Oxford announces ‘African American English’
dictionary, Harvard’s Gates to oversee
3-year project
Washington Times,
by
Sean Salai
Original Article
Posted By: Ribicon,
6/16/2022 11:07:55 AM
Oxford University Press has announced it will produce a new dictionary of “African American English,” which will include slang ranging from “hip” to “diss.” Black Harvard literary critic Henry Louis Gates Jr. will oversee the three-year project for Oxford Languages to compile the “Oxford Dictionary of African American English,” the publisher said in a news release Thursday. The new book will include “quotations taken from real examples of language in use,” alongside the usual Oxford dictionary notations on the meaning, pronunciation, spelling, usage and history of each word. “This will serve to acknowledge the contributions of African-American writers, thinkers, and artists, as well as everyday African Americans,
Reply 1 - Posted by:
lakerman1 6/16/2022 11:12:55 AM (No. 1187722)
I have great respect for Professor Gates and his research. And this could make an outstanding linguistic contribution to the field.
Unfortunately, as a retired professor who served on research committees over several decades, I can see the potential for abuse.
7 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Trump Won 6/16/2022 11:18:26 AM (No. 1187730)
Some blacks have their own language because they refuse to speak correct English as it makes them look as if they are acting white. Of course, these are the people who you see on the nightly news committing crime.
30 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Californian 6/16/2022 11:19:11 AM (No. 1187732)
Top notch virtue signaling. Exactly who is the target demographic for this?
Will my local gang bangers buy a copy to be certain they are spelling & using correctly when they graffiti gang signs on the buses and parks?
28 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
zoidberg 6/16/2022 11:27:41 AM (No. 1187747)
How do they conjugate the verb "to be"?
15 people like this.
A lot of the “African American English” is directly from the Gullah language (which is not really "English") developed by slaves to allow them to speak among themselves since they had a lot of different native languages, and to communicate with English speakers. Many people in southern coastal areas still speak the true Gullah but a lot of the same aspects can be heard in the broader "AA/black" population (even in other countries like Jamaica) who aren't direct Gullah speakers, now as it has carried over from the early days. This could be an interesting project, maybe even to document the evolution of the language over time. It's the group's money, if they want to spend it on this, have at it.
7 people like this.
It appears not much educating going on at Harvard these days. This takes dumbing down to a whole new level.
19 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Vesicant 6/16/2022 11:41:18 AM (No. 1187764)
But isn't it racist to tell blacks how to spell, pronounce, or use words? Sounds like more systemic racism to keepz da black folkz downz. Although it will sell like hotcakes to virtue-signaling crazy white women and other libterds.
12 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
jimboscott 6/16/2022 11:43:09 AM (No. 1187770)
The 'proper' English that is taught in schools today would be a foreign tongue to those who grew up speaking Middle English. Languages change and that change is always by degrees of veering off the 'norm' and into something else.
I remember a door to door dictionary salesman coming to our front door when I was maybe 12, back in 1969, he was bragging about how the new dictionary he was selling (Webster's? F&W?) contained updated words like 'hootenanny'.
Some day future generations will dig this article up and comment "Grafe thi mankin frash. Yo?"
6 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
bgarrett 6/16/2022 11:44:58 AM (No. 1187773)
Speak Standard English or S T F U
26 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
earlybird 6/16/2022 11:47:11 AM (No. 1187778)
I don’t share #1’s admiration for Gates, whose racialist agenda spurs him onward.
33 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
WhamDBambam 6/16/2022 11:50:04 AM (No. 1187782)
Must. Bite. Lip.
16 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Son of Grady 6/16/2022 12:00:24 PM (No. 1187795)
This is what GWB coined "The soft bigotry of low expectations."
Making a weak trait or lazy effort into something we should applaud
is not helping anyone or society.
16 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 6/16/2022 12:16:55 PM (No. 1187818)
Ebonics Dictionary....too bad they can't learn English
19 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
sanspeur 6/16/2022 12:21:11 PM (No. 1187822)
what 3 year job security , Gates! . Should take about a week , one four letter sexual activity word used a gazillion ways for half the book . .and the Hispanic volume , Urban one ? Rural American? nice dividing and splitting people apart
8 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
winmag 6/16/2022 12:27:35 PM (No. 1187829)
Gates is Sharpton with an ivy league degree. Both race pimps.
18 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
maryann4629 6/16/2022 12:30:30 PM (No. 1187832)
A few years ago my son gave me the DVDs, or Blu-Rays, or whatever of _The Wire_, saying it was the best series ever. I couldn't watch it because I couldn't understand a word of dialogue.
6 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Ashley Brenton 6/16/2022 12:42:24 PM (No. 1187846)
The only practical use I can even think of for this is to legitimize a bunch of poorly spelled words that you can use to get out of a tight spot while playing "Scrabble".
Nonsense, you say! You can use this as a reference the next time you read a novel wherein the characters speak this inner-city patois.
