African American Vernacular Englishn. Abbr. AAVE The set of vernacular or nonstandard varieties of English spoken by working-class African Americans and often by other African Americans in informal contexts. See Note at Black English.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.