after considerable debate around theissue of the origins of aave bythe i98os it seemed as if the africanist position just had to be the correct one. there were simply too many features of aave that were not found in any varieties of english spoken in the british isles butwhich were found in the african origin english based creole language spoken around the atlantic ocean. more recently , however quite a lot of work has been carried out which suggests not that this creolist position is wrong but that it does not tell the wole story. some of this work has been carried out by shana poplack and her co-workers on the african american diaspora