Date:         Fri, 27 Dec 1996 15:10:21 EST
From: "leaky faucet--tink, tink, tink" <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Subject:      FILLER: Some Background on "Black English"

[shaking off bits of web lint and other dust, he emerges from a foray
into the depths of cyberspatial information miss storage (where mass
storage leaves off, miss storage takes off) with a factoid or two...]

It was surprisingly hard to find facts on this.  plenty of opinion
pieces, lots of noise and fury, but finding out what the actual policy
was turned out to be difficult.  Dr. Joycelyn Landrum-Brown had the
following two pieces which seemed useful to me.

First, see:
http://www.west.net/~joyland/Oakland.htm

for information about the adopted policy on Standard American English
language development...(ha!  you thought it was a policy on teaching
something else, didn't you?  apparently we have all been fooled by the
news reporting:)

some excerpts:

"On December 18, 1996 the Oakland Unified School District Board of
Education approved a policy affirming Standard American English
language development for all students. This policy mandates that
effective instructional strategies must be utilized in order to ensure
that every child has the opportunity to achieve English language
proficiency. Language development for African American students, who
comprise 53% of the students in the Oakland schools, will be enhanced
with the recognition and understanding of the language structures
unique to African American students."

"The recommendations of the Task Force establish English language
proficiency as the foundation for competency in all academic areas."

"The Oakland Unified School District is not replacing the teaching of
Standard American English with any other language. The District is not
teaching Ebonics. The District emphasizes teaching Standard American
English and has set a high standard of excellence for all its
students."

Second, you might also want to see:
http://www.west.net/~joyland/BlkEng.html

Joycelyn Landrum-Brown joyland@west.net
HTML document created: March 24, 1995
Revised: December 26, 1996

for lecture notes concerning "Black English" (which I found
fascinating, and may even find useful if I want to write dialogue in
that style sometime)

Excerpts:

Two Dimensions of Black Speech

When considering Black English it is helpful to distinguish between
the two dimensions: Language and Style.

    Language

       Sounds
       Grammar and structure
       The words

    Style

    Style involves the way speakers put sounds and grammatical
    structure together to communicate meaning in a larger context
       It is what you do with the words
       It incorporates the total expression, for example using
       black rhythmic speech
       It may be "songified"
       May use speech rhymes, voice inflections and tonal
       patterns

<clip>

Some examples of Black English follow:

1. Indicating habitual action through verb structure, notably using
the form "be" as a verb. This use of be derives from an aspectual verb
system that is also found in many African languages. Its use conveys
the speaker's meaning with reference to the qualitative character and
distribution of an action overtime.

"He be hollering at us", "I like the way he be psyching people out"

2. Indicating remote past through verb structure, notably using "been"
with stress.

"She been gone"

3. Predication with optional copula The sense of complete predication
conveyed by a noun followed by an adjective, adverb, verb, noun, or
prepositional phrase. This is common in many West African languages,
(e.g., in Kimbundu, Ene macamba, literally "They friends")

"He real little", "They in the house", "My momma name Joyce"

4. Semantic Inversion, turning a word into its opposite.  This feature
is familiar in Mandingo, a ka nyi ko-jugu, literally, "It is
goodbadly", or it is so good that it's bad.

5. Appropriating and secularizing church terms. Some terms are derived
from the Traditional Black Church.

"On T", "Testify"

6. Pronominal apposition, repeating the subject for emphasis. This
feature is common in Yoruba, Eya me, ot cu, literally, "My mother, she
has died"

7. Use of speech acts, that are either not in White English at all or
are not used according to the same set of social rules of speaking.

Signifyin'- the verbal art of insult
Dozens- a form of signification where one signifies on anothers
kinfolk.
Use of Proverbs- "What goes around, comes around", "A hard head
makes a soft behind"

8. Signaling of possession by context and/or juxtaposition.  No use of
inflectional -z (written as apostrophe s)

"My daddy name John"

9. Tonal Semantics The use of voice and rhythm and vocal inflection to
convey meaning. This gives Black speech its songified or musical
quality. Both Black rappers and preachers use word sound to
communicate at deeper levels to which words alone cannot
convey. Examples include shouting, intonational contouring, use of
rhyme, repetition and alliterative word-play.

From a strictly linguistic view, Smitherman(1995) indicates that West
African languages are tone languages. The speakers of these languages
rely on the tone with which they pronounce syllables, sounds, and
words to convey their meaning.

The space does not allow for a full exploration of examples of Black
English. For a more thorough coverage of this topic the reader is
referred to Smitherman(1977); Dandy (1991); Major (1970); Labov
(1972); Dillard (1972); Rickford(1975); Kochman (1972,1981); Baugh
(1983); and Spears (1984).

Specific Examples of Grammar and Structure Rule in West African
Languages

repetition of noun subject with pronoun - My father, he work hard

question patterns without do - what it come to

same form of noun for singular and plural - one boy ; five boy

No tense indicated in verb: emphasis on manner or character of action
- I know it good when he ask me

Same verb for for all subjects - I know ; you know; he know; we know;
they know

Examples of Sound Rule in West African Languages

No consonant pairs - jus ( just) tes (test)

Few long vowels or two-part vowels - rat or raht ( right), tahm (time)

No /r/ sound - mow (more), dough (door), flow (floor)

No /th/ sound - substitutes d or f for th (souf - south, mouf-mouth,
norf-north--dis (this) dat (that) dem (them)

Vowel plus /ng/ rendered as /ang/ - thang, sang, rang

Contraction of going rendered as gon - he was gon tell but changed he
mind

[and with that, we return you to the warm and cheery fireside...where
chestnuts roast and hot buns bake in the virtual heat...there's food,
too, right?]

*with a diabolical wink ;-)*
tink