AceOfSpades wrote:
Dox47 wrote:
Say it right people; African American Vernacular English, AAVE or just vernacular if you happen to hang with a linguistics crowd. I look at it like any other patois, it's like verbal seasoning, used to provide a particular flavor to oral communications. I doubt that it really needs to be taught in schools, most people just pick it up on their own, same as any other dialect or slang jargon. However you look at it, it's not something to lose your mind over, it's not an African language using English grammar, and it's not just "bad English" either.
EXACTLY. I don't understand the big deal people have over AAVE. I think it's snobbish to call it bad English when it's not even a formal dialect in the first place. Just cuz it's informal doesn't make it some cheap excuse to not learn standard English. It's a a matter of preference, not an indicator of intelligence.
So all y'all mothaf*ckas dat got a problem wit Ebonics can step yo punk asses up and git smacked upside yo head.
AAVE yo Ebo? topic
Any language can have a patois. It is an informal, expressive, sort of ingroup lingo. Shared language helps to keep the group cohesive. I can think of many examples of groups using informal slangy expressions: Teens, people living in Brooklyn, New York, Newfoundlanders, Carribbean Islanders. The
pidgin English of early Chinese newcomers to North America is a well known example. That this dialect is not longer spoken is a choice of the group involved.
Yiddish, though not a patois, is preserved because of a cultural choice. (Yiddish speakers in European countries many years ago still spoke the language of the resident country as formal business was conducted in that language (for example, Czech). Clearly African Americans/Canadians wish to maintain this form of Black English, and many of the words have made their way into everyday, informal use. Rap/hiphop would not be the same if the language used did not incorporate Ebonics.
Recognition of Ebonics/AAVE could be part of cultural studies curricula. But the customary formal English grammar, spelling and vocabulary used in business, education, government, the courts, etc. is standardized and recognized as the default for communicating ideas, and written information.
It is true that language evolves (arguably too slow for many), but there is a standard format for large group use and this rule has not changed.
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