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What do african people speak

Nor is it the questions about personal hygiene, the unsolicited touching of his hair or the endless staring. It is his failure to interact with Indian people on a deeper level. I speak Hindi and always laugh. But I wanted to learn about this other culture and interact with the people here. While he speaks with his Indian classmates at the university, a acre campus accommodating students from more than 20 countries, and some of them also showed up for an international cultural event he helped to organise, none of these encounters lead to friendships. Zaharaddeen rents two rooms on the first floor of a three-storey house in Greater Noida, a residential area on the outskirts of Noida, a satellite town east of New Delhi and part of what is called the National Capital Region.

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WATCH RELATED VIDEO: Julia's guide Willie Komani describes the Xhosa 'click' language - South Africa Walks - BBC Four

South Africa's people


Download this document as a pdf. At its most literal level, Ebonics simply means 'black speech' a blend of the words ebony 'black' and phonics 'sounds'. The term was created in by a group of black scholars who disliked the negative connotations of terms like 'Nonstandard Negro English' that had been coined in the s when the first modern large-scale linguistic studies of African American speech-communities began. However, the term Ebonics never caught on among linguists, much less among the general public.

That all changed with the 'Ebonics' controversy of December when the Oakland CA School Board recognized it as the 'primary' language of its majority African American students and resolved to take it into account in teaching them standard or academic English. In theory, scholars who prefer the term Ebonics or alternatives like African American language wish to highlight the African roots of African American speech and its connections with languages spoken elsewhere in the Black Diaspora, e.

Jamaica or Nigeria. Here, we will use 'Ebonics' without ideological or theoretical qualification, preferring it to AAVE and other alternatives simply because it is the most widely-known public term right now. To many people, the first examples that come to mind are slang words like phat 'excellent' and bling-bling 'glittery, expensive jewelry', words that are popular among teenagers and young adults, especially rap and hip hop fans.

But words like kitchen 'the especially kinky hair at the nape of one's neck' and ashy 'the whitish appearance of black skin when dry, as in winter' are even more interesting. Unlike many slang terms, these 'black' words have been around for ages, they are not restricted to particular regions or age groups, and they are virtually unknown in their 'black' meanings outside the African American community.

Ebonics pronunciation includes features like the omission of the final consonant in words like 'past' pas' and 'hand' han' , the pronunciation of the th in 'bath' as t bat or f baf , and the pronunciation of the vowel in words like 'my' and 'ride' as a long ah mah, rahd. Some of these occur in vernacular white English, too, especially in the South, but in general they occur more frequently in Ebonics. Some Ebonics pronunciations are more unique, for instance, dropping b, d, or g at the beginning of auxiliary verbs like 'don't' and 'gonna', yielding Ah 'on know for "I don't know" and ama do it for "I'm going to do it.

These distinctive Ebonics pronunciations are all systematic, the result of regular rules and restrictions; they are not random 'error'--and this is equally true of Ebonics grammar. For instance, Ebonics speakers regularly produce sentences without present tense is and are, as in "John trippin" or "They allright". But they don't omit present tense am. Many members of the public seem to have heard, too, that Ebonics speakers use an 'invariant' be in their speech as in "They be goin to school every day" ; however, this be is not simply equivalent to is or are.

Invariant be refers to actions that occur regularly or habitually rather than on just one occasion. That depends on whom you ask. Black preachers and comedians and singers, especially rappers, also use it for dramatic or realistic effect. But many other people, black and white, regard it as a sign of limited education or sophistication, as a legacy of slavery or an impediment to socioeconomic mobility. Some deny its existence like the black Chicagoan whose words "Ain't nobody here talkin' no Ebonics" belied his claim.

Others deprecate it like Maya Angelou, who found the Oakland School Board's Ebonics resolutions "very threatening" although she uses Ebonics herself in her poems, e. It should be said, incidentally, that at least SOME of the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the Oakland resolutions arose because the resolutions were misinterpreted as proposals to teach Ebonics itself, or to teach in Ebonics, rather than as proposals to respect and take it into account while teaching standard English.

The method of studying language known as 'contrastive analysis' involves drawing students' attention to similarities and differences between Ebonics and Standard English. On this point, linguists are quite divided.

Some emphasize its English origins, pointing to the fact that most of the vocabulary of Ebonics is from English and that much of its pronunciation e. Others emphasize Ebonics' African origins, noting that West African languages often lack th sounds and final consonant clusters e.

Moreover, they argue that the distinction made between completed actions "He done walked" and habitual actions "We be walkin" in the Ebonics tense-aspect system reflects their prevalence in West African language systems and that this applies to other aspects of Ebonics sentence structure. These traits suggest that some varieties of American Ebonics might have undergone the kinds of simplification and mixture associated with Creole formation in the Caribbean and elsewhere.

