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