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If you're going to speak Ebonics, at least get the grammar right.
Contrary to popular belief, Ebonics is not just an accidental medley of words and phrases put together randomly. There are consistent grammatical rules to Ebonics that change the meaning of a sentence accordingly. They are just different from those of standard American English.
"You tired", "You be tired", and "You done been tired" all have distinct meanings. They're not just three ways of saying you're tired.
Not to mention, other languages like standard Russian use copulation deletion and consider it to be proper grammar. For example, Russian for "you're tired" is: ты уставший ty ustavshy -- literally "you tired". However in Russian it is not mocked as being ungrammatical or "not speaking" or "unintelligent" because it's an accepted standard form in Russian.
Wanted to totally agree with this!! Finally someone who knows something about linguistics. To all who don't know the Black Vernacular (coined in present day as Ebonics) is a derivative in its context and structure to various African languages and similar to other languages based in Sanskrit. It is not a foreign language but a dialect or pidgin (aka creole) dialect.
That said, I am black and do not feel it should be taught in school as a way of communication. But if it is being taught with a cultural background so that black people and others will know that it is not a dumb or low class, made up language, then that is all and well to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by momonkey
Can you name a negative stat which blacks don't have locked up?
Since you asked - the largest number of food stamp recipients, the largest number of medicaid recipients, the largest ethnic group with reports of child abuse, the largest ethnic group of serial killers. I could go on, but all of the leading number of people in the above are white people. This thread is about Ebonics, not negative stereotypes.
Wanted to totally agree with this!! Finally someone who knows something about linguistics. To all who don't know the Black Vernacular (coined in present day as Ebonics) is a derivative in its context and structure to various African languages and similar to other languages based in Sanskrit. It is not a foreign language but a dialect or pidgin (aka creole) dialect.
That said, I am black and do not feel it should be taught in school as a way of communication. But if it is being taught with a cultural background so that black people and others will know that it is not a dumb or low class, made up language, then that is all and well to me.
I would definitely teach standard English in school too. It's true that you need standard English to get most jobs and make a generally positive impression on most people and for that reason alone, it should definitely be taught in schools. I just don't think that Ebonics/Black Vernacular should be looked down upon because linguistically it's no more or less than standard American English. A lot of my family is black and code-switches between SAE and BV and I code-switch right along with them without even thinking about it.
Just to give some perspective to other readers, the same phenomenon occurs with American Sign Language as well. There is a Black Vernacular variant of ASL that is just as rich in vocabulary and consistent grammatically as standard ASL. ASL is also much less standardized than English because there is no official written form and for a long time Deaf communities were much more isolated and developed strong regional dialects. As a result, regional signs and ways of signing aren't looked down upon by the Deaf community today but instead are just seen as different. The reason I bring this up is because I hope that the larger hearing community can adopt that same attitude with spoken languages.
maybe, maybe not. but one of the 1st simple steps the AA community can do is to embrace proper english. i'm sure cosby and sowell and other AA's would agree. as a matter of fact i know an AA successful woman who chastised her son for making fun of his sister because he felt his sister 'talked white'. she basically told him: 'son, there are times and places to speak however you want, and then there are times and places where you simply CAN'T."
now if all AA's would embrace this way of thinking...... (sigh, what a nice thought)
Yes because only "white" people know what "degradation" is!
"White" people don't do crack they prefer booze and Heroin!
"White" people also don't "murder" each other right?
"White" people also don't get "pregnant"! Yet the most popular MTV show is "16 & Pregnant" and "Teen Mom"!
Whites do all of the things you mentioned.
When black people list the bad things white people do to other white people whites don't cry "racism". Whites only claim racism when they are denied a job or college entry slot because someone else's great-great grandfather may have owned a slave.
Why do blacks get so much heat for "Ebonics" what about the millions of whites that speak that country bumpkin crap that I cant understand for the life of me.
No one claims "country bumpkin crap" is a legitimate language.
No one claims "country bumpkin crap" is a legitimate language.
Acadien. Au Metropole, et aussi dans certain pays en Afrique...vraiment dans le monde Francophone, on ponce les gens qui le parles sont betes. Mais, il y'a des gens qui ponce cette une langue avec une certaine richesse, parce que c'est leur culture. C'est la meme choses avec Afrikaans et Neerlandais)
(Cajun. In Metropolitan France, and also in certain African nations...really in the French speaking world, we think that people that speak it are dumb. However, there are those people that think it is a language with a certain richness to it, because it is a part of their culture. It's the same thing with Afrikaans and Dutch).
I think that much of it is elitist. Languages evolve. Look at Vulgar Latin (Dante's Inferno...later Italian) vs. Latin. At the time, there were debates and many people were upset at the vulgarization and rise of different dialects. Now these are codified languages.
While the same will probably not arise from Ebonics (we are too entrenched socially and economically), it should not be derided for its mere existence.
What should happen is simply the teaching of standard English and using Ebonics as a tool if need be. If studies show that it works, then maybe that's how we should teach standard English. If studies show that it doesn't work, then we do something else.
The first step is do conduct studies, then to implement a plan...not simply throw out an idea because some people are uncomfortable with it.
BTW, what is the current situation of this...given the age of the article.
Wanted to totally agree with this!! Finally someone who knows something about linguistics. To all who don't know the Black Vernacular (coined in present day as Ebonics) is a derivative in its context and structure to various African languages and similar to other languages based in Sanskrit. It is not a foreign language but a dialect or pidgin (aka creole) dialect.
That said, I am black and do not feel it should be taught in school as a way of communication. But if it is being taught with a cultural background so that black people and others will know that it is not a dumb or low class, made up language, then that is all and well to me.
Since you asked - the largest number of food stamp recipients, the largest number of medicaid recipients, the largest ethnic group with reports of child abuse, the largest ethnic group of serial killers. I could go on, but all of the leading number of people in the above are white people. This thread is about Ebonics, not negative stereotypes.
Serial killers, child molesters, Columbine shootings or just office shootings in general.
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