Ebonics

9 Pages 2186 Words

ty of English over the past 30 years” (Gibbs 25). Some think it is a language on its own, and some just think it is a dialect. Those that think Ebonics is a language state that “African American Vernacular English is a valid language that is not the result of deprivation or disadvantage but instead is simply linguistically different” (Anokye 229). There are certain aspects of Ebonics that make it completely unique from English. However, “historical research suggests that […] Black English developed not from ancestral African roots but from contact with other American populations” (Gibbs 27). This would make Ebonics an American language or rather a variety of English. The thought that Ebonics is an “African language with English words is based on an overly broad conception of language mixture” (McWhorter 201). Ebonics is not a mixture of African and American language. All the terms and phrases in Ebonics are composed of American-based English roots. Since both sides have a strong case, it is nearly impossible to determine if Ebonics is a language or dialect, and this question will probably not be answered for a very long time, if ever.
African Americans grow up learning Ebonics in a number of different ways whether in the household or in society. “Ebonics is the language black children heard from their mothers as they were nursed and loved” (Delpit and Theresa 17). From the time a baby is born, the black mother will have a tendency to speak Ebonics while caring for her infant. “Children begin to learn language long before they enter school. They learn by hearing and then imitating sounds of models” (Haskins 45). Infants are around their mothers practically all of the time, so if the mother speaks Ebonics the baby will learn to do the same. When an African American child grows up, he will hear more Ebonics from his friends who grew up the same w...