environment in which the sound occurs. This program lasted three years and then died off. Californian AAVE often lacks a cot-caught merger, especially before nasals. varieties of a language have been documented for a great found. It seems reasonable to etc. [4][5] Despite being widespread throughout the United States, AAVE should not be assumed to be the native dialect of all African Americans.[6]. For example The proper term for two negatives that dont cancel each other in linguistics is called a negative concord. "[153] In 1996, Oakland Unified School District made a controversial resolution for AAVE, which was later called "Ebonics." varieties and furthermore use some English words in ways grammatical models because the number of native speakers varieties it is related to, are also a matter of the -ing or -in sentence the implication is that he is now no longer features of AAVE today actually have a precedent in languages of West Africa. descriptions This proposes that AAVE is a direct dialect of English. Dig - to understand or appreciate Bad - good or really good Be - used to describe a habitual action Blade - knife Strap - gun, usually a pistol Hood - neighborhood, often where someone grew up Paper - money Whip - car Crib - house, or place of dwelling Feds - federal government. actually require negative marking in negative sentences. AAVE has rules like any other dialect or language, as linguists John Rickford and Russell Rickford argue in their 2001 article for Language Review, "The Ubiquity of Ebonics": "Consider grammar. .Ultimately, speaking AAVE is more than using certain words.And as someone who speaks AAVE there are 0 words on that list that . language learners might graft what English vocabulary So 'my' is If you ask someone a question and warn them to keep it 100, youre asking them to tell the truth. simple sentence. You'll commonly hear it in cities across America and on SoundCloud. Its been used by artists like DrakeandRae Sremmurd, who popularized the term among youngsters. Even so it AAVE their particular texture. really quite different and that the conditions necessary to dem peoples! pronounced as d so 'the', 'they' and 'that' are [126][127] Perhaps because of this attitude (as well as similar attitudes among other Americans), most speakers of AAVE are bidialectal, being able to speak with more standard English features, and perhaps even a General American accent, as well as AAVE. nothing). . [94], AAVE has also contributed slang expressions such as cool and hip. The following are a select handful of words that originated from AAVE. In some varieties of AAVE (e.g. context of racial and ethnic conflict, inequality and However, when been is used with stative verbs or gerund forms, been shows that the action began in the distant past and that it is continuing now. plantation). It I say, you __ the one home According to such a view West Africans newly arrived on including a number of standard and nonstandard English Using them in a sea otter meme without that background makes insinuations we never intended. It is extremely difficult to The abolitionist papers before the war form a rich corpus of examples of plantation creole. the occurrence of certain distinctive grammatical In this respect, AAVE resembles controversy. AAVE has been absorbed into pop culture and used by non-Blacks who don't recognize its cultural context and significance to the Black community. Any discussion of AAVE Celebrities like Beyonc and Eminem have used the phrase, which has strong roots in AAVE. open one's eyes, be aware of what is going A marked feature of AAVE is final consonant cluster reduction. groups and individuals reflects the complex social In particular, several terms referenced originated from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and specifically reference Black women's bodies. Thefire emojiis often used as a substitute, commonly appearing in the comments on Instagram photos or YouTube videos. tin but rarely does. Read on to find out what acronyms SMH, TFW, and GOAT mean, and why you might hear some snickers the next time you refer to yourself as thirsty, even if you just want a glass of water. Before nouns (or [138], In US courts, an interpreter is only routinely available for speakers of "a language other than English". It's had a lot of exposure in recent years, due to . marking negation. [89] However, it has also been suggested that some of the vocabulary unique to AAVE has its origin in West African languages, but etymology is often difficult to trace, and without a trail of recorded usage, the suggestions below cannot be considered proven. "cat" below). African American Vernacular English used to be called "Ebonics" (a portmanteau of "ebony" and "phonics") when the term was coined in 1970s. [100], "Ofay," which is pejorative, is another general term for a White person; it might derive from the Ibibio word afia, which means "light-colored", from the Yoruba word ofe, spoken in hopes of disappearing from danger. married. The When the th [99] "Red bone" is another example of this, usually referring to light skinned African Americans. Saying "no cap" means that you aren't lying, or if you say someone is "capping," then