ebonics
Ebonics, also known as Black English, is a nonstandard dialect spoken in many homes in the inner cities of America. This nonstandard language is often looked upon as low-class or lazy talk. This is not the case, however. Due to consistencies found in the dialect, there seems to be an order. It has been found that, when learning English, African-Americans adapted the language using some of the structure and rules of their own native tongue. This Black English has carried on through slavery and then freedom for hundreds of years. Although there is a coexistence of more than two dialects in our society, those in power forget the flexibility of our language and see no other way than the use of Standard English. Although many Americans tend to scorn any careless variation of the Standard English, flexibility of the language is, perhaps, a main reason for its survival. In 1905, a Danish scholar and great authority on English, Otto Jespersen, wrote: English is like an English park, which is laid out seemingly without any definite plan, and which you are allowed to walk everywhere according to your own fancy without having a fear a stern keeper enforcing rigorous
MacNeil, Robert. English Belongs to Everybody. date: 140-142. Pei, Mario. One Language for the World. New York: The Devin-Adair Company, 1958. Power tends to determine language. The white man has been in power in America for over 500 years. Standard English has been accepted by most all immigrants of Europe and their ancestors. Yet African-Americans do not tend to practice the Standard English in their homes. Segregation forces races apart. This separation kept blacks with blacks, away from whites. They were not thought of as equal. This may have angered many blacks and led to a bitterness towards whites. Conforming to the white speech was not appealing. Language reinforces feelings of social superiority or inferiority; it creates insiders and outsiders (MacNeil 140). The blacks were the outsiders. English is a difficult language to learn, with rules which may have not made much sense to early African-Americans. Since they were not to associate with whites, why should they learn their language the way that the whites wanted them to? They created their own dialect to use amongst themselves, which was incorrect to the whites, but a generated dialect passed on through the years in the majority of black households in America. The people in power dont seem to recognize this variation as an ac
Some common words found in the essay are:
Standard English, American English, Black English, English English, Robert MacNeil, Hispanic Asian, English African-Americans, standard english, English Americans, English Belongs, Otto Jespersen, black english, black white, inner cities, english belongs, dialects society, english language, flexibility language, language learn, society power,
Approximate Word count = 905
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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