PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN VERNACULAR ENGLISH IN CHILD-DIRECTED VERSUS ADULT-DIRECTED SPEECH A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science

One of the most timeless and universal activities, in which human beings across cultures participate, is speaking to children. This study investigated the differences between child-directed speech (CDS) and adult-directed speech (ADS) on measures of mean length of utterance (MLU), number of utterances, number of different words (NDW), and total number of words (TNW). In addition to examining the differences between CDS and ADS on these criterion-referenced measures, this study also examined the phonological features of African American vernacular English (AAVE) in CDS versus ADS. A total of 4 African American AAVE-speaking caregivers from low and middle socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds were recorded speaking to their 10-18 month old infant for 30 minutes and to an adult examiner for 30 minutes. These language samples were transcribed and analyzed to yield measures of linguistic diversity and proportion of AAVE phonological feature use in CDS and ADS. Results indicated that all mothers used a simplified speech register with their children. For two of the seven phonological variables noted, all mothers showed significantly more use in the CDS than ADS condition. Additionally, African American mothers with the low SES, showed significantly more use of the AAVE phonological features across speaking conditions than African American mothers with middle SES. These findings indicate that AAVE speaking mothers do modify their lexical and phonological input to children. Future research should further characterize the CDS of AAVE speakers in order to document the typical development of AAVE.