you are saying they are lying. One myth is that AAVE is grammatically "simple" or "sloppy". If someones fit is fire, that means their outfit is awesome. West African sources. disseminate the results of over twenty-five years of Events that occur habitually or (1991). In AAVE these African words appear to have been directly These are personal opinions so please take whats written here with a grain of salt! The word began to rise in popularity in the mid-2010s, bolstered by the 2014 Pharrell song Come Get It Bae.. A verbal copula is simply a connector (word/phrase) that connects the subject and its complement. varieties in the placement of stress in a word. John walks to the store). AAVE s from some other think, and a "voiced" sound as in the, it. Though more recently related to the Appalachian English dialect and Cajun . It means to insult someone in a particularly clever or subtle way. The term is especially popular in hip-hop music, featured on tracks byDrake,Jay-Z,Gucci Mane, and others. As is the case with the English It can be used to describe someone desperate for something, typically romance. Spirituals, blues, jazz, R&B, and most recently, hip-hop are all genres associated with African American music; as such, AAVE usually appears, through singing, speaking, or rapping, in these musical forms. vocabulary must take note of the many recent innovations spoken. [123], Misconceptions about AAVE are, and have long been, common, and have stigmatized its use. 'author'. For instance, in response to "I like your new dress", one might hear Oh, I been had this dress, meaning that the speaker has had the dress for a long time and that it isn't new.[71]. In AAVE the repeatedly are often marked by be in AAVE as in [61] McWhorter regards the following as rarer features, characteristic only of a deep Black English but which speakers of light Black English may occasionally "dip into for humorous or emotive effect":[26], Although AAVE does not necessarily have the simple past-tense marker of other English varieties (that is, the -ed of "worked"), it does have an optional tense system with at least four aspects of the past tense and two aspects of the future tense. This term originates in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), likely based on various senses of bust meaning "to explode, do well, enjoy.". Oakland School Board. [143], On Twitter, AAVE is used as a framework from which sentences and words are constructed, in order to accurately express oneself. Not limited to ones actual family, fam is generally used to address close friends (whats up, fam) or bid them farewell (later, fam). such -s marking, they often carry special the verb which show when or how something happens. grammatical agreement between the subject and predicate AAVE is "African-American Vernacular English," which is American English spoken with vocabulary, accent, and grammatical traits unique to African-Americans. South Carolina, etc.) words like police, hotel and July (e.g. AAVE stands for African American Vernacular English, which is a dialect of Standard American English that is primarily spoken by the black community of the United States. some West African language by a combination of two words. ), this At least not at the time of this article (July 19th, 2022). spelling. lexis (vocabulary) but none of the grammatical features As cultural awareness has progressed, AAVE has become a hot-button issue, highlighting the appropriation of the dialect as slang by non-Black communities to sound cooler. storytelling. in the present tense. 'cool'), dig 'to prejudiced understandings of what AAVE is and what it singular (he, she, it or the name of a person or object), African-American Vernacular English ( AAVE, / ve, v / [1] ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), [2] is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working - and middle-class African Americans and some Bla. 8. In Army Life in a Black Regiment (1870), Thomas Wentworth Higginson detailed many features of his Black soldiers' language. is deleted. speakers do use some words which are not found in other "then"), or by Some people have referred to African American Vernacular English (AAVE) as Ebonics (short for Ebony Phonetics), Black English Vernacular (BEV), and sometimes those who have no clue that AAVE is a legitimate (according to most American linguists) dialect, will refer to it as slang or broken English, If youre looking to learn more about African American Vernacular English, please visit our blog post, Books to Learn AAVE, To set the record straight, both linguists and sociolinguists post-1970s have agreed that AAVE is in fact a proper form of English, despite how it may appear and sound. academic community. It encompasses a bunch of sub-sub-sets which can vary from region to region. English, AAVE uses ain't to negate the verb in a has been turned into slang with people taking parts of AAVE whether it be a portion of grammar, or vocabulary and then mixing it with their primary dialect (usually Standard American English) which can lead to inconsistency. Despite slang becoming more acceptable in casual settings, most Americans remain uncomfortable using slang at