Talk:Ebonics

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[edit] Junk references elsewhere to "Ebonics"

The list of what links to "Ebonics" brings a lot of surprises. One of the first I noticed was Urdu, which, until I fixed it, contained this not-gem about Dakkhini Urdu:

The Dialect is very reflective of the relaxed attitude of the people which allows the coinage of words, much like ebonics.

By "ebonics", the author meant AAVE, but that's the least of the problems.

It could be a good idea to go through this list of incoming links, of course leaving what's in talk pages (though perhaps commenting on some of it), changing many of the links so that they instead point to the AAVE article, and, most importantly, removing folk linguistics and ignorant opinions, as well perhaps as some racism. -- Hoary 07:29, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I went through a few just now. There aren't all that many, though, so it shouldn't be too hard to dab. Ƶ§œš¹ [aɪm ˈfɻɛ̃ⁿdˡi] 09:17, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
But before dabbing any, do read it twice to check that it doesn't say anything silly. Really, those I saw were pretty bad. What's irritating is that deletion can be taken to constitute "removal of information", thus requiring a note on the relevant talk page. -- Hoary 09:42, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said "Be cool, baby. Reason will prevail." Something like that. Ƶ§œš¹ [aɪm ˈfɻɛ̃ⁿdˡi] 19:30, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
Or, much more likely, your hard work. Yesterday a lot of articles were pointing to this one, now much fewer are; it wasn't me who did all of that. Thank you! -- Hoary 04:08, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
No problem. Of the ones left, African American Vernacular English and Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks seem the most appropriate. Ebonic and Ebonix are redirect pages to here and they might be better as redirects to AAVE but I don't think it's worth the effort to change it. I don't understand what patrick.tanksley refers to. Ƶ§œš¹ [aɪm ˈfɻɛ̃ⁿdˡi] 06:34, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
Exactly what I was thinking. -- Hoary 07:09, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Criticism

I was really hoping to find some opinions on ebonics, positive and negative, in the article itself. The links are there though. I was also surprised to nee no mention of the term "jive talk", which as far as I understood was virtually synonymous with ebonics. 68.46.232.25 14:03, 16 August 2007 (UTC)Cliff

I think that the article briefly deals with the pros and cons of the concept of Ebonics, so far as Ebonics is separable from African American Vernacular English, q.v.
AAVE is a lect; it's strange for an encyclopedia to present positive or negative opinions on a language or lect. Unfortunately, though, ignorance about language has led to some silly talk about AAVE, and perhaps that article should say a little more about this.
Earlier, the term jive was erroneously supplied as a synonym for AAVE. Please see this on why it was cut. -- Hoary 14:27, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ebonic Plague

In 1996, when the Oakland School Board announced that students would begin getting school credit for speaking Ebonics, there was a national outcry of criticism. The TV show "Saturday Night Live" created a skit that mocked the school board. The plot of the skit was an outbreak of the "Ebonic Plague" which caused members of the skit (all white) to suddenly begin talking in a patois. It was hilarious and evidently the last straw. The school board backed down soon after.

--cheers 70.153.13.175 (talk) 22:09, 25 February 2008 (UTC)Titus