languages

On Thu, Mar 09, 2000 at 07:23:15PM +0000, Hans Franke wrote: "Ebonics" is the latest euphenism for the seemingly grammarless slang used by a lot of people these days, especially the uneducated. The name is just silly though, why name a language after a tree, or maybe they meant the magazine? I guess that's just more PCness, no one ever wants to specifically say what race they're talking about (even when it's obvious to everyone), especially in this case where the so-called "language" is something from which you have to distance yourself if you want to be taken seriously. And *none* of those families wants to admit English is their child! Well it's evolved quite a bit on its own so it's silly to try to draw too close a parallel to anything. John Wilson D Bit