after considerable debate around the issue 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 but which 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. this term refers to commutities of people who are of african american origin but who have lived for many generations outsiade the united states such as in some small selttlements in nova scotia canada and in samana in the dominican republic. thhe importance these commmunities have for the problem under discussion here lies in the supposition that their speech is more convervative than that of modern aave in the united states , if this is so then it is ofconsiderable interrest that some typical aave features such as for instance invariant be are not found speech. this would support the point of view that diffences between aave and white dialects of american english are the result of relatively recent indepent developments