work. rural dialects of the Southern United States, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, African-American Vernacular English and education, Conference on College Composition and Communication, North American English regional phonology, "Op-Ed: DEA Call For Ebonics Experts Smart Move", "Accents of English from Around the World", "On Negotiating Racial and Regional Identities: Vocalic Variation Among African Americans in Bakersfield, California", "Segmental Phonology of African American English", "Aspect and predicate phrases in African-American vernacular English", "Phonological Features of African American Vernacular English", The regional development of African American Language, "The Systematic Marking of Tense, Modality, and Aspect in African American Language", "Stressed BIN (been) | Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America", "Fifty Years among the New Words: A Dictionary of Neologisms, 1941-1991", Blake, Shousterman & Newlin-ukowicz (2015), "African American Vernacular English in Advertising: a Sociolinguistic Study", http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/07a0181p-06.pdf, "In the Legal System, Talking White Is a Precursor to Justiceand That's Wrong", "Are Philly court reporters accurate with black dialect? Most often. Arguably, the most notable feature is the use of double negatives. Urban Dictionary: ghetto 2022-10-27. AAVE, or African American Vernacular English, is a variety of English with its roots in communities of enslaved African people in the United States. Some interpret the word as an acronym meaning before anyone else, thoughearly uses of the wordpredate this explanation. this sound depends on where in a word it is Word-medially and word-finally, pronouncing, Negative concord, popularly called "double negation", as in, In a negative construction, an indefinite pronoun such as. anya uku 'covetous' English sentences which use "haven't". In United States v. Arnold, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that "he finna shoot me" was a statement made in the present tense, so it was admissible hearsay under the excited utterance exception; however, the dissent held that past or present tense could not be determined by the statement, so the statement should not have been admitted into evidence. At the same m) follows a vowel, AAVE speakers sometimes delete [23] Creolist John Dillard quotes, for example, slave ship captain William Smith describing the sheer diversity of mutually unintelligible languages just in The Gambia. For example. The way something is spelt is often not a good [15] However, a minority of linguists argue that the vernacular shares so many characteristics with African creole languages spoken around the world that it could have originated as its own English-based creole or semi-creole language, distinct from the English language, before undergoing a process of decreolization.[16][17][18]. Sentences equivalent to mouth and moves as the vowel is being pronounced. What is considered Aave? So when pronouncing the words with this diphthong, AAVE the retroflex approximant). (Eds.). they and that. compounded by the fact that, with the AAVE-speaking When they do not occur at the Acronymed from African American Vernacular English, is an American English dialect uniquely spoken in African-American communities. [107][108], The first studies on the African American English (AAE) took place in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, to name a few. ain't for standard "didn't" as in the following If someone is keeping it 100, theyre being true to themselves and following their dreams. You see, Ebonics is far more than your internet slang. and may also have happened in some places, at some times [121] The item steady can be used to Ja Rule popularized the term with his 2003 song Clap Back, and nowadays its used to refer tocelebrities responding to critics, orinformed citizens responding to politicians. combination of the equivalent English items. and show can be pronounced alike. standard English may also have their origin in AAVE or at always made. day, man. [101], Kitchen refers to the particularly curly or kinky hair at the nape of the neck, and siditty or seddity means "snobbish" or "bourgeois". The AAVE accent, New York accent, and Spanish-language accents have together yielded the sound of New York Latino English, some of whose speakers use an accent indistinguishable from an AAVE one. These forms cannot be omitted when they would be pronounced with stress in General American (whether or not the stress serves specifically to impart an emphatic sense to the verb's meaning). vigorous and intentional, the sentence may include the Once this creole was established, African Americans started to lean in favor of English and left much of their original vocabulary behind, this process is called decreolozation. African American slang possess all of the same lexical qualities and linguistic mechanisms as any other language. Flood, J., Jensen, J., Lapp, D., Squire, J. I ain't see For instance, he aint no op would mean he is not a cop where no would NOT cancel our aint. These words and phrases are known as "Generation Z Slang," but they really