EBONICS OR NO, U.S. ALREADY TALKS THE TALK ALL Edition

• Published in: Wisconsin state journal
• Main Author: CHRIS MARTELL WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Madison, Wis Madison Newspapers, Inc 12.01.1997
• Subjects: Hall, Joan
• ISSN: 0749-405X

Badmouth. Big daddy. Big mamma. Bogart. Boody. Boss (as adjective). Bubba. Bulldagger. Bummer. Bumps (aka zits). Cats and chicks (the human types). Chump change. Cornrow. Creep. Crib (house). Dig. Dive. Do-rag. A drag. Dude. Easy rider. Eat cheese. Filibuster. Flunky. Forget it. Get down. Get go. Get over. Hag. Grease (as verb). Hang. Homeboy. Honky. House party. Hush your mouth. Even the eternal "cool" (meaning something good) is traced in D.A.R.E. to 1884 black speakers. To badmouth someone comes from theAfrican language Mandingo, and in Gullah "bad mout' " means put a spell or curse on someone. And, according to D.A.R.E., when blacks say "bad nigger," it means a black person who has the respect of his peers. "A lot of black dialects also have northern British and Scottish roots, because many of the slave drivers were from there. You don't hear the London dialect," [Joan Houston Hall] said. "A lot of the black intonations and sentence structures are the same. The double and triple negatives. "I ain't seen nobody nowhere," "he done gone" or "he igged (ignored) me. Blacks used the the phrase "call the hogs" (meaning: snore loudly), which is a Scottish phrase."