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Re: Ebonics
> 1. What do you mean conclude? For whom?
I mean conclude. For me. I am the authority on all. I am just personally a
little sick of this Ebonics thing, as we have obviously irreconcilable
positions. I tried to take a concilliatory position with which all would
agree. It has little to do with cryptography and is a stretch even for this
generally weird mailing list.
> 2. Rather than hypothesize a "standard" language, the language evolves
> and generates the standard. Just relax and enjoy it.
No. I'm right and you're wrong. Face it. :-)
> 3. Black people are/are not stupider than what? Mark, you should go
> live in the deep South for awhile, and become part of it, and
> watch the outsiders come in and tell your friends and neighbors on
> the TV, on radio, and in in-person seminars that they speak "wrongly"
> and should lose their Southern "accents", as though they were
something
> to be ashamed of.
>
> Mark, you need to learn simple logic. Instead of saying "...are often
> difficult to understand", you should say "...are often difficult for
> *me* to understand".
I personally have no problem understanding Southern accents. Other people
have stated that they have problems understanding Ebonics, so I was just
playing devil's advocate and taking another, conflicting position. I sense
that one of the reasons why *some* people are so disgusted with Ebonics is
that only black people speak it. I am just responding to those racist
sentiments (Ahem. Timothy May) and trying to present a white example of
muddled speech. Also, the entire issue of clarity of speech is relative and
*will* be different for each person, another thing many people are
ignoring.
> You see, Mark, I could understand you in speech I am sure, and I can
> also understand the Southern speech by-and-large, but it's you who
> seems to have the limitations. Now you want to force people who don't
> talk like you to talk like you, otherwise you won't deal with them.
>
> What a petty, narrow-minded person you must be, and how sad.
Again, I was being devil's advocate and imitating other people's distaste
with Ebonics. Your rather biting comments describe their narrow mindedness.