Griffin Speaks

Ebonics

When I am not dining at the Capital City Club in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, I sometimes dine at the Church’s Fried Chicken on Fairview Avenue. Dining at Church’s Fried Chicken keeps me humble and in touch with another segment of the African American Community. I have noticed that many of the customers at Church’s freely use Black English or Ebonics (African American Vernacular English).

“Ah hav a wang and a lag wif sum mash patatas.” “How much is dose sherry sodus?” “I ain’t got but a dolla and semity sense.” Can you put some franch fies and hollow pana pappa in dere too? “Don’t fogat dat hot sauce! I gots ta hav dat hot sauce!

The people speaking Ebonics are usually people that have been the victim of discrimination. They have been denied proper education and exposure to people who speak the “Queen’s English”. People in main stream society view this speech as inferior. The truth is, almost all-African Americans regardless of social standing at some point use Ebonics to communicate.

I am more relaxed at home and around close friends. Sometimes I catch myself speaking “African American Vernacular English”. I may sometimes say: “Close da doe, befoe da dog git in!” It depends on if I had lunch at the Capital City Club or Church’s Fried Chicken on that given day.

Professor Peter L. Patrick of the University of Essex says: “African American Vernacular English, is an English dialect. Most of its components in the dimensions of grammar, lexicon, and pronunciation are widely shared in English - either with standard American English, or with Southern White English, or with vernacular dialects of English around the world. So its not as separate as German, Chinese or Jamaican Creole, which all have very different grammars and lexicons, and which are unintelligible to monolingual speakers of American Englishes. On the other hand, African-American Vernacular English does have its own distinctive features and functions. It can be spoken badly, or imitated inaccurately, by whites (or blacks) unfamiliar with its rules; and it symbolizes community and cultural values for its speakers that no other dialect of English in the world can convey.”

Many African Americans are perfectly at home with both Ebonics and Standard American English, and are quite skillful in using each when the situation requires it. The problem occurs when African Americans are not able to command Standard American English. Young African American children growing up in homes where they are not taught how to speak Standard American English find it more difficult to learn to read and subsequently become turned off from the learning process.

It is very important that African American parents make it a major goal to train our children to communicate both orally and in writing in the standard vernacular society. Its fine to speak Ebonics if you can also speak and understand language used by mainstream American Society. All educated African Americans should make it a personal goal to teach reading, writing, and speaking to children that they may find who only master Ebonics.

I corrected a young African American woman the other day that I overheard speaking Ebonics. She responded: “Nigga Pa—leeze!!

Greg Griffin is a free lance writer. You can read his previous articles by logging on to his web page at www.greggriffin.com