John Paolo Palad
Scripts and Writing Seminar
Professor Haberl
Final Paper
5/8/15
The Development of Ebonics and its Impact on African American Communities Literacy, the capacity to read and write written language, stems from traditional orality in which communication of a language is entirely composed and expressed through spoken words and sounds. The technologizing of oral language into one that is written is due to different socio-economic factors of a civilization. (Example of factors). At the root of this technological transformation, it is important to distinguish orality as a predecessor to literacy- there would be no written language or literature without oral language and communication, but their co-existence is necessary for civilizations
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Presently, in most linguistic and scholarly circles, this language system is referred to as the African American Vernacular English, but to non-linguists and the general public, the term Ebonics is more commonly used. Ebonics, the combination of the words “ebony” and “phonics” is a term that is associated with its primarily oral characteristics and use by African American communities. Of course, it is important to note that not all African Americans speak Ebonics and that the use of this primarily oral language system is not confined to black African Americans alone- non-African Americans who were exposed to Ebonics within their living communities can also have the ability to comprehend and speak this language system. Being primarily oral, Ebonics is spoken by communities in America as everyday vernacular- it is most commonly used as a form of communication within the home and between family members or others versed with the language. Compared with standard English, Ebonics utilizes the same alphabet and word bank, but there are Ebonics-specific words and phrases that are used to replace some of their English counterparts. The defining linguistic features that separate Ebonics from English and different English dialects are its overall simplification of phonetic and grammatical features. Phonetically, Ebonics differs in some of the ways the speech sounds …show more content…
Prior to the 1970s, the black speech that characterized many African American communities was accredited by linguists as either being “non-standard Negro English” or an informal English dialect. It was not until 1973, when social psychologist Dr. Ryan Williams coined Ebonics as a means to create a term to recognize the multilingual linguistic effects that affected the language systems of black Africans during the slave trade. According to Dr. Williams, in “Ebonics: the True Language of Black Folk” a book that explored the language system as it pertains to its language community, the black speech of African American communities in the United States should be defined
In Baldwin 's article If Black English Isn 't A Language Then Tell Me What Is? starting off by telling the readers about French speaking people. He is explaining how different dialects doesn 't mean people aren 't speaking the same language. Going deeper about language saying that it ties into the culture. Give an example of Black Culture and how their expression of English is different. Talking about the phrases like jazz me, baby, sock it to me, and funky; being used that way they weren 't meant to. Finally introducing how the African American culture has been disrespected or ignored. Telling
As a result of many negative stereotypes associated with certain variations of English many students have adapted codeswitching. When this concept came up in the book it made me think about my own language. I realized that I code switch quite often between what is seen as Standard English and African American English or Ebonics. Usually with family or other friends that speak Ebonics I use that Ebonics to communicate, but when I am in school, in a
Throughout history society has created many stereotypes and assumptions based on race and nationality to confine us into categories. The reality is, not every individual fits a specific category because we are unique even within the same ethnic group. In “On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black person” Allison Joseph illustrates some speech stereotypes that come hand in hand with her racial background and how even people from the same racial background and house hold don’t all sound alike. The author portrays that race and linguistic has such a huge impact on our daily life and how society sees her differently to others when they see she does not fit in the stereotype of sounding “like a black person” and feels frustration to being compared
Black Vernacular is “any of the nonstandard varieties of English spoken by African Americans. It is also called Black English, Black English vernacular.” In the “Black Vernacular” article, it states that “African- American dialects tend to drop the [t] from words like rest and soft. They likewise tend to drop the [r] in words like bird, four, door, and father.” In the novel, Janie said, “Ah wants things sweet wid mah marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree” (24).
In the essay if Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is? by James Baldwin and Mother Tongue by Amy Tan both shows idea of uses of slang and language in different context. In the essay if Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is? Baldwin states that how language has changed and evolved overtime, Baldwin describes how black English were used as white English, in civil rights movement where blacks were treated as slaves and the used slang language to communicate so that the whites won’t understand. This slang was taken from black language and now everyone uses to make the communication short. In the essay Mother Tongue Tan explains that how language could affect people from different culture. Tan states that how Asian students in America struggle in English. Tan also states that her mother is smart but she couldn’t communicate in English. Tan thinks that’s a big disadvantage for her mother and people coming from different countries cannot show their talent because of their weakness in communication.
In 1996, the Oakland School District proposed the inclusion of what is known as "Ebonics" into its curriculum. Ebonics, or Black language, has been referred to in various ways over the years: "African American Vernacular English," "Pan-African Communication Behaviors," "African Language Systems," or "West and Niger-Congo African Language Systems." By any name, Ebonics, when studied over the years, has been proven to be a real language with its own phonology, syntax, morphology, sentence patterns, and double interpretations of words. The pattern that Ebonics speakers in the United States speak is highly similar to the patterns seen in both the Caribbean Creole and the West African languages. No one would have thought that comedian Bill Cosby would have an opinion on this subject, but as I read through essay I realized the logic and validity behind his paper.
