Date:  Mon, 17 Jul 1995 16:34:48 -0500

From:  Ditra Henry <udhenry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UXA.ECN.BGU.EDU>

Subject: Re: oj trial



On Fri, 14 Jul 1995 debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UIUC.EDU wrote:



> Let me raise another question, since the oj one stirred a good discussion:

>

> My African American students for the past 2 semesters have been using the

> term Ebonics to refer to what we most recently seem to be calling AAVE. I

> confess that I haven't been keeping up, and the term was new to me. But I

> also notice that the linguists I talk to in various groups do not use the

> term. So, is this something coming from the popular side? Is it akin to

> Black Athena talk, and ice people vs. sun people, or what?

>

> Dennis

>

> >

>

> ---

>

> Dennis Baron                      debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uiuc.edu

>

> Department of English             office: 217-333-2392

> University of Illinois                fax: 217-333-4321

> 608 South Wright Street            home: 217-384-1683

> Urbana, Illinois 61801

>

Dennis,





I'm not sure all your students knwo about the article, but there was a

Journal arlticle published a ferw years abcak maybe 1990 or 91 that did a

pole in a Chiago Catholic University. Part of the discussin in the

article was to get African Americans to refer to the way they speak in a

more positive manner and to call it something different than its

references in the past such ad Black English Vernacular in order to

develop a more positive attitude about the language. I'm quite glad to

see that your students are responding so positively. I am working on

this effort at Northeastern Illinois Universityalos. I am a Graduate T.

A. in the Linguistic program and I have been lecturing in the

undegraduate lisguistic course when they do the sectiions on BAE(Black

American English) my preerence. There seems to be a mitzvah going on

when I give my presentation froma very positive point of view. I also

plan to give this discussin at the Iinternationsl TESOL convention next

spring.



Is Black English Another Language?







Ditra