African American Linguists
Promoting World Languages in the African American Community
AAL welcomes admissions to this page. If you are aware of any celebrity linguist who is of African descent submit his/her name Comments from AAL members:
- "People of African descent speak all major dominant European languages due to slavery & colonization. It is to the advantage of African Americans not to see themselves as predominant speakers of English. Black people all over the world speak English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian, German and any other language of the colonizers. Besides, look at the variety of languages alone spoken in Africa. People there are multilingual!" Frances Mecartty-Dunlap, NJ
- "African Americans have an advantage. From antiquity our culture has been one that has emphasized keen listening as well as skillful imitation. For this reason, hearing & imitating the sounds of other languages has been accomplished with relative ease." Camellia Cuthrell, NC