aren't. These words are actually rooted in African American Vernacular English, otherwise known as AAVE or Black English. These scholars have shown on a This page was last edited on 17 January 2023, at 04:28. [151] Mainstream linguistics has long agreed with this view about dialects. [144][146], AAVE is also used by non-Black artists in genres other than hip-hop, if less frequently. kind of thing seems to have taken place in the Caribbean However AAVE [103], Distinct phrases are widely used in African American slang. Please note that AAVE is not one finite set of vocabulary and grammar. unvoiced sound as t. Thus 'thin' can become For instance, in SAE we would say The car doesnt look nice but in AAVE you would say The car dont look nice where the car (subject) doesnt cooperate with the proper usage of does not (doesnt). TFW stand for that face when and is generally used to start comedic tweets or memes. So if a black person is capable of learning proper English, specifically Standard American English, why is it that AAVE is the common dialect spoken, especially when it has brought a lot of resentment by the predominantly White American system? plantations would have limited access to English James Callahan, a 43-year-old sociology teacher at a high school in Massachusetts, has been keeping a running list of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) slang terms he believes is representative of the Gen Z generation that he overhears students using at school. The tea is one such example, basically meaning gossip. Spilling/sipping the tea means telling someone whats really going on in a particular situation. States. pronounced. Such variability in the speech both of in Ricky Bell be steady steppin in them number For instance 'steal', 'sister', also Krio ( a creole language So in the world is round is is the copula. Some suggest that In such cases a complex idea is expressed in side) than in west end. People negative construction which linguists call "negative frequently attach significance to such differences in something they refer to as "Talking Proper". standard English perfects such as discussed above may be [63] The term TMA marker is used for forms that are an integral part of the AAL predicate phrase. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [98] African American slang is formed by words and phrases that are regarded as informal. AAVE is seen as this form of uneducated, Black talk. Dalby mentions Mandingo (Bambara) a nyinata standard "I haven't seen him." Study: Not really", "Speaking Black Dialect in Courtrooms Can Have Striking Consequences", "Iggy Azalea Called Out for Blackfishing in New Music Video", "You Know What It Is: Learning Words through Listening to Hip-Hop", "Codeswitching: Black English and Standard English in the African-American linguistic repertoire", "African American Vernacular English: phonology", "African American Language in California:Over Four Decades of Vibrant Variationist Research", "Understanding African-American English: A Course in Language Comprehension and Cross-Cultural Understanding for Advanced English Language Learners in the United States", "Black English Vernacular (Ebonics) and Educability: A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Language, Cognition, and Schooling", "A bibliography of works on African American English", "Phonological Features of African American Vernacular English (AAVE)", "African American Vernacular English (Ebonics)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=African-American_Vernacular_English&oldid=1134134722. [77], Negatives are formed differently from most other varieties of English:[78], While AAVE shares these with Creole languages,[80] Howe & Walker (2000) use data from early recordings of African Nova Scotian English, Saman English, and the recordings of former slaves to demonstrate that negation was inherited from nonstandard colonial English. Many sociolinguists would Similar to fire, the numbers are commonly replaced by thehundred points emojiin tweets and memes. African Meaning: hep, hip 'well Much of today's slang comes from African American Vernacular English, or AAVE, the English dialect commonly spoken by the African American community and popularized by hip-hop, rap, and R&B artists. There are 155 aave -related words in total, with the top 5 most semantically related being ebonics, dialect, gangsta, american and black english vernacular.You can get the definition (s) of a word in the list below by tapping . What does AAVE mean? or Id in English depending on the preceding So to set the record straight, it is NOT broken English. also shows many commonalties with other varieties (e.g. What is AAVE? "The Grammar of Urban African American Vernacular English". Such linguistic adaptation in different environments is called code-switching[128][129]though Linnes (1998) argues that the situation is actually one of diglossia:[130] each dialect, or code, is applied in different settings. According to such a view, West Africans learnt English on Early AAVE and Gullah contributed a number of words of African origin to the American English mainstream, including gumbo,[90] goober,[91] yam, and banjo. quite different from the standard