Popular words used in Black culture for centuries are making their way into Oxford’s newest dictionary.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., historian and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, has announced he will serve as editor-in-chief of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English, a new glossary of language that will contain popular phrases used by historical Black figures and modern-day Black Americans.

Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. announced this week that he will oversee the new Oxford Dictionary of African American English as editor-in-chief.

Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, led by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, and the Oxford English Dictionary have joined forces to compile the Oxford Dictionary of African American English.

“We’re proud to be initiating this timely and important project with the team at Harvard,” said Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages at Oxford University Press, in a press release. “African American English has had a profound impact on the world’s most widely spoken language, yet much of it has been obscured.”

If you’ve ever seriously considered Black American English to be its own language, you aren’t the only one. And while words like “finna” or “bae” might get you thrown off of the scrabble board now, it may not remain the case in three years time, as an Oxford Dictionary for African American English hits book shelves and digital devices. According to The New York Times, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. will serve as the editor in chief of this very real, and very important project.

Oxford University Press and Harvard University are collaborating to create the Oxford Dictionary of African American English (ODAAE).

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and American Research, will provide editorial guidance to Oxford as it develops a dictionary dedicated to African American Vernacular English (AAVE).

The new lexicon, with Henry Louis Gates Jr. as editor in chief, will collect definitions and histories of words.