Abstract
The goal of the current work was to examine variations in Southern African-American English (SAAE) in speakers who differed in their age (preschool vs. adult) and place of residency (rural vs. urban). A total of 49 language samples were used as data. Twenty-four were from rural 4- and 6-year-olds, 17 were from urban 3-year-olds, and eight were from urban teen mothers. Results indicated that there were more similarities than differences between the groups, and patterns of SAAE were comparable to reports of AAE in other parts of the country. Results from a correlational analysis also indicated that descriptions of SAAE, and most likely other variations of AAE, can be captured in a general manner through the coding of 10 core patterns. In future studies, researchers in communication disorders should be able to use these data-driven findings to reduce the labor-intensive nature of quantifying the AAE dialect status of participants.