A Comparison of the Intonation Patterns of Black English and Standard English.

This study was designed to investigate, describe, and compare the intonation patterns of Black English and Standard English speaking children in a reading (formal) and free discourse (informal) situation. Black English was defined as the linguistic code of the subjects sampled from the inner city black poverty area schools, and Standard English as the linguistic code of the subjects sampled from the upper-middle class white area schools. Thirty male Black English speakers and thirty male Standard English speakers, all between 12 and 14 years old, were sampled from junior high schools in two distinct socioeconomic areas of Los Angeles. All interviews were conducted with pairs of informants. Among the main findings of the study were the following: (1) Black English intonation patterns were different from Standard English intonation patterns for all sentence types and situations, except the specific question informal situation. (2) Black English displayed more level or rising terminal intonation contours than Standard English. (3) Black English displayed more rising initial intonation contours than Standard English. (4) The Black English speaker apparently differentiated between reading and free discourse situations by changing intonation patterns, whereas the Standard English speaker did not. (5) Standard English speakers maintain a higher pitch level than Black English speakers. (PP)