The Ebonics (Black Vernacular) Language

While the term Ebonics had been in common use in America for more than two decades before 1996, it was a court decision in December of that year which brought it to national attention. And when it did, a hailstorm of controversy ensued that resulted in social and academic division across the sectors the likes of which had never been encountered in American history.

Responding to the plummeting educational-achievement level of their African-American students, the Oakland, California School Board passed a resolution acknowledging Ebonics as the primary language of its Black students, and as such, mandated that it should be used as the language of instruction in the classroom.

Included in this precedent-setting ruling, the Board’s use of the term “language” to refer to what had long been considered the slang jargon of an uneducated sector of American society–too lazy to learn “proper” Standardized English–quickly became the focus of media coverage, talk shows, public forums, and water-cooler banter–causing division among American citizens where there had previously been none.

The idea of elevating this nonsensical dialect of the uneducated–also known as Black Language or African-American Vernacular English–seemed preposterous to many of the traditionally-minded of the United States, and a slam against long-established principles of American society. Since that time, no language has spawned more debate nor social change than Ebonics.

Rooted in the oral tradition of the slave trade that dominated American society for over 200 years, the infusion of the Niger Congo/Yoruba languages into 17th and 18th English America resulted in a melding of language and culture that can neither be denied nor dismissed. And while many attempt to undermine its authority by arguing that it developed in defiance of American social and academic convention, history shows quite the contrary; that modern convention developed in defiance of what was the common language of the people–both educated and not.

To many people today, the first examples that come to mind regarding Ebonics are slang words like phat (meaning excellent), and bling-bling (meaning glittery, expensive jewelry), and other terms associated with rap and hip hop culture. And while these terms may indeed represent current Ebonics, so do many finely integrated terms like dig, tote, bad-mouth, and jazz.

Among Ebonics‘ many recognizable pronunciation features, for example, are the omission of the final consonant in words like “past” (pas ) and “hand” (han), the pronunciation of the th blend in words like “bath” as t (bat) or f (baf), and the pronunciation of the vowel in words like “my” and “ride” as a long ah (mah, rahd). While many of these pronunciation variations often occur in “White English” too, they occur more frequently in Ebonics.

Other patterns of grammar common to Ebonics are:

Use of the invariant be for the future as in, “I be there in a minute.”

No use of is and are indicative of tense as in, “She ready.” And, “They laughing.”

The use of done for a completed action (often accompanied by been) as in, “They done been sitting there a whole hour.”

Use of be done in future perfective (actions that will be past by the time it is completed in the future) as in, “She be done graduated by June.”

Use of uhm and Ima for ‘am going to,’ as in “Uhm really tired.” And, “Ima show everybody up.”

Use of finna for immediate future as in, “We finna go.”

Prior to California’s momentous ruling, a conversation such as the following left teachers not familiar with the grammatical system of Ebonics frustrated and believing a child was trying to be deceptive. (The teacher is interested in contacting the student’s parents, while the student is trying to explain that his mother is not at home at the moment, but is generally home most days.):

Teacher: Bobby, what does your mother do everyday?

Bobby: She be at home.

Teacher: You mean she is at home.

Bobby: No, she ain’t, ’cause she took my grandmother to the hospital this mornin’.”

Teacher: You know what I meant. You are not supposed to say, ‘she be at home.’ You are to say, ‘she is at home.'”

Bobby: Why you tryin’ ta make me lie? She ain’t at home!”

While linguists remain divided as to whether Ebonics is a true “language” or merely a dialect, it seems irrelevant considering the prevalence with which Ebonics is encountered in day to day speech in the US.

Far from a new phenomenon, Ebonics has had as much an influence on the evolution of the American language as English has had on it.

References:

Language, Culture, and Education in African America, Dr. Geneva Smitherman

“Toward a New Perspective in Negro English Dialectology,” Beryl Bailey

http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=105634098

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