Wolfram and Thomas (W&T) have produced a meticulous study of African American English and its development, based on extensive fieldwork and ensuing linguistic analyses in Hyde County, North Carolina. W&T worked in collaboration with Elaine W. Green, Becky Childes, Dan Beckett, and Benjamin Torbert. Any student of African American English, or of sociolinguistics in general, will find a wealth of knowledge in this volume that reflects advanced studies of African American English that connect synchronic studies with their diachronic relevance.

The book consists of ten chapters, and each chapter is carefully subdivided into an array of issues and diverse evidence that reflects on W&T's original study, as well as on the larger field of research on African American Vernacular English (AAVE). They correctly note that “No topic in modern sociolinguistics has engendered more interest than African American Vernacular English” (p. xiii). Peter Trudgill, general editor of the Blackwell series “Language in Society” in which this volume is included, states: “This book is an example of the linguistic study of language in society at its best. Wolfram, Thomas, and their associates have produced a superb work in what we might perhaps call linguistic archaeology” (xii). In the opinion of this reviewer, his praise is not inflated.

Chap. 1, “Introduction,” describes the status of African American English generally and places this work within the Hyde County Corpus, which the authors describe as “unique”: “The community we examine here falls squarely within the tradition of enclave dialect studies, though it is a different kind of situation in that it involves a long-standing, relatively isolated biracial community in the rural Southern United States” (3). The remainder of the chapter introduces the nature of the data analyses, which employ VARBRUL extensively.

W&T are ever mindful of the extensive historical controversy regarding the origin of AAVE, and they take considerable care to describe the relevance of their findings within the larger arena of AAVE studies throughout the African diaspora. Chap. 2 is titled “Issues in the development of African American English.” Those who are new to studies of AAVE, or those who seek to teach this subject, would be well advised to read this chapter closely. It contains the most balanced and comprehensive survey of hypotheses pertaining to the development of AAVE anywhere, as well as the specific sources of evidence that have given rise to different and, at times, competing historical interpretations. W&T are keenly aware that historical assertions about AAVE's development abound, and they cite John Singler's concern regarding the paucity of reliable historical evidence pertaining to the linguistic reconstruction of AAVE. They take these limitations seriously as they introduce readers, in chap. 3, to “Defining the enclave dialect community.”

They offer an abundance of information regarding geography, economics, and historical continuity of the community, as well as social relations among groups with different racial and personal identities. Chap. 3 concludes with the integration of these components into the process of language change within an enclave community, culminating in some general sociolinguistic principles to consider when describing isolated dialects.

Chap. 4 describes “The social history of mainland Hyde County,” including its Chesapeake Bay origins and other matters pertaining to settlement from colonial times until the present. This historical background sets the stage for describing the sociohistorical relevance of these events to the local language. Readers from diverse fields will benefit greatly from these opening chapters, and linguists and educators will gain a wealth of consolidated knowledge regarding differences of opinion on the linguistic legacy of the African slave trade in the United States.

Chaps. 5, 6, and 7 – “Morphosyntactic alignment in Hyde County English,” “Vocalic alignment in Hyde County English,” and “Consonantal alignment in Hyde County English,” respectively – may hold the greatest appeal for scholars who study linguistic variation in socially stratified speech communities. AAVE scholars will benefit greatly from the thorough and rigorous analyses of various morphosyntactic and phonological variables that are contained in the Hyde County Corpus.

More precisely, W&T evaluate past tense be regularization, was/weren't leveling, copula absence, and third person -s marking in Hyde County. Chap. 5 also includes much more in the way of cutting-edge variationist analyses of AAVE of any era. The phonological evidence in chap. 6 consists of vocalic studies that are quantitative in nature and are inspired by Labov's (1994) classic studies of linguistic sound change in progress. Chap. 7 describes new phonological variables, along with well-attested AAVE features such as the patterning of postvocalic r-lessness. W&T display quantitative and qualitative field sociolinguistics at its apex. Their groundbreaking research, however, advances detailed phonetic analyses as well.

Studies of “Intonational alignment in Hyde County English,” described in chap. 8, exceed classical VARBRUL analyses and employ sophisticated phonetic analyses of AAVE intonation as it contrasts with European American intonation. W&T provide explicit accounts of their analytical procedures, which will allow others to replicate their important studies in other regions and perhaps with other groups.

The closing chapters, 9 and 10, are devoted to “The individual and group in earlier African American English,” and to research and policy implications in “Beyond Hyde County: The past and present development of AAVE.” W&T address one of the strongest concerns regarding studies of linguistic variation: Are they focused on the individual, or on the group to which that individual belongs? While their efforts may not satisfy readers who seek to resolve such matters completely, they take great care to account for their selection and analyses of various AAVE features as employed by the elderly African American speakers who served as their primary consultants.

The Development of African American English is a welcome and timely addition to studies of Black English in the wake of the contentious “Ebonics” episodes that stunned scholars, pundits, journalists, and educators in 1996 and 1997, when the Oakland School Board declared “Ebonics” to be the official language of black students in that school district. (Since then they have abandoned the term “Ebonics,” although they continue to seek new ways to advance greater Standard English proficiency among African American students and others for whom Standard English is not native.)

W&T have raised the bar for empirical studies of AAVE, and they have done so while mindful of the intersection between linguistic research and the sociohistorical circumstances that surround language usage in any community. It may not be readily evident to readers who are unfamiliar with longstanding contentious debates among AAVE scholars that W&T are diplomatic and balanced in their generous accounts of the numerous other studies to which they pay gracious tribute.

I strongly recommend this book to scholars in diverse fields, including anthropology, education, English, American history, linguistics, sociology, and urban studies, among the many who truly seek to comprehend the linguistic sophistication and complexity that resulted from the African slave trade in America and elsewhere. W&T use linguistic evidence from the present to provide a vivid multidisciplinary window onto Hyde County's linguistic past. Anyone who plans to teach a course about African American Vernacular English would be well served to assign this book as a required text.