Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 08:29:22 -0400 From: abz-AT-inch.com (Daniel Carter) Subject: Re: M-I: Hooked on Ebonics On Tue, 7 Jan 1997, Chegitz Guevara wrote: >Interestingly enough, the two best "speakers" of Ebonics are both white. >One is from a Black neighborhood, the other from an all white >neighborhood. Neither speaks standard English, thought they both >understand it perfectly, or so it seems. > >No Black people that I know speak Ebonics (at least in front of me). I >have however, noticed that Black people use different speach patterns, >intonations, pitch, volume, etc., with each other than they use with white >folks. Time and again I have had the amusement of watching my finacee's >speach change as we walk into her grandmother's house, or around her Black >friends. > >Question, at what point to Black speach patterns change from being an >accent and become Ebonics? > speech patterns, pitch, tone, volume, the waves, the ways, that the spirit moves a person through her/his soul, mind, heart, culture, emotions, body; these go to make up foundationally what a language is. grammar and vocabulary and so-called structure are not sufficient in determining language; which language is being spoken, written. there are more subtle concerns and it seems almost that there is a virtual conspiracy against considering the obvious in terms of these subtle therefore fundamental distinctions. the fact that they may be subtle doesn't therefore mean that they are not obvious. one has to be programmed and brain-washed in order to believe that the language that many U.S. Black people speak is not indeed a language at all but merely a dialect or an accent. remember (and check this out) a language is a dialect that has an army to back it up and a dialect is a language without any army to back it up. this keeps being forgotten, or it never is thought of in the first place. if you didn't even consider any non-white folks at all and thus considered only white folks in the U.S. you'd still have a bunch o' folks, white folks, that speak all kinds of different and varying languages. the reason we don't look at it this way is because one strain of language is politically, economically, in terms of the media, militarily, corporately, dominant. check it out. might makes right. in this country the mighty and their agency (and of course they conspire to make us all their agents) determine what language shall rule and dominate, which language shall dominate in the work place and in the university and grade school etc. etc.. language is rich and wonderful in all its variety multiplicity differences. in some sense Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and Rumanian are all dialects of the same one Latin language. the same goes for the Scandinavian countries and more broadly the so-called Germanic language group which of course includes English Flemmish and Dutch as well as Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish; in a sense all dialects of the one Germanic language. so you see that in this sense one language can be thought of as many languages and even officially function as many languages. but official power does not a language make except in so far as officialdom can and does impose and coerce and force people into one language direction or another. and when I say official, it could be corporate, military, the state, the so-called government, the work-place in aggregate, the media, educational, and legal institutions, etc. all forming together a virtual officialdom which tends to manipulate and terrorize rampantly. imagine like John Lennon all this kind of pressure turned off and then look and see what language would/could be. the people would determine without fear what directions they want to take. there would be free-er association, a greater richer cultural, therefore, language exchange, interaction, blend, of flavors, each and all thriving in the open, proud and joyous, and tolerant, and appreciative of each others differences, instead of up-tight wondering where your next buck is going to come from, and therefore bending your speech as if bowing down, kneeling, before power, in order to be allowed to even to exist, subsist, survive. that's a set of extremely low-level criteria for human beings and for language. whatever happened to joy, freedom, glory, and even bliss? what happened to our dreams and aspirations? what happened to our song(s)? what happened to our desire to be free? our desire to sing and dance? run jump and play? academics, work, and adulthood and community type responsibility need not be a frightful drag, intimidating, inhibiting, terrorizing, over-stressful, boring, etc.. no justice no peace. let the people talk. they know how to. but you got t' listen to them in good faith. learn from them how to talk with them through listening carefully attentively and joyfully to them for they without fail will give you great joy if you just open up your heart and mind to them. if you can't talk with each other how can you share ideas, knowledge, and technique with each other except through force. leave those kids and folks alone as you would like to be left to be free to be yourselves with each other and thrive as yourself, not someone else that you are forced to be through terror that passes for everyday life under global neo-libralism. leave each other be. leave each other alone unless you plan to treat each other justly which means respecting one anothers' language and the general and great richness of each others' cultures and spirit. Daniel --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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