Brave New Schools

[Vigile]

The English language we speak today isn't the same "proper English" used hundreds of years ago.  Look at Shakespearian period English.  It's almost unrecognizable from today's dialect.  This begs the question, is "correct English" truly correct English?  Or is its interpretation a matter of what time period and which part of the world it's spoken.  Why is "Ebonics" less correct than any other dialect when the English language is constantly changing? 

 

People say they malign Ebonics because the upper-class, the educated or businessmen speak in what's concidered correct English.  But why do we automatically say it's correct?  Is it because those in power, the wealthy or white people speak a certain way so we assume because they're in power, they also determine how language is spoken?    White people speak in different dialects also but they're not called uneducated or "lazy" for doing so.  But black people historically haven't had much power so anything we've done is frowned upon as "lower-class" behavior because people feel by emulating us, they would somehow turn into us and thereby inherit our powerlessness.

 

I agree that we should be educated in what is concidered "proper" English so we can be understood in the corporate world but I don't think the way black people speak is this horrible desecration of language that everyone else thinks it is.  Why?  Because I grew up in a household that utilized "Ebonics" but we knew other ways of speaking in addition to appreciating other languages in our home.  The problem is not the ebonics itself, it's that it's the only dialect some have been exposed to.  I think kids should not only be introduced to other ways English is spoken as they are when reading Shakespeare, Homer or Mark Twain,  or taught about how British, Australian and South African people use English words differently from Americans.  They should also learn other languages when they're young to broaden their world.

 

Nirrti,

 

I agree with you that Ebonics may be a legitimate form of expression or dialect. It can actually be very creative. I also agree that the use of the term "proper" when applied to the English language will depend on which point in time it is being applied to. However, to not provide students with the ability to speak what is recognized as "mainstream" English does them a disservice. It will keep them from mainstream society and will force them to remain marginalized. This may not be fair, but it is a reality.

[Vixentrox]

Now all yous niggas out dere can Homeskolls you kids in Ebonics! That be the lowdown shizznit! Check dis site out foo:

 

http://gizoogle.com/

[Christopher Carrion]

Just to play Devil's Advocate, I'm an Englishman myself and know many English people who find many of the phrases, words and colloquialisms that have become entrenched in the modern American incarnation of the language as bastardisations. I was watching a show recently in which an American cop told the defendent:

 

"I'm going to need for you to sit down."

 

That's the corruption of the English language. Are you going to need for the gentleman in question to sit down now, or in the near future? As for the superfluous "for", I can't even begin to tell you what that does to the emphasis of the sentence.

[Guest Priapus]

People say they malign Ebonics because the upper-class, the educated or businessmen speak in what's concidered correct English.  But why do we automatically say it's correct?  Is it because those in power, the wealthy or white people speak a certain way so we assume because they're in power, they also determine how language is spoken?    White people speak in different dialects also but they're not called uneducated or "lazy" for doing so.

 

Untrue, I say.

 

Surely you've heard the expression, "White Trash." The language one uses is as indictive of social status as the trailer or Park Avenue townhouse in which one lives. Granted, you have the US President, George the Younger, putting on his country airs to seem more a man of the people, but we know that while dim, he's as much Ivy League Fancy Lad as anything.

 

 

and then....

Just to play Devil's Advocate, I'm an Englishman myself and know many English people who find many of the phrases, words and colloquialisms that have become entrenched in the modern American incarnation of the language as bastardisations. I was watching a show recently in which an American cop told the defendent: :

 

"I'm going to need for you to sit down."

 

That's the corruption of the English language. Are you going to need for the gentleman in question to sit down now, or in the near future? As for the superfluous "for", I can't even begin to tell you what that does to the emphasis of the sentence.

 

This is not entrenched so much as an example of poor grammer. I submit that it's inadequate education further influenced by (a) the idea that more words = smarter words; and (2) a culture reluctant to be direct and give commands such as "Please sit down now, you dainty English pr*ck."

 

 

heh.

[pitchu]

Surely you've heard the expression, "White Trash."

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Ain no hifalutin Yankeetalkin boah gonna git away wit namecallin me an mine, less'n he evah stood his sweaty butt inna guvment cheese line!

[Vigile]

"I'm going to need for you to sit down."

 

 

 

This is certainly slang and a bastardization of the language at that, but are Americans any more guilty than the British? Cockney for instance?

[Guest Priapus]

Ain no hifalutin Yankeetalkin boah gonna git away wit namecallin me an mine, less'n he evah stood his sweaty butt inna guvment cheese line!

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Ye will need to strenghten yer campaigning if ye want to compete with the Ebonics. As it is, you've got the NASCAR to their NBA, plus you've got the Wal-Marts so I'd say you were ahead. I'll wager that's why we don't hear more from the Hillbilly Yokel Lobby.

 

 

I was in York and asked a local where I might find something to eat. He said there was a "caff" up the street. Huh? "A caff. CAFF! Y'know, sandweetches."

 

 

Oh, "café."

 

 

Of course, I'm lucky he didn't just beat me with a tire iron and throw me in the river. OY! OY! OY!

[pitchu]

the Hillbilly Yokel Lobby.

 

Yes, sadly for us Poor White Trash, rare is the appearance in the halls of Congress of the lobbyist afire with the cause of Appalachian equality as he adjusts his single overalls shoulder strap while remonstrating with a wave of his pork-grease stained brown bag lunch. 

 

Of course, I'm lucky he didn't just beat me with a tire iron and throw me in the river. OY! OY! OY!

 

...Which would have been the much-maligned simple backwoods justice of My People.

 

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