Ebonics en · PROPN
Pronunciation
- /ɛ-/ (General-American)
- ē-bŏnʹĭks (General-American)
- /iˈbɑnɪks/ (General-American)
- ĭ- (General-American)
- /ɪ̈-/ (General-American)
- ĕ- (General-American)
Etymology
Blend of ebony + phonics. Coined by scholars at the Cognitive and Language Development of the Black Child conference in 1973 led by Robert L. Williams and published in his book Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks (1975). Considered outdated by some.
Meanings
-
(uncountable) African-American Vernacular English (AAVE).
Buried among the jargon of the announcement was a mention of a name for AAVE, suggested by a Black scholar in 1975^([sic]) but never adopted by linguists: Ebonics. That word, concocted from ebony (a color term from the name of a dark-colored wood) and phonics (the name of a method for teaching reading), was destined to attach to the board as if chiseled into a block of granite and hung round their necks.
1999, Geoffrey K. Pullum, “African American Vernacular English Is Not Standard English with Mistakes”, in Rebecca S. Wheeler, editor, The Workings of Language, →ISBN, page 40:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ebonics | alternative | lexicographic |
Deriveds
ebonically · ebonical · aolbonics · Hebronics · AOLbonics · ebonify · Hebonics