is Ebonics a language? please no insults?

Question

how did it come to be?

Answer 1

No, African American Vernacular English (Ebonics, AAVE) is a dialect of American English. It has its origins in the rural Southern dialects of the Scots-Irish farm foremen of the slave plantations of the 18th-19th centuries. That is the primary source. There is some influence from generalized West African speech characteristics, especially in terms of the way that certain English sounds that don't exist in West African languages are pronounced. There is a very small input from creolization processes. The major origin of AAVE is in the Southern dialect of English as spoken by the Scots-Irish slave foremen.

Answer 2

Ebonics is a language. It is not its own language, but is a dialect of English, which is the source of most of the vocabulary and the basics of grammar. It came from English speaking people whose native language (or at least that of their ancestors) was an African language, and so is a fusion between English and African-based languages.

Although it is certainly not standard American English, it is a natural and so valid form of speech. Those who dislike Ebonics do not understand it, and prefer to hate what they cannot understand. There is no reason to dislike Ebonics, or to pretend to believe that it is spoken by ignorant people. I recommend that all speakers of Ebonics learn standard American English, in order to be able to use it when speaking with non Ebonics speakers, as this would improve their relationships with people who are quick to condemn anything that is different, but on their own time with their own friends there is no reason to expect that they should want other than to continue speaking a language that they care about and feel comfortable with.

Answer 3

No professional linguist would consider Ebonics to be a language. Most would consider it to be just a variation of Standard or Queens English. A few might consider it to be a dialect almost like Scots or Cockney.

PBS had a special on English a few years ago in which they said that the English of Black Americans has changed over time just as much as that of White Americans.

The special said that even as late as the 1940's, Black and White Southerners still spoke virtually the same form of American English. Since then, they have gone their separate ways a little bit. Ebonics reflects these changes among Black speakers.

Much of Ebonics is still typical of the English of the Southern U.S. in general. Some of it even has characteristics in common with working class British English, working class New York English and Irish English.

Ebonics shares with working class British English the tendancy to use the verb 'be' for the coplua e.g. "My dad be comin' to town. He be here next Wednesday" ; It shares with working class New York English the tendancy to change 'th' to 'd' e.g. "diss and dat" for "this and that." It also shares with Irish English features like the dropping of short vowels between consonants e.g "daz duh way it spozd to be" (That's the way it's supposed to be ; Irish English Tass tuh way it spozd to be). Another Irish-like characteristic of Ebonics is the dropping of consonant clusters like "tess" for tests, "carpes" for carpets and "coral rees" for coral reefs.

There are some sociological studies that indicate that people who have been historically oppressed and kept at the bottom of the social ladder tend to speak much the same regardless of their ethnicity or skin color. This may account for some of the similarities between Ebonics, Irish English and working class varieties of Anglo-American English but more research still needs to be done.

Answer 4

I grew up in an area that had a lot of families of German heritage. A majority of the people there spoke using English words arranged with German grammar. Despite the fact that some people called it "Dutch", it didn't make it a language. It only meant that the people speaking it did not fully understand English.

Ebonics is the same way. It's just people speaking English incorrectly with its roots in African or Caribbean grammar structures.

Answer 5

No, I wouldn't consider Ebonics a language. You could compare it more to an accent... a different way to say words... As to where it came from, I have a few theories, but they are just guesses at best.

Answer 6

..properly, i agree somewat with you, the clarification maximum blacks use ebonics is simply by fact they experience that the english language isnt ours...which in a feeling is actual. English didnt come from black individuals, it got here from the Anglo-Saxon human beings, n so maximum african human beings experience that simply by fact that we got here right here by skill of stress, y undertake the white guy's language? n sure i understand wat im conversing approximately reason im taking advance academic composition and we talk approximately british n the muse of the english language... for me individually, i talk "the suitable option" english and ebonics. its no longer that im ignorant or something, its in simple terms how i talk. i think of there would desire to be a TIME and a place for it, someone shouldnt talk it interior the artwork place, at college (noticeably english classification, lol) or around different knowledgeable human beings. yet maximum blacks n whoever talk it fluently<<

Answer 7

Main Entry: lan·guage
Pronunciation: 'la[ng]-gwij, -wij
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French langage, from lange, langue tongue, language, from Latin lingua -- more at TONGUE
1 a : the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community b (1) : audible, articulate, meaningful sound as produced by the action of the vocal organs (2) : a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings (3) : the suggestion by objects, actions, or conditions of associated ideas or feelings (4) : the means by which animals communicate (5) : a formal system of signs and symbols (as FORTRAN or a calculus in logic) including rules for the formation and transformation of admissible expressions (6) : MACHINE LANGUAGE 1
2 a : form or manner of verbal expression; specifically : STYLE b : the vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or a department of knowledge c : PROFANITY
3 : the study of language especially as a school subject
4 : specific words especially in a law or regulation .....

going by this, the yes

Answer 8

It is not a separate language, but a dialect of English.

Go to Center for Applied Linguistics for info on how it came to be:

http://www.cal.org/topics/dialects/aae.html

Answer 9

No. It is a type of broken English. It was against the law to educate slaves so they developed their own form of English which has an African background.

Answer 10

No it is not. It is very poor grammar. And I dont mean it as an insult.