While perusing SPOGG I found a very interesting post discussing whether or not received pronunciation and standardised grammar are racist.

Apparently “Ebonics“, and the more PC term, “African American Vernacular English” (AAVE) are terms to describe the way some groups of black Americans speak the English language. It appears that the Oakland school board, in a desperate attempt to prove how right-on they are, drew up a resolution to officially recognize it as a language in December of 1996. This idea was quite rightly kiboshed by the powers that be.

Now it appears Ebonics (that term really grates with me, I’ll use AAVE from here on in) is back on the agenda. Faye Gage, director of the Connecticut Writing Project, addressed the issue at a recent convention. Here she gives an example of AAVE and why she thinks we need to formally recognise it:

When students use non-standard subject-verb formations – “The books be on the table,” for instance – they’re not speaking bad or corrupted English. They’re correctly applying the rules of grammar they’ve learned at home.

My initial thoughts on this were as follows – Balderdash, tish and indeed, fipsy.

I mean come on, what would happen if that warped logic was applied to other aspects of life? E.G. juvenile court.

I do apologise for the confusion, your honor, when little Trevor TWOCked that car, he wasn’t actually breaking the law. No no, you see he’s applying the law as he learnt it at home. His father is professional car thief, you see, so there really is no problem. We’ll just be on our way.

Now, before everyone gets all in a tangle about race, I will state this: this argument should have nothing to do with race. In addition I am not opposed to spoken vernacular or dialects that don’t conform to standard English. On the contrary I love them. Here in the UK we’re spoilt for choice; Geordie, Cockney, Brummie, Scouse (actually I am against Scousers) Weedgie, Cornish, Manc and more- all with their own vocabulary, their own peculiar ways of forming sentences but all speaking English. That’s the point really isn’t it? AAVE isn’t a language, it’s a new dialect (new compared to say, Geordie, which exists because of the Vikings).

As soon as we fail to correct colloquialisms in written English and formal speech we can kiss goodbye to our language. We’re also not doing the kids favours by failing to correct them, they need to know how to form decent prose, they need to know what’s expected of them in the real world. None of this is new of course, the stuffy US establishment that Gage is attempting to reform probably spent their teen years saying “far out” and “groovy, man – don’t be a square” and other such perversions of our sacred tongue.

The full article draws similar conclusions (I think).

If any of you are wondering why I embrace dialects, take a look at the below video of John Smeaton. If you understand more than 50% I’ll be impressed, unless you’re a Weedgie yersel ken?