Pigdin English vs. Ebonics… where’s the line?

Posted bylopey 1 Comment on Pigdin English vs. Ebonics… where’s the line?

I’ve gotten into the lolcats thing lately. See I Can Has Cheezburger for examples of this, but looking at some of the examples, most noticeably the walrus with bucket theme, I got to wondering whether these unintentionally cross the line of being offensive to African Americans. I asked a co-worker about this, and their response was pretty direct: “If you have to ask the question, then it is.”

Pretty direct summation, huh…

One reply on “Pigdin English vs. Ebonics… where’s the line?”

  1. I think that ebonics and Southern English are related and share a common background.

    For example:

    Ebonical and southern speakers both say, “I am fixin to…….” = “I am going to….”

    Also, in South Carolina both whites and blacks call turtles “Kootas” (an African word).
    (and not mention “yall” “tote” “ain” ” rekna”) All are found in Ebonics and southern English.

    There are countless other examples.

    Pidgin English isn’t related, but the conditions under which pidgin English and proto-Ebonics (spoken several centuries ago) developed might have been similar.

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