Ebonics Made Easy For Caucasians With No Flava
When you see Snoop Dogg in that recent Chrysler commercial alongwith Lee Iacocca, and you hear him say something like,
Fo shizzle ikeizlle!
....do you have any idea what he's talking about?
Chances are, your reaction is the same as mine: "Hey, this guyis pretty good at coming up with nonsensical impromptu rhymes."
But that just reveals my ignorance of where a guy like SnoopDogg is coming from. It turns out these rhymes are not justnonsense, but actually part of a much more widely used dialectspoken by millions of African Americans -- especially teenagersin "the hood".
Let's face it, people like me and Lee just don't get it. If youask me to translate even a simple sentence into this kind ofstreet talk, I have no idea.
In the popular media the dialect use by millions of AfricanAmericans is known as "Ebonics" -- from "ebony" (black) and"phonics" (sound). The serious study of ebonics has been aroundfor more than 30 years. In the 1970s linguists showed how mostof these dialects share many of the same grammatical features asother languages. The original African American dialects emergedwhen a hodge podge of West African languages melded togetherwith English to form a language the captive Africans could useto communicate with each other. It turns out that many of thegrammatical features of ebonics that we usually dismiss as justplain bad English actually have roots in West African languages.-
The popularity of rap and hip hop music has given these uniqueways of speaking tremendous exposure, and rejuventated the ideathat ebonics is a serious study of a real and important dialect.In fact in 1996 ebonics was actually recognized by the OaklandSchool Board as a native language of over 50 million AfricanAmericans. And in 2005 it was also added to the curriculum bythe San Bernardino School Board.
Now Bling Bling Inc. has launched Ebonic Persuit, a unique newcard game that can teach everybody the basic vocabulary andsyntax of Ebonics. No more excuses. In the words of Jack Hofferits inventor, "Ebonic Persuit is a way to bridge a very palpablecommunication gap" for those of us who have no idea what allthose rappers and comedians are talking about. According toHoffer, "Customers have told me they have taken the game oncross country road trips and had a blast with it. And collegekids have told me Ebonic Persuit is a big hit at parties..."
Hoffer calls it "a ghettofabulous card game that has, as theRools of Play proclaim, no rules at all." The cards testplayers' knowledge with multiple choice questions in sixdifferent categories - Homeslices, Drug and Leizur, Sex andNatur, Ghettography, Flava and Literature, and Hip Hop Trivia.It is a satire of ebonics that succeeds at being eductional andentertaining without in any way being disrespectful.
Sounds like a perfect way to get up to speed on ebonics
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