Ebonics a language, lack of Education or just cool?

Since we had a topic about reading and writing posted by Jauani Wu..lets look at our verbal language as well.

psh dawg, you gotz ta be trippin ta make a stoopid post like this, yall know this was dumb ta begin with my cracka.

How it be? Yo homeslice..I be cruisin down the Janke..and shit..people be talkin shit and shit..but den wen a soupbone tries gappin a flap..shit don't make no Jive..no what I meen Turkey?

Turkey? Bitch you livin in the 70's and shit you know? Psh cracka noone says turkey anymore cracka!

Yeah this thread isn't going to get pulled

Talen, you dont relize that in ebonics, "shit" and "bitch" are the two biggest and oftenused words. Thats why rap objectifies women! Usually with scat porn!

Interesting Poll results. *wonders if this is correlated to the Thread "Seperaton of School and State.*

Ebonics -- more formally known as African American Vernacular English -- is more of a "sociolect" than a "language", fo shizzle.

For me, I find it to be a lot of fun and can supplement and add color to what is already a very dynamic and diverse (patchwork) English language. It shouldn't be the only pillar your tower of grammar stands on, tho! Like the PSAs say, "THE MORE YOU KNOW".

Keep it fresh or I must follow protocol and bust a proverbial cap in yo ass.

fresh.

None of the above. There should have been a 4th choice: The language of mediocrity.

Edit: Corrected a typo.

Don't you mean, mediocrity? *smiles softly*

I like it when certain rappers can combine both technical jargon and ebonics to create something... well... fresh. A good example is Wu-Tang Clan. Check these dope lyrics out from the classical piece of music appropriately titled "Triumph":

[RZA]
Watch for the wooden soldiers, C-Cypher-Punks couldn't hold us
A thousand men rushing in, not one nigga was sober
Perpendicular to the square, we stand bold like Flare
Escape from your Dragon's Lair, in particular
My beats travel like a vortex, through your spine
to the top of your cerebrum cortex
Make you feel like you bust a nut from raw sex
Enter through your right ventricle clog up your bloodstream
now terminal, like Grand Central Station
Program fat baselines, on Novation
Getting drunk like a f**k, I'm duckin five-year probation

[/i]

Thats two for you.

I think the creator of this post is a little uneducated in terminology. "Ebonics" is a -dialect-, just as there is a "southern" dialect and a "northern" dialect. We do not have a formal English speaking language--and if we did, no one would use it. Everyone speaks based on dialect. We have a formal written language, which is entirely separate from our spoken language (no one speaks in formal written language. If they did, they wouldn't have many people to talk to. Formal written language is both too complicated and way too uninteresting to listen to.) So that's my .02. I'm not voting; this poll has an intrinsic bias.

Hee hee

I only looked in this thread because I thought it had something to do with Scott Adam's Dilbert cartoon

The Elbonians

but I found everyone here talkin' like Ali G !

Never heard of ebonics before, ah well it's good to learn a new thing every day.

Thanks for the education ducks out to peruse another thread..........................

I break out in ebonics frequently. It all matters who your hangin with dog, I mean gettin all uptight n'shit bout words got us all feelin ill yo. It's not lack of education I think it's regional dialect. Take Jamaicans for example... Holy crap they can spout of english sentences so fast and jumbled it's almost impossible to make out unless you have that dialect down.

I don't understand

di·a·lect ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-lkt)
n.

A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists: Cockney is a dialect of English.
A variety of language that with other varieties constitutes a single language of which no single variety is standard: the dialects of Ancient Greek.
The ***language*** peculiar to the members of a group, especially in an occupation; jargon: the dialect of science.
The manner or style of expressing oneself in language or the arts.
A language considered as part of a larger family of languages or a linguistic branch. Not in scientific use: Spanish and French are Romance dialects.

E·bon·ics ( P ) Pronunciation Key (-bnks, bn-)
n. (used with a sing. verb)
See African American Vernacular English. See Usage Note at Black English

African American Vernacular English
n. Abbr. AAVE
Any of the nonstandard varieties of English spoken by African Americans. Also called Black English, Black English Vernacular, Black Vernacular English, Ebonics. See Usage Note at Black English.

