Bibliogr. s. 60

In the field of ethnolect study, African American Vernacular English and Chicano English are known for their great significance in indexing and building identities. The Chicago and Chicago Northwest Suburb communities in particular, however, have seen little methodological linguistic study with concern to language attitudes. The following work is an analysis of interviews that took place in the Chicago area with members of the African American community. Although research on language attitudes in minority communities has already been carried out, not much has been done as far as language attitude research within the African American community in Chicago. The interviews regarded the attitudes of in-group members to their respective ethnolects and provides an analysis of aspects of their perceptions concerning the varieties associated with their ethnic group. The interviews followed the direct approach to language attitude studies and consisted of open questions. In order to elicit responses from each speaker concerning the varieties they speak, questions of discrimination, attitudes, and perception, especially in the context of employment, were touched upon in the conversations with each participant.