JM> Bob Klahn -> Jeff Binkley wrote:


 BK>>  a. The variety known as "Ebonics," "African
American Vernacular
 BK>>  English" (AAVE), and "Vernacular Black English"
and by other
 BK>>  names is systematic and rule-governed like all natural speech
 BK>>  varieties. In fact, all human linguistic systemsGamm€”spoken,
 BK>>  signed, and writtenGamm€”are fundamentally regular. The systematic
 BK>>  and expressive nature of the grammar and pronunciation patterns
 BK>>  of the African American vernacular has been established by
 BK>>  numerous scientific studies over the past thirty years.
 BK>>  Characterizations of Ebonics as "slang,"
"mutant," " lazy,"
 BK>>  "defective," "ungrammatical," or
"broken English" are incorrect
 BK>>  and demeaning.

 JM> Given all that scholarly acknowledgment, so what.
 JM> In the majority of businesses anyone speaking Ebonics is a:
 JM> lucky to have been hired in the first place and b:
 JM> not likely to advance much past unskilled labor.

 Yet if he speaks with a foreign accent he can rise well up the
 organization. If he speaks Chinese a California software company
 may even hold meetings in Chinese.

 Half the elementary schools around here are having all thier
 students take Spanish. Yet most Hispanic Americans by far speak
 much better English than Spanish. So, who are they learning it
 for?

 Hell, the Archeologist I saw on one of the educational channels,
 with the thick Southern accent, had no problem being taken
 seriously.

 BK>> .. I'll consider objections to Ebonics

 JM> I'll believe Ebonics is accepted by people as legit when
 JM> International Air Traffic Control starts using it.

 International Air Traffic Control doesn't use Spanish either.
 Nor French or Japanese or Russian or Hebrew or any other
 language than English. Does that mean people do not accept those
 languages as legit?

 Ever watch any British TV programs? Ever notice the various
 dialects? How about the difference in New York speech, or
 Bostonian?

 Correct English is that which is spoken in the area of Chicago
 Illinois. All the rest of you should get with the program.

 A German immigrant told me it wasn't very many generations back
 when people from Northern Germany and Southern Germany had a
 hard time understanding each other.

 Sorry Charlie... your whole arguement is just another way of
 claiming one dialect is bad, while all others are acceptable. I
 wonder why.

BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

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