From: John Beckett 

Talking about made-up languages reminds me of one of my favourite authors
- a rather grumpy English Professor named Richard Mitchell.

In "Less than Words Can Say" he has an interesting view on
"Black English" in the USA. His point is that a speaker of an
underground argot is largely compelled to remain within that underground.
Also, he believes that such languages are incomplete and not conducive to
logical reasoning.

A lot of Richard Mitchell's work is available online. For example:
http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/less-than-words-can-say/
(Chapter 13 talks about "Black English").

John


"Frank Haber"  wrote in message
news::
> Better be careful.  There's a recent book (yes, a whole book) on what the
> trendy all-black set in Williamsburg, Brooklyn say.  I just remember
"deck"
> and "fin" for "cool" and "not."  90% of
those canvassed in Williamsburg bars
> had not heard of either.
>
> I wonder whether publishers of online hiphop dictionaries salt them with
> obvious ringers, the better to spear their parents with.
>

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