 9y ago
You are probably thinking of Pidgins and Creoles[0], two very well studied linguistic categories that come about when two or more groups with no shared language come together (Pidgin) and then their children learn the Pidgin as a first language (morphing it into a Creole). AAVE is grammatically and functionally distinct from either a Pidgin or a Creole. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_language

vorg 9y ago

You omitted 2 of the reflexive pronouns. Only the 1st and 2nd person forms use the possessive: * myself, ourselves, yourself. All of the 3rd person forms use the personal pronoun: * themselves, himself, herself, itself Does AAVE also use "theirselves" ?

somecontext 9y ago
This article http://acrwebsite.org/volumes/7610/volumes/v21/NA-21 http://acrwebsite.org/volumes/7610/volumes/v21/NA-21 claims that AAVE uses "theirselves". A quick search on Twitter suggests that "theirselves" is indeed used by people who use "hisself", but perhaps half an order of magnitude less than "themselves".