Lexical grammaticalization and phonological variation in urban African American hip-hop

Marcyliena Morgan & Stephen DeBerry

Sat. 2:00-3:40 A

The establishment of hip-hop communities represents a modern case of the spread, maintenance and death of cultural norms and linguistic forms and features through media, especially music, movies, radio, magazines, rap sheets and televised interviews. This paper examines some of the ways in which linguistic principles of hip-hop are identical to and different from those of African American English (AAE). In particular, it reports on the process of lexicalization and grammaticalization in hip-hop by focusing on the relation between lexical stability and grammatical category. It also examines the importance of glottalization and vowel shortening in the identification of east coast communities and vowel lengthening in the identification of the west coast.

In many respects, the linguistic principles of rap instantiate, construct and individuate hip-hop culture and communities. This analysis is based on ethnographic observations of groups of African American young men and women between the ages of 14 and 24 in New York/New Jersey and Southern and Northern California and an analysis of the raps and interviews of major hip-hop artists who have emerged from influential crews/families.