I don't understand why Ebonics has taken off so in the US? To me, it is nothing more than low class people that speak the language, yet I see it so often anymore. I see teenagers thinking it is OK to speak this horrible grammar, and this includes teenagers from affluent homes. This used to be confined to the inner cities, but it seems to have taken off. One of the terms that recently started is Tru dat, which we make fun of quite often at work. I don't see how speaking horrible grammar is acceptable?
If you think Tru dat is a new term you must be quite removed from youth culture. There is a time and place for everything, sometimes I like to speak "Ebonics" when I'm with my family or or friends, but I know that it is not appropriate to use in other situations, because poor grammar is not acceptable in the working world. I go to a rather prestigious university and I know a lot of people who speak "Ebonics" when they are with their friends, it is only a problem if people don't know the difference between when it's acceptable to use and when it isn't.
I have been doing an extensive analysis on the languages of sub-cultures in the US. (it keeps me busy on the bus Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ) From what I have seen, most people are a member of a least one sub-culture. Each of these sub-cultures have their own dress code, rules of behavior, and language. Most people speak a primary language most of the time, and speak their sub-culture language only when they are around other members of their sub-culture. To use me as an example: My primary speaking language is Plain American English. I'm a member of 2 different sub-cultures, the "Old school Dude" sub-culture which speaks the sub-culture language of "Dude"..a language borrowed from another subculture group from the mid- 80's, "California Surfer/Skateboarder". I only address other members of the subculture by the term "Dude"...non-members are addressed as "sir" or something else. I am also at least partially a member of the "Corporate" sub-culture. I don't subscribe to their dress code or rules of behavior, but I do speak their subculture language of "Boardroom Corporatese." On my job, I regularly have to correspond with full members of this sub-culture including members of the board, and upper management of my company. When speaking with them, I use terms like: "I am concepting..." instead of my normal "I am thinking of..." IMHO, "Ebonics" was the original sub-culture language of the sub-culture "Inner-city African-Americans". I believe this sub-culture language was developed to differentiate themselves from another sub-culture "The Man"...a sub-culture of powerful white men. "The Man" was seen as the enemy, and speaking like him was amount to consorting with the enemy. Doing so was a breech of sub-culture rules, and you would be called "Uncle Tom" or "House N@gger". This sub-culture language was adopted by another sub-culture group, "Hip Hop", (just as my subculture adopted the surfers language) the music of this sub-culture spread the language through-out all aspects of society. The only problem I have with this sub-culture is one of their rules of behavior, "Keeping it real", or in other words, the sub-culture language is to be spoken at all times. Speaking another subculture language like "Corporate" is frowned upon. Speaking their sub-cultural language to non-members of the culture can be confusing for the non-member. Now, not all members of the sub-culture speak only "Ebonics"...some do use a primary language like Plain English when talking to non-members, and "Ebonics" to members. Our SF member "Camilius" is a perfect example..he can discuss 18 century philosophers in Plain English in one post, then if someone makes him angry, can use his sub-culture language to call someone a "bitch ass n@gga" Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I love it. I think if the "Hip Hop" sub-culture allowed their members to speak a primary language, it would allow for better communication among all groups. Just ole Mac's opinion. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! (Fraggle, is it "subculture" or "sub-culture" ? thanks )
Read up on "pidgin" and "creole" languages, to give this discussion a scholarly boost. But I don't think it quite qualifies, since almost all of the people who speak it also speak standard English, depending on the circumstances. That would make it "jargon," "argot" or "cant." Rather like Shelta, which is spoken by the Irish Travelers when they don't want us to understand them. As for "taking off," I think it's way past its peak. It's been years since anyone suggested treating it seriously in school. It will be interesting to see what happens when a Hawaiian Ivy League graduate who speaks better English than the current moron replaces gangsta rappers as a role model. He can even pronounce "nuclear." Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Ebonics is a left-wing euphamism for improper English spoken by a black person. It is different from Patois which is an actual dialect (Jamaica). Ebonics is a racist term. Ebonics was actually invented by Southern whites. Sowell. T., Black Rednecks and White Liberals, Capitalism Magazine, Jul 2005
The more general term is a variant of a language. A dialect is a specific type of variant, usually associated with a region or social class. The key characteristics of a dialect are: Each speaker of the language speaks only one dialect, with obvious exceptions such as actors, linguists, spies and precocious children raised in more than one region or social class. A speaker of one dialect can understand the other dialects, perhaps after a little exposure--at least the neighboring dialects, if not the ones at opposite ends of a large language continuum such as Arabic. I think Ebonics does not satisfy either of these criteria. Most speakers also speak standard American English, perhaps with the accent of a region or social class, and can switch back and forth at will to suit a social situation. Ebonics contains slang and other terminology deliberately calculated to be difficult for outsiders to understand. Because of this, I think Ebonics comes closer to the definition of an argot or cant. It's not a perfect fit, but closer than it is to a dialect. If it's hard for us to understand because it's the special jargon of rappers, then it's an argot, like the jargon of sailors or psychiatrists. If it's hard for us to understand because they don't want us to understand it, then it's a cant, like Shelta or Pig Latin.
