Hip-Hop Slang; Fundamental American Dialect

Dialect: Variety of a language spoken by a group of people and having features of vocabulary, grammar, and/ or pronunciation that distinguish it from other varieties of the same language.

Dialects usually develop as a result of geographic, social, political, or economic barriers between groups of people who speak the same language. When dialects diverge to the point that they are mutually incomprehensible, they become languages in their own right. This was the case with Latin, various dialects of which evolved into the different Romance languages French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian….
- dictionary.com

Hip-Hop slang, in my opinion, is what could be characterized as a socialect, which is a dialect determined by social factors rather than by geography. In the opinion of others outside of Hip-Hop it’s a sign of ignorance or lack of education, or just plain bad English. What causes this division?

In my opinion the refusal to accept Hip-Hop slang, for lack of a better term, as a dialect is a result of an unwillingness from the upper class to accept the idea of what is deemed to be a low class society having the intellectual capacity to actually develop a dialect (in other words arrogance). Often the Hip-Hop community is portrayed as unintelligent and as a result it is often perceived as such. If someone you believe to be stupid speaks in a manner that you’re not accustomed to hearing, you might, in all likeliness, chalk it up to stupidity.

The resistance towards Hip-Hop slang being viewed as a dialect comes from other angles as well. Many people who view themselves to be educated and accept the ideas that have been fed to them of what is an educated manner of speaking also view Hip-Hop slang as an unintelligible or uneducated manner of speaking the English language. Furthermore you have the fundamentalists that, in my opinion, fear the idea of Hip-Hop slang being viewed as a dialect because, as I noted in the definition above, dialects have been known to turn into languages once they have reached a mutual level of incomprehensibility, which wouldn’t pose such a threat if the Hip-Hop dialect was confined to a specific demographic. But the acceptance of the Hip-Hop’s culture nationally and internationally is what alarms these fundamentalist.

As Hip-Hop receives more and more worldwide exposure through publications, T.V shows, radio stations, and other modern media, it bears the potential to change itself from being perceived as American culture to being accepted as a foundation of American culture. If you ask me, it isn’t what it is, it’s what people have been taught to believe it is, that compels resistance against Hip-Hop slang being accepted as a dialect of the English language. When in reality what we accept as English is actually a dialect of the British English language, and even that is a stretch.
If you look up the origin of many American words you’ll find that the English language is a bastard language comprised of mispronounced and borrowed words of other languages, sort of like Hip-Hop slang.

In regards to the use of African-American Vernacular English, a term used to reference various dialects of the English language used by Black Americans, College Composition and Communication had this to say in fall of 1974

“We affirm the students’ right to their own patterns and varieties of language—the dialects of their nurture or whatever dialects in which they find their own identity and style. Language scholars long ago denied that the myth of a standard American dialect has any validity. The claim that any one dialect is unacceptable amounts to an attempt of one social group to exert its dominance over another. Such a claim leads to false advice for speakers and writers and immoral advice for humans. A nation proud of its diverse heritage and its cultural and racial variety will preserve its heritage of dialects. We affirm strongly that teachers must have the experiences and training that will enable them to respect diversity and uphold the right of students to their own language.”

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By Gif