Ebonics

See also: ebonics

English

Etymology

Blend of ebony +‎ phonics. Coined by scholars at the 1973 Cognitive and Language Development of the Black Child conference led by Robert L. Williams and published in his 1975 book Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks. Considered outdated by some.

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: ē-bŏnʹĭks, ĭ-, ĕ-, IPA^(key): /iˈbɑnɪks/, /ɪ̈-/, /ɛ-/
• Rhymes: -ɒnɪks
• Hyphenation: Ebon‧ics

Proper noun

Ebonics (uncountable)

1. African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
   • 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:

     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.

See also

• Black English

Further reading

• ebonics (word) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Robert Williams (1975) Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks, St. Louis: Institute of Black Studies, →OCLC
• “Ebonics”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• bicones