dialect in novels

Beverly Flanigan flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU
Thu Feb 22 17:04:57 UTC 2001


The word is a blend of "ebony" and "phonics," hence the 's'.  But I wrote
mainly to say that I think I have that Royko column--I saved it precisely
because it was so totally outrageous.  In fact, I saved a huge file of
Ebonics-controversy clippings, which I should deposit in some sort of
archives some day!

At 11:52 AM 2/22/01 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 2/22/01 11:42:58 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU writes:
>
><< The late Chicago columnist, Mike Royko did at least one piece written in
>  a mock Ebonics style.  >>
>
>Why is there an "s" on "Ebonics"?  AAVE is a single dialect (as far as I
>know) of English, a rather major dialect in fact, and its regional or other
>variations are minor compared to the similarites among AAVE in say California
>and New York.  Hence it should be referred to as "Ebonic" rather than
>"Ebonics".
>
>           - Jim Landau
>             systems engineer
>             FAA Technical Center (ACT-350/BCI)
>             Atlantic City Airport NJ 08405 USA


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm



More information about the Ads-l mailing list