twoshots wrote:
While "ebonics" is a closely related dialect to those in the Southern United States, I don't think they are generally classified as the same.
No they are not - literally - but there are just a few degrees of seperation.
Apologies for cutting and pasting from wiki:
"African American Vernacular English (AAVE)—also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV), or Black Vernacular English (BVE)—is an African American variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of American English. Non-linguists sometimes call it Ebonics (a term that also has other meanings or strong connotations) or jive (which can mean the slang of AAVE and/or the signifying for which AAVE is famous). Its pronunciation is, in some respects, common to Southern American English, which is spoken by many African Americans and many non-African Americans in the United States."
Looking at the examples, they are more closely related than many realize. Especially within the older generations of Southerners. ANd when older white Southerners mix with older Black Southerners, the dialect becomes even more similar.
And obviously, each racial group has their own set of slang words for the other - which I would never repeat here or anywhere else.
The deeper South you get - the more they become indistinguishable. For example, in TN, SC and NC - the white Southerners have a softer (less nasal) accent and tend to have better grammar. The deeper you get, GA, AL, MS and LA - the more ebonics-y it gets.
BTW - one of my favorite things about being an aspie is my ability to hear regional differences between dialects and accents. I can't always understand WHAT they are saying but I can easily tell WHERE they are from. I can tell if someone is from Southern Virginia or Maryland. Ohio or Indiana. California or Oregon. British Columbia or Ontario. Its a hobby of mine I picked up when I began travelling for business. If I've had a few cocktails, I can mimic them easily, too.