Is the way a black person talks and accent?

Question

IF anyone takes this as racist or otherwise please do not respond. This is a serious question that was posted prior by my friend who is from another country and she got 2 "answers" that were less than polite.

Answer 1

Wow Bethy, I just read through your answers and how crazy. I think the world is more obsessed with P.C. terminology than they are about what you are actually saying.

So what if you call people black - they call us white and we're more of a pink color anyways :) I don't think your question sounds racist...to answer your question (and I KNOW you undestand that you can't use a blanket term to discuss every black person in the whole world and blah blah blah - I'm sure that wasn't your intent anyways), no, I don't think it's considered an accent, rather a dialect - just as others have mentioned. There is eubonics, but that has to do more with what is being said as opposed to how it is being said, but I think it has more to do with upbringing. Just as someone else mentioned, there are many black people who talk just like white people, and vice versa. People talk how they want.

For example, if I grew up in a house that talked the way some blacks do, I don't doubt for a second I would have the same way of speaking - it is a learned behavior. A learned dialect.

Answer 2

The reason your friend got rude responses is because that is an ignorant question. By "black" I suppose you are referring to the shade of a person's skin. Black people live in all countries and regions so there is a multitude of different ways of speaking. It's impossible to give a blanket statement as to whether all of them have an accent - some do, some don't depending on your original point of view. It's the same with white people (or anyone else) - someone from the SE of the US sounds completely from someone originating in a NE state, etc. If you want serious, thoughtful answers try rephrasing your question in a way that is less racist and offensive.

Answer 3

The answers were impolite because the way she asked the question sounded very derogatory. If you're talking about black people from India or Africa, you're probably thinking of an accent (same words sounding different), but if you mean the sort of speech associated with some African Americans, then it's more of a dialect (differences in grammar and words used).

It should be mentioned, though, that your question is still a bit on the offensive side, as obviously not all black people talk that differently than other people.

Answer 4

Maybe you are asking about "Ebonics" The word ebonics is a marriage of the words ebony, and phonics. It is not a dialect. It is a pidgeon (I hope that I spelled that right). The origin of pidgeons are slave ships and conquests of foreign lands. Specifically on slave ships, the slaves were chosen from different parts of a continent as they didn't speak the same language and because of that they couldn't revolt against their captors. They all learned a common language, that of their captors. However, they didn't learn it well. A common factor in pidgeons is not conjugating the verb "be"..... As in "He be cool." Well, now, hundreds of years later, the pidgeon still exists, but for different reasons. The reason is to set oneself apart from the oppressors, the white man. Look it up on the web. Pidgeons exist in more places than in the good ole USA. Hope this sheds some light.

Answer 5

Black people have their own peculiar accent but so does everyone else depending on what region of the U.S. they come from, New Englanders have a totallly different accent than midwesterners and these from westerners and everyone knows what southerners sound like, Hawaiians speak pidgin english,and NewYorkers have a peculiar accent also.

Answer 6

In the US, it is referred to as "Ebonics"-- it can be considered an accent and also a dialect of sorts as certain words are used differently from 'standard' American English. Most black people can speak standard English as well, but chose to speak differently depending on the social setting.
In Hawaii we have many people who speak 'pidgin'--- which is accented English, interspersed with Hawaiian, Filipino, Chinese, etc. words , and different usage of the English words. "Cajun" is another example of a mixture of English and French etc.
There are lots of regional or cultural dialects/accents in the USA. Other places I cannot address--- but certainly anyone, black or otherwise, for whom English is a second language, would probably have an accent.

Answer 7

Ummm. Well the way a black, white, asian, oriental etc person talks IS an accent. If you are reffering to a dialect that you are rather crudely generalising amongst black people then no, its not an accent.

Answer 8

Is the way a black person talks an accent? Perhaps a dialect is a better term.

Answer 9

i do have to agree with one of the person(s) below, it does depend on where they are from. Like have you heard a black jamacan talk? it's pretty cool.
but the black ones from texas, talk normal. I don't know that is just my opinion, I hope that it helps.

Answer 10

There are all kinds of black people and they all have different accents just like white folk. I have friends who speak crisp English like Oprah Winfrey & Maya Angelou and others who speak the ghetto patois known as Ebonics. I know black people from Jamaica and Trinidad who have accents that are commonly associated with islanders, and then others who speak like Queen Elizabeth, like my friend Chris from Bermuda.

And of course there are white people who speak in specialized accents like Cockney, redneck, jazz jive, etc People of all colors from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan neighborhoods of NYC all have distinctive accents peculiar to their parts of town.

Best thing is not to generalize too much. ;)