African-American English and Court Reporters: A Miscarriage of Justice – Radio Free Fresno 2025: Episode 2
I am a linguist by trade (BA and MA in linguistics) and today's podcast topic is close to my heart: language. Specifically, how nonstandard varieties of English are treated in the court system, and how court reporters' transcripts can often hold grave miscarriages of justice in their linguistic biases. against speakers of African-American English.*A study was done on the accuracy of court reporterswho were transcribing African American English (AAE) in court cases (Jones et al, 2019). The industry minimum standard for transcription accuracy is listed as 97%, however, when the speaker on the stand was using African-American English, the average accuracy rate dropped to ~56% only. In situations where court reporters paraphrased instead of transcribed dialogue verbatim, this accuracy rate dropped to ~36% (Jones et al, 2019). In situations where accuracy in the court reporter’s case transcripts can mean the difference between innocence and guilt, this gap is appalling. We looked at the New York Times article thatsummarized the study’s findings in my class (Eligon, 2019). We discussed nonstandard varieties of English and how these varieties are treated in asociety where standard English is used as a gatekeeper for many professions, social situations, and in academia. As a linguist first, I am a descriptivist. I donot put value judgments on any dialect or language. There is no superior dialect, and Standard English is the default because, years ago, it was thelanguage of the elite who built academia. They naturally used their own dialect as the default standard for American academia, but there is nothing intrinsically better in Standard English than in any other variety of English. African-American English, Appalachian English, and Chicano English all have linguistic traits unique to that specific dialect, some features which are not shared in StandardEnglish. Each variety has their own grammar rules that speakers of that speech community follow, much like standard English has its own grammar rules we must follow in school. I just wanted to make it clear that AAE has itsown grammar rules, unique tenses, and other unique linguistic traits that are just as valid and grammatical as SE (Standard English). This specific variety of English has been marginalized and stigmatized, despite many great works of literatureand poetry being written in AAE. The variety used in poetry by Langston Hughes and others has been both labelled as American classics in the fields ofliterature and poetry, as well as being labelled as “not grammatical,” or “incomplete” by non-linguists and much of the public. My point is, AAE is grammatical, it is just not currently accepted as the standard used in American colleges orcourtrooms. Sadly, this can lead to miscarriages of justice when the jury has a transcript with only 36% accuracy to decide on guilt or innocence. *I use linguistic terminology to describe "African-American English," however, I understand that the community itself might have their own nomenclature. I use AAE and SE as terms here due to linguistic practices, and I acknowledge that there might be other names or terms that are preferred within the community. REFERENCEEligon, John. (Jan 2019). The New YorkTimes. Speaking Black dialect in courtrooms can have striking consequences.https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/us/black-dialect-courtrooms.html Jones, T., Hancock, R., Kalbfeld, J.R., & Clark, R. (2019). Testifying while black: An experimental study ofcourt reporter accuracy in transcription of African American English. Language(Baltimore), 95(2), e216–e252. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.0.0235
