What is ebonics?
What is ebonics?
A language associated specifically with African Americans, or those of African descent. A form of English slang, specific to the African American culture.
Definition
A form of speech, or dialect, that uses or fails to use, more common verbs and nouns in proper English.
Commonly associated with speech patterns from African born people, it is considered more of a Creole language, that will drop certain words, such as 'are' or 'is'.
Some refer to Black English as 'Jive Talk' and is considered a common usage among those of African Descent.
Was form of language, still in use, during the Slave trade, so that both Slave and Master could communicate on a basic level.
History
Believed to have been coined in 1973, by Robert Williams, and later published in 1975, in a book he co-authored.
The term was used to denote a specific meaning of words, associated with African heritage peoples, to differentiate their use of words, from those of European Descent.
About
The more common usage is Black English, rather than Ebonics.
It is slang words commonly associated with those of African descent, used in the Ghetto setting more than outside of it.
Similar in how Cockney slang was a particular form of speech among British Cockneys.
Black English is NOT rhyming slang, as Cockney is, but is a form of English speech that is more recognizable among those raised in the ghetto, and of African descent.
The term was made more commonly known, in 1996, when the Oakland School Board began to use it, in recognition of the language being used by its African American students.
Controversy surrounded that designation, and its purpose.
Practice (Associated Acts): Many words, common in European English are dropped in AAVE, such as the word 'are'. Common speech patterns such as 'where you at' would be 'where are you at' in more traditional European English phrasing.
In some instances, 'da hood' is in reference to 'the neighborhood' in which words become shortened, da for the, hood for neighborhood.
Letters appear dropped in speech, such as the 'o' in 'boil' so that the word sounds different.
This speech pattern, or phrasing, is the dialect.
Some assume that these shorten variations were out of necessity, as conversation amongst the slaves were not always allowed, so sentences had to be shortened.
Others claim it was due to the differences in languages among the various tribes, and that this became common bonds, to communicate between themselves.
Noteworthy: Jive is considered the slang of African American Vernacular English or be in reference to its 'signifying' of AAVE.
It wasn't until the Civil War that Ebonics, or AAVE, became widely known among non African Americans. Hence its more common reference to being Black English.
This is explained as being due to the influx of southern African Americans to the North, just preceding, during, and following, that turbulent period in American History.