Linguistic Features of Ebonics (based on the Material of American Rap)

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the study of Еbonics and its role in modern society, especially in music, literature, art and popular culture. The article analyzes the linguistic features of Ebonics based on the material of 200 rap compositions by AfricanAmerican performers of various eras. As a result of the study, the authors come to the following conclusions: a) the African-American dialect of English has a number of unique phonetic and phonological features that are a distinctive feature of the speech of its native speakers and distinguish it from the linguistic diversity of the dialects of the United States; b) grammatical features of AfricanAmerican English are an important element of the linguistic and cultural heritage of the entire black community; c) words and expressions created by members of African-American society and penetrated into the everyday speech of Americans, spread beyond the mainland, through hip-hop compositions by performers of African-American origin; d) the syntactic features of ebonix help to keep in rhythm, creating a more dynamic, close to conversational style.