Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 13:59:58 -0500

From: Gregory {Greg} Downing downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU

Subject: Re: Rickford on Ebonics in Discovery



At 01:37 PM 11/20/97 -0500, you wrote:

One of my graduate students just handed me a copy of John R. Rickford's

"Suite for Ebony and Phonics" (_Discover_ Dec. 1997: 82-87).





Some version of this article, maybe identical to the print version but maybe

not, is at this URL:



http://www.enews.com/magazines/discover/magtxt/9712-1.html



At the bottom of the article are four related links, one of which is

"American Dialects Society" [sic].



A quick skim indicates that the piece is oriented toward a

generally-educcted audience and argues that, speaking descriptively, AAVE is

a rule-governed variety of English with influences from west-Afr languages

etc. I'm sure there are plenty of nuances to the piece beyond that, but all

I have time for just at the moment is a quick skim.



Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu