Re: Ebonics

[Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET>]

At 07:48 AM 12/20/96 -0600, you wrote:
>Has anyone been following the news recently
>about the stir "Ebonics" has caused?  Seems
>some left-wingers in California want to recognize
>what many right-wingers call "bad English" as
>an official language or dialect, called Ebonics.
>Since Ebonics seems to be spoken primarily
>by middle-to-lower class Blacks, the stir has
>taken a partially-racial bent.

>Does this notion, Ebonics, seem legitimate
>to you guys?  Since we're all TechCommies,
>I think we'd have a unique viewpoint on this.

>Think they'll ever advertise for Tech Writers
>fluent in Ebonics?  LOL

>Doug
>dsbailey -at- ingr -dot- com

Oh my God. Come the revolution, we'll push all the language purists into a
tower of dictionaries and light the whole stack.

Hey, I'm willing to see some changes. I'm fluent in several dialects of
Technogeek, along with a few variants of nerd and whirlycap. I'd even test
out well in compupidgin. I learned to swear like an drunken sailor when I
worked in factories. What would the namers call that?

I love the western viewpoint on things, that if you name something you can
not only legitimize it, but you instantly understand it. It's why I'm in
business. Ebonics. Sheesh. My unique viewpoint is that while I might slip
into the dialect when I'm talking, I'll continue to write in something with
a handshake relationship to the King's Old English.

I will say, though, that I'm tempted to learn Klingon just so I can write an
entire starship manual in it. Talk about a novelty at the conference.

Tim Altom
Vice President, Simply Written, Inc.
317.899.5882 (voice) 317.899.5987 (fax)
FrameMaker support  ForeHelp support
FrameMaker-to-HTML Conversions
HTML Help Consulting and Production

http://www.simplywritten.com/simply