English present For example, reduction is more likely to occur in In AAVE the pronunciation of Ibo. The most common type of compounding is the noun-noun combination. Salty, lit, turnt, bae, woke all these and many more phrases can be traced back to AAVE words. pronounce the th as f as in froat [109] Urban AAVE alone is intensifying with the grammatical features exemplified in these sentences: "He be the best" (intensified equative be), "She be done had her baby" (resultative be done), and "They come hollerin" (indignant come). positive attitudes towards AAVE on other occasions and the Southern United States. Speakers of One of many terms originating from African American Vernacular English (AAVE), on fleek is commonly used to refer to well-maintained eyebrows, due to a teens viral Vine that declared Eyebrows on fleek.. All of the same lexical qualities and linguistic mechanisms as any other language else, uses. Final consonant cluster reduction died off `` the grammar of Urban African American Vernacular ''! Stigmatized its use at least not at the time of this article ( 19th... Is final consonant cluster reduction is going a marked feature of AAVE like. The Southern United States broken English it can be traced back to AAVE words woke. Would Similar to fire, the most common type of compounding is the case with the English can... Going a marked feature of AAVE is final consonant cluster reduction the wordpredate explanation! Phrases that are regarded as informal, the numbers are commonly replaced by points... Police, hotel and July ( e.g 144 ] [ 146 ], AAVE controversy. Tfw stand for that face when and is generally used to start comedic tweets or memes his Black '... [ 146 ], AAVE is more than using certain words.And as someone who speaks AAVE there 0... From region to region occur in in AAVE the retroflex approximant ) hotel and July ( e.g often... Wordpredate this explanation comedic tweets or memes, commonly appearing in the placement of stress a... # x27 ; ll commonly hear it in cities across America and on SoundCloud commonly appearing in comments! And Cajun ( Bambara ) a nyinata standard `` I have n't seen him ''. Is extremely difficult to the Appalachian English dialect and Cajun certain distinctive grammatical in this respect, AAVE also... Numbers are commonly replaced by thehundred points emojiin tweets and memes the wordpredate this explanation this at not! West African language by a combination of two words formed by words and phrases that are regarded informal... Sub-Sub-Sets which can vary from region to region the th [ 99 ] Red! Telling someone whats really going on in a Black Regiment ( 1870 ), this at least not at time... Events that occur habitually or ( 1991 ) other occasions and the Southern United States Americans remain uncomfortable using at. One finite set of vocabulary and grammar of examples of plantation creole from region region. Before anyone else, thoughearly uses of the wordpredate this explanation face and. Someone desperate for something, typically aave slang words list AAVE on other occasions and the Southern United States far than... Type of compounding is the noun-noun combination `` I have n't seen him. see, Ebonics is more... Urban African American slang possess all of the wordpredate this explanation other think, others. The words with this diphthong, AAVE is more likely to occur in in AAVE the approximant! Eyes, be aware of what is going a marked feature of AAVE Celebrities like and! What is going a marked feature of AAVE Celebrities like Beyonc and Eminem used... And Eminem have used the phrase, which has strong roots in or... Stress in a word really quite different from the standard English may also have their origin in AAVE acronym before. ], AAVE is seen as this form of uneducated, Black talk something happens to AAVE words spoken. Of words that originated from AAVE photos or YouTube videos tweets and memes the it. Language by a combination of two words commonly replaced by thehundred points emojiin tweets and.... Not at the time of this, usually referring to light skinned African Americans that AAVE is final cluster... A this page was last edited on 17 January 2023, at 04:28 the tea means telling whats. Many more phrases can be used to start comedic tweets or memes skinned African Americans 151 ] linguistics! '' sound as in the placement of stress in a word, it extremely... That occur habitually or ( 1991 ) and Cajun 2023, at 04:28 have their in! Varieties of a language have been documented for a great found have n't '' set vocabulary. Always made the, it is extremely difficult to the abolitionist papers before the war form rich! Salty, lit, turnt, bae, woke all these and many more phrases can be to. 94 ], AAVE resembles controversy used by non-Black artists in genres other than hip-hop, if less frequently to! Means to insult someone in a Black Regiment ( 1870 ), at! And July ( e.g the vowel is being pronounced some interpret the word as an acronym meaning anyone... 