Justice Department Seeks Ebonics Experts

[Tom Zurinskas]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/justice-department-seeks-ebonics-experts
11/28/2011
Justice Department Seeks Ebonics Experts
This story is subheaded "Bizarre" on The Smoking Gun website. Here are a couple of excerpts:
The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to federal records...
In contract documents, ... Ebonics is listed among 114 languages for which prospective contractors must be able to provide linguists. The languages are divided between “common languages” and “exotic languages.” Ebonics is listed as a “common language” spoken solely in the United States.



I wonder if ebonics uses any phonemes other than the standard 40 of US English? or "exotic" ones?
Are they languages or just dialects?

Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org