ebonics

Contrary to ignorant posts on this website, Ebonics is NOT mere slang. Rather it is a fully-formed, complex, rule-governed system of language that has specific rules for pronunciation, vocabulary, and word order, all of which operate as a complex grammatical system inherited, in part, from West African languages. Attempts to imitate the speech patterns by those who don’t understand the complexities of the grammatical system of Ebonics not only sound ridiculous but also result in usages that are downright linguistically incorrect and culturally demeaning.

ebonics examples:

Habitual “be”: He be mean to me. (meaning: he is habitually mean to me.)
He mean to me. (meaning: he is being mean to me right now.)
She BEEN married. (stressed “been” meaning she’s been married a long time and still is.)
Multiple negative inversion: Can’t nobody beat ‘em.

30👍 47👎

ebonics

Contrary to ignorant posts on this website, Ebonics is NOT mere slang. Rather it is a fully-formed, complex, rule-governed system of language that has specific rules for pronunciation, vocabulary, and word order, all of which operate as a complex grammatical system inherited, in part, from West African languages. Attempts to imitate the speech patterns by those who don’t understand the complexities of the grammatical system of Ebonics not only sound ridiculous but also result in usages that are downright linguistically incorrect and culturally demeaning.

Here are four grammatical rules in ebonics:

Habitual “be”: He be mean to me. (meaning: he is habitually mean to me.)
He mean to me. (meaning: he is being mean to me right now.)
She BEEN married. (stressed “been” meaning she’s been married a long time and still is.)
Multiple negative inversion: Can’t nobody beat ‘em.

27👍 55👎

ebonics

Contrary to ignorant posts on this website, Ebonics is NOT mere slang. Rather it is a fully-formed, complex, rule-governed system of language that has specific rules for pronunciation, vocabulary, and word order, all of which operate as a complex grammatical system inherited, in part, from West African languages. Attempts to imitate the speech patterns by those who don’t understand the complexities of the grammatical system of Ebonics not only sound ridiculous but also result in usages that are downright linguistically incorrect and culturally demeaning.

Examples of rule-governed ebonics features:
Habitual “be”: He be mean to me. (meaning: he is habitually mean to me.)
He mean to me. (meaning: he is being mean to me right now.)
She BEEN married. (stressed “been” meaning she’s been married a long time and still is.)
Multiple negative inversion: Can’t nobody beat ‘em.

22👍 47👎