Does anyone think that EBONICS should be(or is one its wayto be) a language?

Answer 1

First off, I want to note that the majority of these responses smack of nothing but ignorance and racism. Instead of trying to understand WHY Black English is different than the dialects they speak, people find it much easier to condemn an entire dialect because it is a sociopolitically disadvantaged one.

There is nothing inherently "uneducated" or "dumb" about Black English - it's simply a way of speaking that follows different rules than Standard American English does. It's as expressive as Standard English. These same people wouldn't condemn German or Spanish or any other foreign language for sounding different and following different rules, so why do they for Black English? Because if it sounds anything like English, it should adhere to some pie-in-the-sky standard that no native dialect acheives?

As for whether it "should" be a language - that's a question for politicians, not linguists. The history of Black English is one borne out of slavery; it began as a pidgin between different West African languages (as slave owners would deliberately split up people who spoke the same language) that eventually took in parts of the English spoken by slaveholders. As blacks integrated more into American society, it began to take on more features of English, but still had vestiges of its West African heritage, which accounts for many of the reasons it is differnt from Standard American English today.

Research has shown that Black English across the nation is diverging from Standard American English; this is partly due to the de facto racial segregation that is prevalent throughout the United States.

All in all, I'm pretty much disgusted by people's outright condemnation of a dialect simply because its speakers don't have as much social, economic, and political power as the speakers of other dialects in this nation!

Answer 2

No. Ebonics isn't a language. There is not any regular ebonics and ebonics alterations in case your from the south, north, west and midwest. To be a language such a lot of it needs to be uniform and conveniently understood. New phrases are regularly being made up and not anything remains steady in it. A language needs to be relatively steady over an extended interval of time. Ebonics doesnt do this someday announcing "Im ballin" is cool then the following its "Im contemporary" or "Im so Icy" and so forth. and so forth. and so forth. Not a language, no booklet has ever been written in ebonics both. No regular grammar + No regular lexicon=No language. Pero espanol y frances y ingles son idiomas porque tienen reglas y lexicos y gramatica.

Answer 3

Well, first you'd have to go into the distinction between a language and a dialect. Ebonics, a term invented by a school board in Oakland, California, is more generally called African-American Vernacular or AAV. As with any 'home language', it is a non-standard dialect of English. African-Americans are adept at code-switching, or changing from AAV to Standard American English, this country's prestige dialect. The more successful individuals are more adept at code-switching. One of the major tasks of the education system is to teach students how to switch from AAV (home language) to standard English, and to be taught when it is appropriate to speak which dialect. "School talk" should more closely approximate standard American English in order that the students will be able to succeed in this society.

Answer 4

Shoulds have nothing to do with it. Ebonics is a language. Those who say that it is not are speaking emotionally and not linguistically.

Answer 5

Identifying yourself as a native ebonics speaker would be like announcing to the world you are dumbtard.

Answer 6

Bill Cosby addressed ebonics and I would have to agree with him on this one!

Answer 7

I think Ebonics makes a person sound ******** stupid

Answer 8

Ebonics is ridiculous. Why would you want to make yourself sound completely illiterate on purpose? Just another way to encourage kids to stay dumb.

Answer 9

Ebonics is slang.

"or is one its wayto be"?

Answer 10

"Ebonics" is not a language. It is just ignorance.