Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Subject: Re: Ebonics?
Message-ID: <E2wD3D.IK9@scn.org>
Sender: news@scn.org
Reply-To: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Organization: Seattle Community Network
References: <petrichE2vpJq.5Dp@netcom.com> <01bbeec7$1dddd340$af8faec7@festus.inhouse.compuserve.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 1996 02:47:36 GMT
Lines: 25


In a previous article, petrich@netcom.com (Loren Petrich) says:

>
>	This seems like more a political issue than anything else. But 
>then again, there's the old joke that "a language is a dialect with an army".

... or at least treaty rights.

The assumption has long been held by many educators as well as other 
parties interested or involved in the politics of education that Standard 
American English is "correct" where it deviates from the Black English 
Vernacular norm (and believe you me, Standard American English does 
indeed deviate from the BEV norm, in phonology, morphology, syntax, 
semantics, lexicon, and orthography), and that since SAE is "correct", 
BEV must be "incorrect".  Designating Ebonics a language in se will, 
among many other effects good and ill, tend to act as an antidote to this 
assumption.  This will have the salubrious effect of encouraging teachers 
not to impute stupidity to children whose only failure lies in their 
ability to speak their native dialect correctly.
--
Liland Brajant ROS'    			Ae, ka manu iluna oka hale,
P O Box 30091      			"O" ku'u leo "E moe maika'i," 
Seattle, WA 98103 Usono			Kani ku'u leo, ku'u hoapu,
Tel. (206) 633-2434  			Ae, ka manu iluna oka hale.
