Ebonics

__History of English Language: Ebonics__ by Riley Kinsella and Margie Travnik

 Ebonics is any of the nonstandard varieties of English spoken by African Americans. Ebonics is considered to be a portmanteau. A portmanteau is the fusing of two words to make one. The portmanteau "ebonics" comes from the words “ebony” and “phonics”.

Ebonics was initially advised and associated with the language for the family of African ancestry. 1975 is the earliest recollection of ebonics but it is said to be older than that.In 1975 Ebonics was used as the title of a book by Robert L. Williams. As of 1996 it is mostly referred to as African American Vernacular English. Ebonics was recognized in 1996, by the Oakland school board in California, as a linguistic entity that was separate and that its speakers needed assistance in becoming better at standard English.

"Like Standard English, Ebonics has its own grammatical structure and syntax." However, it possesses dissimilar qualities in such areas that make Ebonics truly a class by itself. //Ebonics: Rush to Judgment// illustrates this point with examples of how you say some common words in Ebonics. For example, the words "walking," "with," and "hand" are said as "walkin," "wif," and "han" by the removal of the last consonant in the word. "That, in the words of Perez, is considered to be the phonological aspect in Ebonics because it focuses on sound patterns." Furthermore, the verb form "to be" doesn't have conjugation in a sentence, so that "She is here" is pronounced as "She be here." "As Carol Rust points out in "Q&A; Is Ebonics a Good Idea?" the "to be" verb form and another verb are joined to produce a statement representing a continuous action such as "I be going," which is opposite to the Standard English sentence "I am going."' "Although this is quite different from Standard English, such dialect is a distinctive aspect of African-American culture (Smitherman). Many scholars within the field of linguistics have argued as to whether Ebonics is in fact a dialect, a language, or simply slang."

As a mix of African, Native American, and nonstandard English language and communication styles, Ebonics can be exemplified as a sociolinguistic, cultural and a historical research. Ebonics started when Africans were taken from their homelands and forced into slavery. From scratch, they had to develop a way of communicating with one another and with the Native Americans, whose villages they would go to for refuge and comfort. " In turn, African Americans' language patterns have heavily influenced the English spoken by their White counterparts and others, such that Ebonics terms and phrases like "whazzup" (for "What's happening?") and "We be chillin"' (for "We're just relaxing") are today widely understood and utilized by young and old around the globe"(Johnson).

In conclusion, Ebonics was started by the slaves so that they could have a way of communicating with one another. Ebonics started to spread because when they talked to other people it eventually caught on and other members of society started speaking it. Furthermore, this way of speaking has been passed on through the generations to become the ebonics that people speak today.

ENGLISH (2) Hallowed be thy name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those who trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen**
 * Our Father, who art in heaven

//**Ebonics:**//

You be chillin So be yo hood You be sayin' it, I be doin' it In this here hood and yo's Gimme some eats And cut me some slack, Blood Sos I be doin' it to dem dat diss me don't be pushing me into no jive and keep dem Crips away 'Cause you always be da Man Aaa-men**
 * Yo, Big Daddy upstairs

links 1 http://www.cal.org/topics/dialects/aae.html 2 http://members.aol.com/midevlman/ebonics.htm 3 http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-ebo1.htm 4 http://www.eng.umu.se/city/Malin/ebonics.htm 5 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=ebonics&searchmode=none 6 "Ebonics." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. 27 Feb. 2008. .] 7 http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/AAVE/ebonics/ 8 http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-EBONICS.html 9 http://york.cuny.edu/yorkscholar/v1/pdfs/thomas_ebonics_sp04.pdf 10 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3626/is_199801/ai_n8795006

11 Perez, Samuel A. "Using Ebonics or Black English as a Bridge to Teaching Standard English." //Contemporary Education.// 71.4 (2000). //Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. City U of New York,// York College Lib. 12 Oct. 2003.

12 Rust, Carol. "Q&A; Is Ebonics a Good Idea?" //The Houston Chronicle.//

13 06 Feb. 1997: 7. //Custom Newspapers.// Infotrac. City U of New York, York College Lib. 15 Nov. 2003.

14 Williams, R. (1975). Ebonics: The true language of Black folks. St. Louis: Institute of Black Studies. Sylvia T. Johnson Editor-in-Chief Copyright Howard University Winter 1998 Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.