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Ebonics
African
American Vernacular English, also referred to as Ebonics, is a variety
of English.
It is hard to say how many people speak Ebonics. Ebonics is found among African Americans but not all of them speak it. The features of Ebonics are more common in informal speech than in formal speech and it is more common among working-class than among middle-class speakers (Rickford). Working-class speakers often see Ebonics as a marker of African American identity. The language can be used to gain a sense of community. Social networks may affect the influence of Ebonics. A simple example would be the difference between a medical professional and an unemployed person as regards exposure and use of Standard English.
Attitudes towards Ebonics bear the stamp of prejudice off what Ebonics is and what it says about the people who speak it. Many people think of Ebonics as broken English. The prejudices against Ebonics are closely related to racial and ethnic conflicts.
The same speakers can, on the other hand, state the inappropriateness of using Standard English in certain situations. For instance when speaking with people in their own neigbourhood.
There is a debate in the US among linguists about whether Ebonics is a dialect of English or whether it is a creole language. One important issue that all linguists seem to agree on is that Ebonics is "structured and rule-governed" (LSA resolution). According
to the creole variety view Ebonics developed on the plantations in the southern
states of America when Africans were brought to America as slaves. The
African slaves are supposed to have learnt English from only a few
native speakers and this would than have led to the development of a pidgin
language which expanded to a creole language.
African American speakers often have problems doing well in school due to the differences between Ebonics and Standard English. The Oakland School Board has passed a resolution in an attempt to help these children. The resolution says in short that Ebonics should be used as a tool to help African Americans master Standard English (Oakland Resolution). This was an important step for Ebonics speakers. There are experimental studies both from the United States and Sweden that state that to master the standard language might be easier if the differences in the students' vernacular and Standard English were made clearer rather than ignored:
"To give only one example: At Aurora University, outside Chicago, inner-city African American students were taught by an approach that contrasted Standard English and Ebonics features through explicit instruction and drills. After eleven weeks, this group showed a 59 percent reduction in their use of Ebonics features in their Standard English writing. But a control group taught by conventional methods showed an 8. 5 percent increase in such features." (Rickford)
(Picture taken from clipart)
One important point to make is that these African American inner city pupils do not start with the grave problems that they end up with after some years in school. In the 1960's it was claimed that the explanations for reading failure were due to a cultural and verbal disadvantage, which were the result of lack of motivation from the family (Labov, ch.1). This could be part of a wider explanation but often young children go to school full of enthusiasm. The reading failure is then due to the situation at the school, not the children themselves.
Some of the differences between Ebonics and Standard English could be the reason why Ebonics is perceived as broken English or lazy English. However, it is important to point out that Ebonics is not broken or lazy English. Ebonics is spoken by most of the black people in America. The probable cause to why some people think it is broken English is not the language differences instead it is due to cultural and social issues. I am going to go through some of the distinctive features of Ebonics. If you are interested in more information you can go to this web page -The features of AAVE.
Ebonics have the same vocabulary as other varieties of English. Of course, Ebonics speakers use some words that are present in other English dialects and have words that only exist in Ebonics. Sometime it is hard to say where the words originally came from, some words can be traced to West African languages, other words to English and some can be traced to more than one language (multiple etymology). Pronunciation
is one aspect that differentiates Ebonics from Standard English.
One case where the pronunciation differs is when consonant clusters
appear. The consonant cluster reduction in Ebonics is when two or
more consonants, which appear at the end of a word, are reduced. An example of
this is /st/ in the word test, in Ebonics speech the /t/ is deleted.
This happens not only in Ebonics but also in other varieties of English.
The difference is that in Ebonics the reduction is variable and
systematic. If we consider Ebonics tense and aspect, we see that Ebonics have five present tenses. All of these present tenses are different from standard English: 1. He runnin. (“He is running.”) 2. He be runnin. (“He is usually running.”) 3. He be steady runnin. (“He is usually running in an intensive, sustained manner.”) 4. He bin runnin. (“He has been running.”) 5. He bin runnin. (“He has been running for a long time and still is.”). (Rickford)
I do not think it is important to decide whether Ebonics is a language by itself or whether it is a dialect of English. Instead the important issue is to recognise Ebonics as being structured and rule-governed, which it has been by linguists. If you, as an Ebonics speaker, know the differences between Standard English and Ebonics it must be easier to learn to read and write in Standard English. But one problem with Ebonics is that it is surrounded by racial and ethnic conflicts. This is connected with how Ebonics is perceived as lazy or broken English. Some of the distinct features of Ebonics, like the conjugated verb "be" or the consonant cluster reduction at the end of words, are some of the reasons why many inner-city African American children have problems at school.
If you want to try to translate some sentences into Ebonics you can visit this place -Ebonics Translator.
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