Ebonics….new English or a New Language?

Ebony + Phonics = Ebonics

I took up some interesting examples of ebonics from the same website. We can divide them into three kinds. One is clearly racist. Second is by the people who want to preserve the sanctity of the English language. The third view is by the

Derogatory example of ebonics

Ebonics Example:

I admire your fashionable running shoes = Drop dem nikes of yo ass before I blast you motha fucker.

 Here is an example for the convenience presented by ebonics over the standard English language contributed on the urban dictionary website.

Standard English Example:
Question: What do you need to do?
Answer: I need to take the time, to gather the information, and then double check it, to see if I am correct in my facts; Then I have to package it and take it to the Post Office, so that I can get it insured, to make sure I don’t lose my valuable work.

Ebonics Example:
Question: What cha’ gawn do?
Answer: Lawd ha’ murcy! I nee’ ta git dis stuff togetha and take it ta da Post office, and git me some insurance!

Now that is what I call simplification! People have tried to promote ebonics as a standard language.  The Oakland Ebonics controversy is famous for the uproar over ebonics. The california school board had passsed a resolution to recognize ebonics as a language. However, the mainstream linguists vehemently opposed it to prevent polluting  the language.

A point to be pressed upon is the fact that the english language does not possess perfect grammar or it is not even phonetically sound (pun intended).The words do not sound as they are spelt and the grammatical rules do not apply universally. 

For example, the word “content” means both information and satisfied. However, it is pronounced differently according to the context.  See the phonetics for this word here.

 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/content

 Although we can create rules to justify this contradiction, it remains an anomaly at best.

Any language needs to be consistent, grammatically and phonetically. The following example from the sanskrit language should further highlight this anomaly.  Consider the sentence, “ Marjari mushakam khandanti “.  It means that the cat ate the mouse. Now no matter how you order the words, the meaning or the pronunciation does not change. It is a marvel really…

English is a rich language nevertheless with much to offer. It is a global language. The language of science and technology. Even the chinese have realized the importance of learning English. But a language needs to grow and evolve. It cannot be stagnant. If a language is not constantly evolving it will go out of vogue and eventually die. This may not happen with english , I agree. However, it definitely needs to evolve to survive.  I do see that there are efforts to assimilate the increasing vocabulary in the English language.

An example is the famous word “Juggernaut”.  The etymology of this word reveals  that it was incorporated from the Jagannath rathyatra. The chariot of lord Jagannath that continues to proceed indifferent to all eventualities.

Another example would be cul de sac. That means a dead end in French. However, it is used interchangeably in English too.

To see how languages grow and borrow from each other, the evolution of the word mother should be interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_story_of_a_word.jpg

Latin is supposed to be the mother of European languages.  Many a vocabulary in the English language can be traced back to latin.  The point here is that the English language did accept vocabulary gifts from other languages. However, some languages are vogue or lingua franca, while other languages are deemed inferior.  The addition and assimilation continues nevertheless.

Now here is one seemingly ridiculous claim ….

Ebonics has existed from times of Shakespeare, or possibly even before that. 

The term Mea Culpa literally translated from latin means “My Bad”.

Shakespeare used a similar term in his Sonnet 112:

Your love and pity doth the impression fill
Which vulgar scandal stamp’d upon my brow;
For what care I who calls me well or ill,So you o’er-green my bad, my good allow?

Are we going to flog the bard too now ?  But he is the father of English literature…Oops mea culpa !