African American Vernacular English (AAVE)—also called African American English (AAE); less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV), or Black Vernacular English (BVE)—is a variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of American English, culturally spoken by urban working-class African Americans, and largely bi-dialectal middle-class African Americans. Non-linguists sometimes call it Ebonics, a term that also has other meanings and connotations.