Ebonics Ebonics is a term or English originally used for the U.S. to characterize the linguistic variety spoken by the Afro-American or more generally by the black population. Since 1996, this term refers to the vernacular language derived from English and used by the population African-American. This term was mainly due to widespread controversy of Oakland (California) of 18 December 1996 (see in Oakland Ebonics Controversy ).

It seems that the term Ebonics was used first by the psychologist Robert Williams during a debate with the linguist Ernie Smith at a conference on the development of cognition and the acquisition of language in children afro American held in St. Louis (Missouri) in 1973. Robert Williams said the term Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks , published in 1975:

• Original version

A two-year-old term created by a group of black scholars, Ebonics May Be Defined as "the linguistic and paralinguistic features Which is a concentric continuum represents the Communications jurisdiction of the West African, Caribbean, and United States slave descendant of African origin. It includes The Various idioms, dialect, slang, idiolect, and social dialects of black people "especially Those Who Have Adapted to colonial alina. Ebonics derivatives icts form from ebony (black) and phonics (sound, The Study of Sound) and Refers to The Study Of The language of black people in All Its cultural uniqueness. It does not, however, proved very popular even among those who were behind its creation. Thus, even the book Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks preferred the term Black English than that of Ebonics.

John Baugh specified that the term was used ebonic four ways by its defenders Afrocentric :

1. It may be a language that was built across borders while being influenced by the circumstances of the slave trade.
2. More generally, it can refer to language used by people from the African Diaspora.
3. It may be confined to the definition of Black English and be simply regarded as a kind of dialect based on English. In this way, it could be considered synonymous with the African-American Vernacular English (African American Vernacular Franais (aave))
4. It may conversely be considered the antonym of the Black and be a true Franais separate language distinct from English. This design would then deny the assimilation of a single ebonic sociolect , as is the African-American Vernacular English.

In the current U.S.

Until 1996, the term Ebonics was little used. It has also been published in the second edition of the Oxford Dictionary Franais published in 1989. For nearly a decade, this term was not used by linguists.

In 1996, the term was widely used in the United States in a controversy relating to a decision by the school board of Oakland. This commission had indeed recognized the existence of a sociolect used as a first language by children of African American origin, indicating that recognition of it would facilitate the teaching of standard English.

Shortly thereafter, the term Ebonics began to distance itself from that of African American Vernacular English.

Bibliography in English

• Baugh, John. 2000. Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic pride and racial prejudice. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512046-9 (hard), ISBN 0-19-515289-1 (paper).
• Blackshire-Belay, Carol Aisha. 1996. "The Location of Ebonics Within The Framework Of The Afrocological paradigm." Journal of Black Studies 27 (No. 1), 5-23.
• Green, Lisa J. 2002. African American Franais: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81449-9 (hard), ISBN 0-521-89138-8 (paper).
• O'Neil, Wayne. 1998. "If Ebonics Is not a Language, Then Tell Me, What is?" In Theresa Perry and Lisa Delpit, eds.
• Perry, Theresa and Lisa Delpit, eds. 1998. The real Ebonics debate: Power, language, & the education of African-American Children. Boston: Beacon. ISBN 0-8070-3145-3.
• Smith, Ernie. 1992. "African American learning behavior: A world of difference." In Philip H. Dreywer, ed. Reading the World: Multimedia and multicultural learning in today's classroom. Claremont, Calif..: Claremont Reading Conference.
• Smith, Ernie. 1998. "What is Black Franais? What is Ebonics?" In Theresa Perry and Lisa Delpit, eds.
• Tolliver-Weddington, Gloria, ed. 1979. Ebonics (Black Franais): Implications for Education. Special issue of Journal of Black Studies 9 (4).
• Williams, Robert. 1997. "Ebonics as a bridge to standard Franais." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 28, p. 14.
• Williams, Robert, ed. 1975. Ebonics: The true language of black folks. St Louis, Mo.: Institute of Black Studies / Robert Williams and Associates. (Green 2002 and the Library of Congress online catalog say IBS, Baugh says RW & A. 2000).

References

• (In) This article is partially or entirely from the article in English entitled " Ebonics "(see the list of authors )

1. Williams 1975, vi; QTD Green 2002, 7, and QTD Baugh 2000, 15. Unfortunately by There Is Something Amiss With EACH reproduction of What Williams writes, and possible aussi Incompatibility Between The Two. Green has a couple of What APPEAR minor typing errors to Be (whether Williams's or her own, and anyway corrected Above followings Baugh) goal OTHERWISE Presents The text as above: an unexplained quotation ("the linguistic and paralinguistic features ... black people" ) Within The larger quote. Does not this Baugh The Material Outside this inner quotation present purpose INSTEAD "latter (not demarcated by quotation marks) Within a different context. He did DESCRIBE THIS part of a statement to the U.S. Senate Has Made Some unspecified time after 1993, yet it aussi attributes (or attribute part of Williams has it) to p.vi of Williams's book.
2. For example, Smith 1998, 55-7, in Green 2002, 7-8
3. Baugh 2000, 74-5
4. Tolliver-Weddington 1979
5. Smith 1992 and 1998

External Links

• (In) Baugh, John. " American Varieties: African American Franais: Ebony + Phonics. " PBS, 2005.
• (In) Patrick, Peter L. " Answers to Some Questions about 'Ebonics' (African American Franais). University of Essex.
• (In) Ebonics debate is LINGUIST List
• (En) "Kweku" Shawnna Guthrie " Mary Hoover discussing Ebonics

List of regional variations of English
UK and Ireland	British English Received Pronunciation English English ( English from East Anglia cockney Estuary English English West Country English Midlands Brummie scouse English North Geordie ) English Welsh English Scottish English Highland English Manx English Ulster Irish English English Channel Islands English Gibraltar English Maltese maltish / minglish
United States	American English General American African-American English Ebonics Chicano English English New England American English North Central English Midwestern American English West Southern American English
Canada	Canadian English English Newfoundland
Caribbean	English Caribbean Jamaican English English Bahamian Trinidadian English English Belize English Guyana Bermudian English
Oceania	Australian English English Australian aborigines English New Zealand
Asia	Pakistani English Indian English English Sri Lanka English Burmese English Hong Kong English Singapore English Malaysian Philippine English
Africa	Liberian English Nigerian English English Cameroon English Ugandan Malawian English South African English
International	Standard English International English Mid-Atlantic Franais English North America
Variety simplified	Basic Franais Plain Franais simplified English Special English Globish
Creole English	Aluku, and Ndjuka Paramaka Creole ngatik Jamaican Creole Belizean Creole Gullah Ndjuka Sranan Saramaka Hawaiian Creole Creole Australian norfolk pitcairn Bislama Tok Pisin Pijin

• Language portal
• Portal United States

Leave a Reply

Frequently Asked Questions