Ebonics

By pernfilman on February 4th, 2009 in Articles | Comments

Ebonics remained a little known and little remarked term until 1996; it does not appear within the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989 and thus over a decade after it was coined, and it was not used by linguists.

In 1996, the term became widely known in the U.S. due to its use by the Oakland School Board to denote and recognize the primary language (or sociolect or ethnolect) of African American children attending school, and thereby to facilitate the teaching of standard English. Thereafter, Ebonics seems to have become little more than an alternative term for African American Vernacular English, although one emphasizing its claimed African roots and independence from English, a term linked with the nationally discussed controversy over the decision by the Oakland School Board, and avoided by most linguists.[1]

What started out as a tool with good intentions, seems that it may have failed miserably. Please review the following lyrics and draw your own conclusion…

1. Now you know that I’m the Queen of Miami. All that loud talkin, lyin, save that sh*t for your mammy. Sounds like “blah, blah blah, blah bla blah-blah,” I’m like uh-huh (uh-huh) okay (okay), Whassup (whassup) SHUT UP!” – Trina (“Here We Go”)

Is it a coincidence the word rap rhymes with crap ?

^[1]Wikipedia – Ebonics