Dennis
There may be such a thing as Black English but there may also be such a thing as Southern or maybe Country English. I've heard white people using "passed away" or "passed on" since I was a kid. They also say y'all. Bitch had an Ellie Mae question yesterday. The tagline for the Beverly Hillbillies was "y'all come back now, 'hear."
^^^^^^^^
CB: Yes, Black English is largely Southern dialect or overlaps it. Somehow, I bet there are distinctions between Southern white dialect and Black dialect, though. I wonder why ?
It's seems pretty clear that languages have dialects, no ? Linguists have studied and defined Black English dialect, including Lakoff.
Do these white people say "in a minute" ? Probably not too many Black people say "Y'all come back now, 'hear " , because they've seen the Beverly HillBillies on tv.