"teabonics"

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Apr 17, 2010, at 9:56 AM, Amy West wrote:

> A friend sent to another list this link:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/pargon/4469682774/in/set-72157623594187379/
>
> to a slideshow of Tea-Party signs, and they've identified the
> non-standard dialect used in these signs as "teabonics."

some discussion here:

ML, 3/31/10: Teabonics?:
  http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2221

note that the signs do *not* have non-standard dialect forms; they
have non-standard *spellings* -- which are being mocked (as ignorant
and illiterate) in postings like the  one above.

plenty of people have pointed out that ebonics is not a matter of
spelling, except incidentally, so the analogy of so-called "teabonics"
to ebonics is seriously flawed.

arnold

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