It seems to me that Ebonics fits that to a T, with the caveat that most speakers are bi-dialectical (!) - which seems no disqualification to me at all. It's neither restricted to an in group or profession (such as rappers), nor employed merely to conceal, like pig Latin. It's the normal language of daily life for an entire social class of people, when there is nobody else around. (Almost all speakers of it have been raised as children with exposure to at least one other major dialect, and almost all children are "precocious" at learning languages.)
because its cool, and users of ebonics think that the more ebonics they know da cooola day git. ya harrr, i am terribly sorry, everywhere i go its the same nonsense.
wuz crackn wit u cuz, i be at da beach texted da shawty at the crib! oh I just HAD to indulge, I am not trying to offend you either mickmeister, nice avatar by the way.
I am sadly part of the generation, where stupidity is the "like the coolest thing ever" I hate shallow ego's of the youth usa!
************* M*W: Short story about being a child in the Deep South. I was born in Hillbilly country but lived in SC from ages 5-9, my elementary school years. Whites spoke with a deep Southern dialect. "Mrs." was called "miss'ress" from the Black culture word for "mistress," and "Mr." we called "massah." It was "Tues-dee" not "Tues-day." We all spoke Ebonics then! The girls carried a "pocketbook" not a "purse." There are so many southern words I can't even remember now. My parents moved to Texas when I was 1. The kids in junior high laughed me out of the place, because I spoke so funny! As long as I've been in Texas, I never quite started speaking like one. My linguistic roots and dialect are still from the Deep South. Can't teach an old dog new tricks, I guess. My kids even make fun of me still!
But it is. One of the most important criteria in the definition of a "dialect" is that it identifies a community (regional, social class, ethnicity, etc.) and that members of a community in general only speak one dialect. Controversies do indeed occur over whether two idioms are dialects or something else, but they occur at precisely the opposite end of the spectrum from where we are. The question is always whether to call them two dialects of one language or two separate languages. Czech and Slovak; Provencal and any of the other Occitan idioms; Spanish and Catalan; Beijing Mandarin and Sichuan Mandarin; even Danish and Norwegian. It's about two idioms that are so different that many speakers of one can't understand the other at all without significant exposure and perhaps even some coaching. It's never about two idioms that are so easily intercomprehensible that speakers of one can casually speak the other like natives, and that's the situation with Ebonics and Standard American English. Almost any North American, probably most Aussies and Englishmen, and even a good number of Scots, Afrikaners and Indians can understand Ebonics after watching MTV for about ten minutes. Dialects are an impediment to understanding. The only impediments to understanding Ebonics for Americans outside the inner city are slang terms that refer to inner-city issues.
My dad says Tues-dee. It drives me crazy so it's a southern accent? He also says sang-wich instead of sandwich, but I can't find out where he got that from.
I can identify with these statements. When I moved from "the north" (or yankee country) to "the south" (Georgia), I had a hard time adjusting to the southeastern dialects (pin or pen?! pop or coke?! soda?! buggy? ya'll... they also talked with a weird accent). Over the years I figured it all out and even picked up some of the accent. But when I entered high school, it took me a day to figure out Ebonics. OHHH yEAAAA!!!! SHAWTY... FO SHIZZLE DAWG... CHIK OUT MAH GOLD GRILLZzzz. The "Tues-dee" thing sounds very southern to me. Sangwich came from Dane Cook... unless he didn't get it from him, but from some people of Italian decent.
Dane Cook? My dad always says sangwich, he thinks he is saying sandwich I heard Eddie Murphy say sangwich in Dream Girls, but I don't know if that's how he really talks or if he was just in character. You figured Ebonics out in only a day, I'm still working on some things and I live in the same neighborhood as these people, and speak it myself when I'm with family or I forget who I'm talking too it just slips out. oops.
************* M*W: You reminded me of another word, "sandwich." I remember as a child we called it "sammige." Was your dad from the South? Children were taught to respect their parents by saying, "Yess'um" and "Nossuh." When I went to SC from WV, I had a Black mammy. She taught me how to speak a Southern Black dialect. My parents worked for the govt., and when they noticed my Southern Black language, my mother quit work to stay with me and teach me how to speak proper English. Still, my parents had a White Southern, somewhat Hillbilly, accent.
Not really he was born in Texas and raised in New Mexico, so more like Southwest. He did speak several different languages maybe that's where it came from. I don't know why he talks funny no one else in his family talks like him. He is pretty fluent in so called Ebonics though and Spanglish. I suppose it all depends where you grow up.
