Customize - Urban Dictionary Store

Pro Customization

Create unique products with your own words and definitions

Preview

Personalize Your Design

Your Word

Your Definition

At its most literal level, Ebonics simply means 'black speech' (a blend of the words ebony 'black' and phonics 'sounds'). The term was created in 1973 by a group of black scholars who disliked the negative connotations of terms like 'Nonstandard Negro English' that had been coined in the 1960s when the first modern large-scale linguistic studies of African American speech-communities began.

The fact is that most of the vocabulary of Ebonics is from English and that much of its pronunciation (e.g. pronouncing final 'th' as 'f') and grammar (e.g. double negatives, "I don't want none") could have come from the nonstandard dialects of English (WHITE!) indentured servants and other workers with whom African slaves interacted.

Southern Caucasian speech has been referred to as Whibonics (White Ebonics).

Just to emphasize its English origins, I'll point to the fact that most of the vocabulary of Ebonics is from English and that much of its pronunciation (e.g. pronouncing final th as f) and grammar (e.g. double negatives, "I don't want none") could have come from the nonstandard dialects of English indentured servants and other workers with whom African slaves interacted.

Text fits