From: dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM)
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 08:12:57 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Ebonics
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Jim Wise <jim@santafe.arch.columbia.edu> writes:

> What _has_ happened is that Ebonics has been added to the list of languages
> which some students are coming into the school program speaking better than
> they speak English.  Ebonics just goes alongside Spanish, several dialects
> of Chinese, and a number of other languages whose native speakers may get
> help from the school district in learning English.

In NYC you see occasional signs in severely corrupted French, which is
supposed to represent the dialect spoken by the inhabitants of Haiti,
many of whom actually strive to speak "correct" French, or at least
to spell it "correctly". (Note the quotes - I have no respect for the
academy or any other authority that presumes to decide what's "correct").

> I think this approach is foolishness, as it stigmatizes and seperates a
> group who are not already cut off from the rest of the community, unlike
> speakers of other designated languages.  (Unlike Laotian or Spanish, a
> `native speaker' of Ebonics can understand `standard' english).  This is
> a far cry from the `mandataed speaking of Ebonics' which CPunks seem so
> up in arms about.  No such program exists or has existed.

Maybe "Yebonics" (this sounds better in Russian - I'll let Igor translate)
is a step in the right direction to allow the English language to continue
its natural development and to become more like Chinese. I work sometimes
with folks from the Carribean who are well-educated but choose to speak
the dialect and frankly I find it more logical. Or maybe I just like these
guys and my perception is skewed.

"I be, we be, you be, he/she/it be, they be" - good.
"I go, he go" - good.
"I done go" instead of "I went" - good.
"Keyboard belong me" instead of "My keyboard" - good.
The last one is actually not Black English, but the Pigin English spoken
in papua-new guinea.

> At any rate, as someone already pointed out, the main reason for the
> designation of Ebonics as a language is that it overnight doubled the
> number of students whom Oakland can count towards federal matching funds
> for ESL...

In NYC a student with a Spanish surname will be forcibly put in ESL even
if neither s/he nor the parents speak a word of Spanish, or want to. It
brings more money to the school. (That's only in public schools, of course).
Expect black kids to be forced to stidy "ebonics" whether they want to or
not, while white kids will study something useful.

---

Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps