Ebonics has nothing to do with slave trade recognition. It is all about the laziness involved with the pronunciation of the english language. Before you say it is hereditary, consider all the black news people who speak wonderfully.
THANK YOU WOLFHOUND!!!!!!! The sloppy pronounciation and atrocious grammar is not hereditary…it can be fixedby decent schooling and the desire to improve.(sorry ’bouththe spelling)
I enjoyed reading about the history of Ebonics, and how since the xenophobic masses have not liked Spanglish and want to make English the one true language. If more people have visited other countries and hear the babies talk perfect French or Chinese, , they n might learn that no language is superior, except maybe Korean whose symbols each has a function that can’t be confused.
Thanks for a fascinating post. I bet there are linguists working the different kinds of “Spanglish”. I’m really a philologist, rather than a linguist — that is, I work on literary language rather than on day-to-day spoken language — but of course I had to take linguistics courses, and the very first thing we were taught is that a lot of common attitudes about language are wrong — especially ideas about correctness. For the most part, what’s considered to be correct is determined socially — by power relationships within a society — rather than because there is something inherently right or wrong about a particular usage. I remember that my grandmother, who was an upper-class Brit, presented to the Queen, the whole nine-yards, used the word “ain’t”, which it turns out was common in the British upper-classes around 1900. Where I grew up it was frowned on by school-teachers. She also used “knocked-up” when she meant “tired” — that could cause some confusion. There’s been a lot of work on Black English, which some call Ebonics, and it’s quite clear that it’s a perfectly functional dialect, with its own rules of grammar and pronunciation.
I didn’t say that I spoke like that; it’s what I heard in Eastern Tennessee.My parents are both from Pennsylvania, so I don’t have an accent..Although I do use a Scots/British accent when I sing….
Tue Elung-Jensen about 11 years ago
Looking the whole obsessiveness with being p.c. aside – if thats him isn´t he a bit “pale”?
McSpook about 11 years ago
Is it me, or is he dressed like Fred Flintstone?
lutherg1 about 11 years ago
It is!
wolfhoundblues1 about 11 years ago
Ebonics has nothing to do with slave trade recognition. It is all about the laziness involved with the pronunciation of the english language. Before you say it is hereditary, consider all the black news people who speak wonderfully.
woodwork about 11 years ago
THANK YOU WOLFHOUND!!!!!!! The sloppy pronounciation and atrocious grammar is not hereditary…it can be fixedby decent schooling and the desire to improve.(sorry ’bouththe spelling)
pam Miner about 11 years ago
I enjoyed reading about the history of Ebonics, and how since the xenophobic masses have not liked Spanglish and want to make English the one true language. If more people have visited other countries and hear the babies talk perfect French or Chinese, , they n might learn that no language is superior, except maybe Korean whose symbols each has a function that can’t be confused.
Mickey 13 about 11 years ago
Been in California lately and tried to speak “Spanglish?” It’s a linguistic challenge to say the least…
lonecat about 11 years ago
Thanks for a fascinating post. I bet there are linguists working the different kinds of “Spanglish”. I’m really a philologist, rather than a linguist — that is, I work on literary language rather than on day-to-day spoken language — but of course I had to take linguistics courses, and the very first thing we were taught is that a lot of common attitudes about language are wrong — especially ideas about correctness. For the most part, what’s considered to be correct is determined socially — by power relationships within a society — rather than because there is something inherently right or wrong about a particular usage. I remember that my grandmother, who was an upper-class Brit, presented to the Queen, the whole nine-yards, used the word “ain’t”, which it turns out was common in the British upper-classes around 1900. Where I grew up it was frowned on by school-teachers. She also used “knocked-up” when she meant “tired” — that could cause some confusion. There’s been a lot of work on Black English, which some call Ebonics, and it’s quite clear that it’s a perfectly functional dialect, with its own rules of grammar and pronunciation.
Ketira about 11 years ago
I didn’t say that I spoke like that; it’s what I heard in Eastern Tennessee.My parents are both from Pennsylvania, so I don’t have an accent..Although I do use a Scots/British accent when I sing….