Black English
n.
See African American Vernacular English.
Any of the nonstandard varieties of English spoken by Black people throughout the world.
Usage Note: In the United States, the term Black English usually refers to the everyday spoken varieties of English used by African Americans, especially of the working class in urban neighborhoods or rural communities. Linguists generally prefer the term African American Vernacular English, although some use the term Ebonics, which saw widespread use in the late 1990s. It is an error to suppose that Black English is spoken by all African Americans regardless of their background. In fact, the English spoken by African Americans is highly variedas varied as the English spoken by any other racial or ethnic group. ·Sometimes Black English is used to refer to other varieties of English spoken by Black people outside of the United States, as in the Caribbean and the United Kingdom.

Just wondering how many more 'Blake is a fucking Idiot' polls this will spawn?

And not one of you spiced up your rants with "Ya know what I'm sayin', ya know what I'm sayin'?"...That seems to be the 'comma' of the new century...

Word life, Yo
One love,
Increase da peace!
Holla!

If this isn't a closet racist thread then I don't know what is.

Hmm...you just pointed to a group you don't even know and labled their ideas and opinions as subversive...Mr. Pot meet Mr. Kettle....or is that racist now too, since it uses the word 'black'. Though I can agree that the use of the term "Eubonics" may indicate to some the African-american facet of the U.S. populace due to their creation of the term and attempted creation of a new language, but the use of that particular style of speech has now spread to encompass a full racial spectrum of (typically) youths today. So therefore, don't friggin blast me as a racist because I find it offensive when a person (white, black, green, orange, or otherwise) interviews with me and can't complete a sentence without vernacular, who cannot say Sir or Ma'am to someone they want employment from...and who has to say "You know what I'm saying?", at every pause in their conversation. It's an opinion towards their ability to functionally express themselves, not of their character or towards any one race's superority over another...so take your name calling elsewhere.

My first reaction to this poll was "I can't believe you asked that". Then I heard this guy on the radio and changed my opinion some: http://racerelations.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.yforum.com/welcome1.html

Check out the web site. It's very interesting.

Chill out. Did you start the thread? No I don't think so. I wasn't even talking to you.

But seriously now, do you think this thread would even exist if the majority of people here were black?

Have you even paid attention to the type of polls Blake is putting out?

Do you seriously think Blake made this poll for a serious discussion? Come on now.

Looks to me he's trying to bait everyone who isn't him while half ass hiding his beliefs through fucked up polls.

As for your Sir Maam bit, hey I'm from Cali and I never hear anyone use Sir or Maam. Just like in the Sacramento area, everyone uses 'Hella' in every single sentence they use. What about them Canadians are 'aboot' ? What about Texan's and 'Y'all'. Or Cali residents who use 'Gonna' and 'wanna'.

This thread was all wrong when it went passed the line of including race with a thread starter named Blake.

I agree Ironchef, I can't believe that I missed this thread (probably due to the fact that blake has desensitized me to this new forum feature).

I kind of tip-toed around this thread and avoided saying anything until now, but I feel I should just put it all up and say what's on my mind.

I'm a white guy... born and raised a white guy. And I talk like a white guy too. I lived in Kansas for 10 years, and I find myself sometimes reverting back to my midwestern twang whenever I'm talking with someone else who has that flavor of speaking. But for the most part, I talk with about as much "dialect" as Peter Jennings (a Canadian, by the way) or Dan Rather.

My best friends in r/l are a black couple; Leon and Doreen. I met them through lilone (Doreen used to work at the same center for handicapped adults as lilone still does) and have been blessed to have them as friends. Both are ol' time Boston 'hood folk, and both have that "Ebonics" dialect that seems to be of much concern here.

I don't give a rat's ass how our various dialects have come to be. My "boring white guy" manner of speaking is no better or worse than Leon and Doreen's way of talking. It just is. It all goes back to the regionalization and segmentation that, before the advent of mass coummunication, fragmented the way we all speak the language.

"You is" communicates to me just as well as "you are", and to hell with all the dictionarians who want to say otherwise.

Words that are spoken are presented in a way that is comfortable for the speaker, and if you have a problem with HOW things are being said to the extent that you don't listen to WHAT is being said, then you're all fucked up.

- Ace