Essays on the history of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) include: an introduction to the evolution of AAVE within the African American diaspora (Shana Poplack); "Rephrasing the Copula: Contraction and Zero in Early African American English" (James A. Walker); "Reconstructing the Source of Early African American English Plural Marking: A Comparative Study of English and Creole"(Shana Poplack, Sali Tagliamonte, Ejike Eze); "Negation and the Creole-Origins Hypothesis: Evidence from Early African American English" (Darin M. Howe, James A. Walker); "Old 'Was,' New Ecology: Viewing English through the Sociolinguistic Filter" (Sali Tagliamonte, Jennifer Smith); "The Question Question: Auxiliary Inversion in Early African American English" (Gerard Van Herk); "It's All Relative: Relativization Strategies in Early African American English" (Gunnel Tottie, Dawn Harvie); and "Some Sociohistorical Inferences about the Development of African American English" (Salikoko S. Mufwene). (MSE)