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Ebonics In African American Language

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As a result of having to adopt a completely new and unfamiliar language quickly, as a mechanism of survival, African slaves developed a pidgin that coexist within the present Black community. A pidgin language possesses syntactic, grammatical, and phonological rules while ridding itself of the superficial aspects of language (Smitherman, 192). According to Zeigler and Sonubi, African American English (AAE) is an example of decreolization, a creole language that has moved away from its original form towards the linguistic patterns of the majority language (592). This decreolization is a result of the general disapproval of the dialect and is evident in the frequency of code switching that is present among AAE speakers. Ebonics is a combination …show more content…

It is this fact that causes terms such as African American Vernacular English, African American English, and any term that limits African American language to the linguistic boundaries of a dialect, to portray an inadequate and demeaning description of Ebonics. Aspects of African culture survived the dehumanization of African people in America through Ebonics. Thus, in the situation of dehumanized and depersonalized Blacks in America, the language of their ancestors has not been stripped completely. It is the content of Ebonics that mimics Mainstream American English, the form and use of Ebonics are related to Niger-Congo languages (Mihouse, Asante, Nwosu, …show more content…

The Ebonics language consists of several elements that are native to African language. For example Akan phrases such as “yo” and “ay” are used frequently in Ebonics as greetings and responses. The gestures of speakers of African language are very similar to the gestures of Ebonics speakers (e.g. hand clapping to emphasize point). Also, the concept of call and response can be attributed to both African languages and Ebonics. Furthermore, the elements of philosophy and spirituality were partially transmitted to Ebonics language. These elements are present in the proverbs that are articulated by Ebonics speakers such as “death don’t see no difference tween da big house and da cabin”, “the fool does his trade at the front of the market”, “it takes a village to raise a child”,

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