Well...no. if I had a book with dialogue like that, I wouldn't make it 10 pages in. It would set aside.
10 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Zeek Wolfe 6/16/2022 12:45:39 PM (No. 1187851)
Ya' honkys, doan be commentin' in displace 'bout verbs an' such like "be" as in "I be, you be, he be" 'cuz "am and are" is white talk...noam sayin' .
12 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Newtsche 6/16/2022 12:48:11 PM (No. 1187852)
Retrograde masturbation, embarrassing solipsism.
6 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
valinva 6/16/2022 1:16:43 PM (No. 1187868)
Free copies will be distributed to police departments and prisons so they will be able to translate for their arrestees and inmates.
9 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Rich323 6/16/2022 1:41:46 PM (No. 1187896)
Dat be da butt Bob!
Baff woom wif da blu curtains
I din do nuffin
Auto correct will never figure out this code/s.
6 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
planetgeo 6/16/2022 1:43:08 PM (No. 1187898)
They could save a lot of dough by not using Professor Gates and instead using the woman from the movie Airplane! who speaks jive and volunteers to translate, maybe even making an app (Google Jive? Linguistic Justus?) so the rest of us can finally communicate with those who use this important dialect.
8 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
ControlFreak 6/16/2022 2:12:55 PM (No. 1187934)
I taught high school English in the 1970s. NONE of my black students spoke using ebonics or whatever, and they performed well on English exams. Times have changed, and not for the better.
15 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
Catherine 6/16/2022 2:24:11 PM (No. 1187944)
If I were black, I'd be insulted by this.
15 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
RayLRiv 6/16/2022 2:44:28 PM (No. 1187963)
Why am I thinking of the two black guys speaking jive in the movie Airplane? June Cleaver has passed away and she won't be able to translate.
"Oh stewardess! I speak jive!"
8 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
Birddog 6/16/2022 2:57:50 PM (No. 1187977)
why?...because the next step will be for teachers/Govt employees to say "I speak it!", and as such deserve the hefty bonus money for being a bi-lingual educator.
9 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
SweetSweetback 6/16/2022 3:03:40 PM (No. 1187985)
Ain’t dat da truf???!!!????
9 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
smokincol 6/16/2022 3:27:46 PM (No. 1188016)
good goin' you deviationists, that's it give the blacks their own language validation and soon there will be no common language in the USofA
Theodore Roosevelt had a thought on that subject and put it on paper
4 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
czechlist 6/16/2022 5:09:59 PM (No. 1188087)
the dim politicos must be having difficulty communicating with their "children".
the dictionary will require weekly updating in order to maintain any relevance.
where I live I mostly hear Spanglish in the grocery store.
The Tower of Babel was a warning but our dim betters are wiser than our Creator.
1 person likes this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
3XALADY 6/16/2022 5:31:16 PM (No. 1188097)
One of my favorite bosses was an AA, as articulate as the day is long. He was a regional manager at a world wide pharmaceutical company. Unless you were looking at him, you couldn't tell he was an AA by the way he spoke. I was shocked one day to hear him use the work 'aks' instead of ask.
3 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
YorkieMom 6/16/2022 6:12:47 PM (No. 1188137)
I'm sure All of the intelligent, black conservative people who appear on Fox News are cringing about this. The lefties are trying to put you down. Please stay strong Ben Carson and the many others out there.
3 people like this.
Reply 32 - Posted by:
Kumoan 6/16/2022 6:27:50 PM (No. 1188153)
...and only guilty white d-rats will ever buy a copy.
2 people like this.
Reply 33 - Posted by:
Faithfully 6/16/2022 7:06:34 PM (No. 1188216)
What they want is segregation.
2 people like this.
Reply 34 - Posted by:
rochow 6/16/2022 7:32:50 PM (No. 1188239)
Contributions they made??? I rest my case!
2 people like this.
Reply 35 - Posted by:
JimBob 6/16/2022 9:52:11 PM (No. 1188369)
Dis hea book dey's be talkin' 'bout gonna hafta bee's 'Virtu'al' online 'cause it be's chan'gin ever' week.
Dat Ebon'ics doan stay de same fo' long, de cat's in de 'now, de's be changin' it as soon as Whitey' figger's out what dey bee's sayin.
0 people like this.
Reply 36 - Posted by:
rbruce20 6/16/2022 11:59:32 PM (No. 1188454)
Will Google translator be updated? I can use it to understand Rap lyrics.
0 people like this.
Yeah, fluency in African-American English will get you a job........ where?
1 person likes this.
Reply 38 - Posted by:
chefrandy 6/17/2022 2:31:21 PM (No. 1189017)
Between ebonics and Urban Dictionary, the mission is 90% complete. What they'll do for the other 33 months is create updates for the ever-changing jargon making the original work mostly moot by publication time. Juneteenth anyone??
0 people like this.
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Dasrite, crakka-dakka. Gnomesayin? Dismantling any semblance of national unity piece by piece, exactly as the communists said they'd do.