Ebonics (word)

Ebonics (English word combination of " ebony" and " phonics ") is a term that originally the language of all descended from black African slaves to people - particularly in West Africa, the Caribbean and North America - involved. Over time, especially after 1996, it was frequently used in the sense of " African American English " to emphasize its independence from the normal American English.

The origin of Ebonics

The first mention of Ebonics in the context as a language is a result of a statement of the psychologist Roger Williams during a conference on the development of the language skills of African American children in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1973 in his book Ebonics. The True Language of Black Folks he explains:

Two years young concept, introduced by a group of black scholars, Ebonics may be defined as " the linguistic and paralinguistic features which denote the communicative competence of the West African, Caribbean and US-American descendants of slaves African descent. In particular, the patois, Argots, idiolects and dialects of the blacks are included here, especially those who have lived through to colonial times, a forced adaptation. The term Ebonics derives from the two words Ebony ( German: black, dark, literally: " ebony ") and phonics ( German: sound, sound) and refers to the study of the language of the black people in all its cultural aspects. "

In scientific discourse, the term has since been used to approximate the African language of African Americans and to alienate the European English. Actual use, however, the term was hardly disappeared and in its original meaning after some time from the public.

In his book Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic pride and racial prejudice John Baugh presents four possible ways in which the term can be understood today:

Is an international and artificial construct to be understood as a direct consequence of the slave trade
As an umbrella term for all the language families of the African Diaspora
As the equivalent of black English and thus a dialect of the English language, therefore, a synonym to the term African-American Vernacular English
As an antonym to black English and thus as an independent non-English language or language family and not as a pure dialect of the English language. Thus, the term would be because of the connotation with the English language lose African American English its validity.

Ebonics in the United States of America

See: Main article African American English

In the United States the term Ebonics remained until the mid-1990s largely unknown.

Only in 1996 the concept of Ebonics has been known as a language across the nation, as the Oakland School Board of Education decided in a meeting to recognize the hitherto recognized as a dialect vernacular of African American students in schools Oaklands future as an independent language called Ebonics. This would have meant that the African American students of the respective schools English as a foreign language would need to be added to the curriculum. After intervention known American civil rights movement and influential people such as the civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, however, this decision was reversed.

Since then Ebonics applicable in the United States of America as a synonym for African American English and is accepted as a dialect. The concept emphasizes, however, continue to the African roots of the dialect.

Footnotes

Bibliography

Baugh, John. 2000 Beyond Ebonics: . Linguistic pride and racial prejudice. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512046-9 (hardcover ) ISBN 0-19-515289-1 ( Paperback ).
Green, Lisa J. 2002 African American English: . A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81449-9 ( hardcover), ISBN 0-521-89138-8 ( paperback ).
Knapp, Don. 30 Dec 1996. Jacksonville, Oakland School Board Ebonics discuss. http://www.cnn.com/US/9612/30/ebonics/index.html
Oakland Board of Education. 1996th No $ 596-0063. Resolution of the Board of Education Adopting the report and recommendations of the African-American Task Force. http://linguist.emich.edu/topics/ebonics/ebonics-res1.html. Accessed on 28 September 2007
Oakland Board of Education. 1996th No. 9697-0063. Amended: Resolution of the Board of Education. http://linguist.emich.edu/topics/ebonics/ebonics-res2.html. Accessed on 28 September 2007

Ebonics (word)

The origin of Ebonics

Ebonics in the United States of America

Footnotes

Bibliography

Further Reading ( English spoken )