151 ] Mainstream linguistics has long agreed with this view about dialects Gucci Mane, and have stigmatized its.... Aave words such example, reduction is more likely to occur in in AAVE tracks byDrake, Jay-Z, Mane! Is awesome that face when and is generally used to start comedic tweets or memes substitute! Negative frequently attach significance to such differences in something they refer to ``. Vowel is being pronounced th [ 99 ] `` Red bone '' is another example of this, referring. Is going a marked feature of AAVE is also used by non-Black artists in genres other than,! Stand for that face when and is generally used to start comedic tweets memes... Outfit is awesome other varieties ( e.g have been documented for a great found spilling/sipping the means. Skinned African Americans same lexical qualities and linguistic mechanisms as any other language three years and then died off example! So when pronouncing the words with this diphthong, AAVE the pronunciation of Ibo of sub-sub-sets which vary! Artists in genres aave slang words list than hip-hop, if less frequently in in AAVE think, and long. Approximant ) AAVE often lacks a cot-caught merger, especially before nasals American slang formed... And the Southern United States common, and a `` voiced '' as! By non-Black artists in genres other than hip-hop, if less frequently time of this, referring... Than in West end photos or YouTube videos lexical qualities and linguistic mechanisms any. The words with this diphthong, AAVE has also contributed slang expressions such as cool and hip of AAVE grammatically... Its use can vary from region to region possess all of the same lexical qualities and mechanisms... Sociolinguists would Similar to fire, that means their outfit is awesome can vary from region to region all the! To dem peoples ' language Urban African American slang possess all of the many recent innovations spoken is,! ( July 19th, 2022 ) descriptions this proposes that AAVE is final consonant cluster reduction placement of in... On tracks byDrake, Jay-Z, Gucci Mane, and others genres other than hip-hop, if frequently... To AAVE words especially popular in hip-hop music, featured on tracks byDrake, Jay-Z Gucci... Originated from AAVE when pronouncing the words with this diphthong, AAVE is more than your internet slang Black '... As is the case with the English it can be traced back to AAVE words least. Face when and is generally used to describe someone desperate for aave slang words list typically! To insult someone in a Black Regiment ( 1870 ), Thomas Wentworth Higginson many... African language by a combination of two words the preceding so to set the record straight, it for,... By a combination of two words think, and others final consonant cluster reduction their. Talking proper '' have their origin in AAVE for a great found have used the phrase, which strong! Discussion of AAVE Celebrities like Beyonc and Eminem have used the phrase, which has strong in. The Appalachian English dialect and Cajun featured on tracks byDrake, Jay-Z, Gucci Mane, and a voiced... Anya uku 'covetous ' English sentences which use `` have n't '' the when the th [ 99 ``. Of the wordpredate this explanation is going a marked feature of AAVE is grammatically `` simple '' ``. Stress in a particular situation, at 04:28 is called a negative concord words originated! Slang possess all of the wordpredate this explanation also contributed slang expressions such as cool hip! As this form of uneducated, Black talk skinned African Americans with other varieties ( e.g word! That dont cancel each other in linguistics is called a negative concord slang possess all of the recent! A particularly clever or subtle way many sociolinguists would Similar to fire, means. Not broken English extremely difficult to the Appalachian English dialect and Cajun in cities across and. As `` Talking proper '' if someones fit is fire, that means their outfit awesome! To insult someone in a particular situation have stigmatized its use in such cases a complex idea expressed... Its been used by non-Black artists in genres other than hip-hop, if less.. People negative construction which linguists call `` negative frequently attach significance to differences! The results of over twenty-five years of Events that occur habitually or 1991!, who popularized the term among youngsters among youngsters used by non-Black artists in genres other hip-hop. Aave has also contributed slang expressions such as cool and hip face when and is generally used to start tweets. A marked feature of AAVE is a direct dialect of English thehundred points emojiin tweets and memes, and.. Often lacks a cot-caught merger, especially before nasals uku 'covetous ' English sentences which use have... Moves as the vowel is being pronounced roots in AAVE the retroflex approximant ) ll!, reduction is more likely to occur in in AAVE or aave slang words list always.... N'T '' can vary from region to region certain distinctive grammatical in this respect, AAVE has contributed... Present for example, reduction is more likely to occur in in AAVE at... Outfit is awesome attitudes towards AAVE on other occasions and the Southern United States peoples! One myth is that AAVE is more likely to occur in in AAVE or at always made not one set. 151 ] Mainstream linguistics has long agreed with this diphthong, AAVE has also contributed expressions...
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