Smitherman is certainly qualified to address her colleagues about the treatment of “Black English” in academia, but with such a charged writing style it is possible that her audience would not make it to her conclusion. Smitherman assumes that the general base of her audience are “White English” speakers that can understand “Black English”. She also assumes that all African Americans speak the same way. These assumptions are her first major problem. At the time of this articles publication in 1973, it is conceivable that certain scholars would have ignored the piece because of its hybrid u...
Recent studies have been conducted to bring AAVE in schools which will result in higher test scores, however people are disagreeing with the idea because they don't want their children to learn “slags”, but AAVE is not a slang, just like standard English. “African American vernacular English, also known as “black speech” was created in 1973 by a group of black scholars who dislike the negative connotation of terms like “ nonstandard negro english” that has been cast in the late 1960s when the first modern large scale linguistic studies of African American speech communities begin”(John R. Rickford,2000). For many years, linguistics have treated AAVE as slang because they didn't want to give African American slaves the right to their own language. This all changed December 1996 when the “Oakland school board recognized AAVE as the primary language of its African American students, and took it into consideration to teach them standard English”(Monaghan 1997).
Rickford, John R. "What Is Ebonics (African American English)." What Is Ebonics (African American English)? Linguistic Society of America, n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
The author questions the fact, whether African American men are actually a criminal threat or a victims of society. “Black men are typically constructed as criminals when in truth they much more likely to be victimized by American Society” (BMCV, pg. 1). Most fail to realize that African American men can commit crime but they also can be victims of crime and a majority of the time they are the victims. Another idea he questioned is, why are more African American men considered to be perpetrators of crime rather than victims. “There is profuse media coverage of violent crime by African American men, however, the media pay disproportionately more attention to whites and women” (BMCV, pg. 2). The more the media reports on crimes committed by
The African influence of American English can be found as far back as the Seventeenth century. Although its influence may have began that far back, the influence of African American slang has arguably reached its peak (so far) in the last half on the 20th century. Evidence of this can be seen in magazines, music, television, and films. Perhaps more importantly, evidence can be seen in the way that people of ethnic groups, other than African American, have changed their speech due to this influence. The Equal Rights Movement lead to a paradigm shift in African American linguistic consciousness due to Black intellectuals, scholars, activists, artists, and writers deliberately engaging in a search for a way to express Black identity and the particular circumstances of African American life. Although there had been strides in Black pride in the past, this was the first one to call for linguistic Black p...
Ebonics, also known as Black English, is a nonstandard dialect spoken in many homes in the inner cities of America. This nonstandard language is often looked upon as low-class or lazy talk. This is not the case, however. Due to consistencies found in the dialect, there seems to be an order. It has been found that, when learning English, African-Americans adapted the language using some of the structure and rules of their own native tongue. This Black English has carried on through slavery and then freedom for hundreds of years. Although there is a coexistence of more than two dialects in our society, those in power forget the flexibility of our language and see no other way than the use of Standard English.
However, there has been a "language" use among African American students; "language" that has not been examined closely nor acknowledged until recently. Ebonics is classified as "Black English" or "Black sounds", or "Pan African Communication Behavior" or "African Language systems" which originates from the West African languages such as Ibo, Yoruba, and Hausa (Amended Resolution of the Board of Education, 1997. P. 1)." During the times of slavery, ebonics was also spoken as Gullah, which is a combination of West African languages, and English. Ebonics is a term coined by psychologist Robert Williams, resulting from the combination of two words, "ebony" and "phonics" in order to describe its dialect (The Daily O'Collegian Editorial Board. 1997. P. 1). The controversy behind ebonics is whether or not it is actually a language or and should it be instructed as a foreign language.
In December of 1996, the Oakland school board recognized Ebonics or African American Vernacular English (AAVE) to be a legitimate language. Furthermore, Oakland proposed that students should be instructed in Ebonics in order to help transition into speaking and writing in Standard English. This resolution was met with controversy as the opposition views the language as “slang” or “broken English”. Although linguists disagree whether or not Ebonics is its own language or if it is a dialect of English, “All linguists, however, agree that Ebonics cannot correctly be called 'bad English ', 'slang ', 'street talk ', or any of the other labels that suggest that it is deficient or not a full-fledged linguistic system.” (Rubba, 1997) It is incredibly important for these students to become fluent in standard english as lack of fluency makes it incredibly difficult to succeed in modern American society. Without implementing an education program stressing transition from AAVE, these students will continue to achieve below average, and will never truly become comfortable using Standard English.
It must be noted that for the purpose of avoiding redundancy, the author has chosen to use the terms African-American and black synonymously to reference the culture, which...