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Originally Posted by wolf
I think that you have just contradicted yourself.
If your beloved AAVE is language, then piss christ is art, and there is no distinction between fine and foul.
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Art is creation and expression. It is not essential for everyday life. There are very extensive discussions of art vs. Art. I'm not sufficiently versed in art and art criticism to discuss it thoroughly.
However, art and language are very different things. Artistic merit is usually determined by conformance to a desireable style or audience perception. Language, by definition, shows consistent internal logic and structure. You can observe the speech of a group and then methodologically determine beyond doubt it's status as a language(or not a language), and whether it is a creole or a pidgin. You can classify the observed speech in a heirarchy of other languages. Linguistic analysis is concrete.
Language can also be art. Shakespeare, Chaucer, Alighieri, ad nauseum. Language as art is different to all people and there is very little universal agreement on the true masters. Is Def Poetry art? Are newspaper headlines and clever advertising tag-lines?