Extra Information
Syntax and Morphology in West African Languages |
BLACK ENGLISH |
Sentence structure with absence of the verb to be |
He happy today. |
Repetition of noun subject with pronoun |
My sister, she work there. |
Question patterns without do |
What it come to? |
No distinction for singular and plural |
She has ten book; She has one book |
No tense indicated in verb |
I know it good when he ask me |
No true conjugation of verb |
I sing; you sing; he sing; we sing; they sing |
Phonology in West African Languages |
BLACK ENGLISH |
No consonant pairs |
jus (for just); men (for mend) |
Few long vowels or two-part vowel (diphthongs) |
rat (for right); tahm (for time) |
Lack “r” sound |
mow (for more); fo (for for); flo; (for floor) |
Lack “th” sound |
substitution of d or f for th; souf (for south) and dis (for this) |
Example |
Name |
Standard English Meaning |
He workin'. |
Simple progressive |
He is working. |
He be workin'. |
Habitual/continuative aspect |
He works frequently or habitually. Better illustrated with "He be workin' Tuesdays all month." |
He be steady workin'. |
Intensified continuative |
He is always working. |
He been workin'. |
Perfect progressive |
He has been working. |
He been had that job. |
Remote phase |
He has had that job for a long time and still has it. |
He done worked. |
Emphasized perfective |
He has worked. "He worked" is valid, but "done" is used to emphasize the completed nature of the action. |
He finna go to work. |
Immediate future |
He's about to go to work. Finna is a contraction of "fixing to"; though is also believed to show residual influence of late 16th century archaism "would fain (to)", that persisted until later in some rural dialects spoken in the Carolinas. "Fittin' to" is commonly thought to be another form of the original "fixin' (fixing) to", and it is also heard as fitna, fidna, fixna, and finsta. |
I was walkin' home, and I had worked all day. |
Preterit narration. |
"Had" is used to begin a preterite narration. Usually it occurs in the first clause of the narration, and nowhere else. |
What is Ebonics.... |
What isn't Ebonics... |
| The first video clip shows the various definitions associated with the term "ebonics." The descriptions of this word are unique to the people and places who are asked to define it. The second clip illustrates the ignorance of those who mock the dictinctness of the dialect. |
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