In this sociolinguistic study, not only are language and gender researched, but the relationship between language and ethnic group, region, and social class is also discussed. Hudson describes the ways in which some female African American writers use the language of African American female characters to reflect their membership in various speech communities. Materials used for this text include slave narratives, novels, short stories, diaries, plays, and autobiographies. The study bridges the gap between the existing research on that focuses on the Vernacular English spoken mainly by...