They might also suggest that American Ebonics was shaped by the high proportions of Creole-speaking slaves that were imported from the Caribbean in the earliest settlement periods of the thirteen original colonies. Arguments about and evidence on the origins issue continue to be brought forth. A relatively new 'historical' issue has emerged in recent years: Is Ebonics converging with or diverging from other vernacular varieties of American English?

One thing is for sure: This dynamic, distinctive variety--thoroughly intertwined with African American history and linked in many ways with African American literature, education, and social life--is one of the most extensively studied and discussed varieties of American English and it will probably continue to be so for many years to come. Baugh, John. Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic pride and racial prejudice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Green, Lisa. African American English: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Labov, William. Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Poplack, Shana, ed. The English history of African American English. Rickford, John R. Spoken Soul: The story of Black English.

New York: John Wiley. Smitherman, Geneva. Black talk: Words and phrases from the hood to the amen corner. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Wolfram, Walt, and Erik R. The development of African American English. Donate Jobs Center News Room. Search form Search. John R. Rickford Download this document as a pdf.

What does Ebonics sound like? What do people think of Ebonics? Where did Ebonics come from? Further reading Baugh, John. Why Can't Computers Use English? How can I get involved with LSA? LSA Publications.


Coronavirus in African Americans and Other People of Color

How do they do it? And what can the United States learn from this continent of polyglots? All these gentlemen are teaching global languages to students here in the U. Both Martin and Elvis are from Cameroon, both speak at least two Cameroonian languages in addition to English, and both teach yet another language: French. They are also representative of the way Africans bring different languages into their lives.

Till then, Nyaoke-Anoke suggests that people in Africa should continue We need our leaders to lead by example and speak with one voice.

Linguistic Society of America


Communication in the complex and diverse world of today is a necessity. Given the nature of the constantly shifting linguistic and demographical landscape, one cannot deny the important role that communication plays. Language makes this communication between communities and people possible. The continent of Africa is home to a diverse range of languages. With a total population of about 1. As new languages emerge and old ones die out, exploring these languages is an interesting task on its own. Other than a number of languages, English is also one of the languages spoken in the region, and there are a significant number of English speaking countries in Africa. In order to understand the different and varied dynamics of the languages in Africa, one must first dive into the background of the languages in this continent. The sheer size of the African continent makes it an interesting place to study and inspect the languages.

What Makes African American Vernacular English Distinct And Complex

what do african people speak

A new study challenges the presumption that all South-Eastern-Bantu speaking groups are a single genetic entity. Their origins can be traced to farmers ofWest-Central Africa whose descendants over the past two millennia spread south of the equator and finally into Southern Africa. Since then, varying degrees of sedentism [the practice of living in one place for a long time], population movements and interaction with Khoe and San communities, as well as people speaking other SEB languages, ultimately generated what are today distinct Southern African languages such as isiZulu, isiXhosa and Sesotho. Despite these linguistic differences, these groups are treated mostly as a single group in genetic studies.

James Lafayette, who supported the American cause as a spy, may have been the inspiration for the figure on the right in the 18th-century engraving, in the Jamestown-Yorktown collection, depicting the Marquis de Lafayette at Yorktown. Only 50 years after the defeat of the British at Yorktown, most Americans had already forgotten the extensive role black people had played on both sides during the War for Independence.

African Systems of Meaning


The official languages of Kenya are English and Swahili. English is the language of big business, higher education and government. Most bills presented to the National Assembly, for example, are drafted in English. Swahili, a Bantu language, is almost universal in small-scale trade and the media and schools through primary education. It is closely connected with urban life and with certain occupations. Television broadcasts and print materials are in Swahili and English.

Introduction to African Languages

Learn more. Sherita Hill Golden, M. The coronavirus pandemic is having an impact all over the world, but a disturbing trend is evident in the U. Why is this happening? Sherita Golden, M. These examples are not exceptional, and the trend is not limited to African Americans. Any person who believes that he or she has COVID symptoms and has not been referred for testing should advocate and persist to have it done. Those factors include:.

Did you know that they speak French in Africa? The French language was brought to the African continent through colonialism. During the s and 60s.

The 11 languages of South Africa

I am very happy when read this blog post because blog post written in good manner and write on good topic. Thanks for sharing valuable information. Amharic is not even the most spoken language in Ethiopia. There are over 50 million Oromo people that speak Afan Oromo in Ethiopia as their first language.

Top 10 Most Popular African Languages

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Moreover, the association of ebonics with criminality reiterates preconceived notions of inferiority cultivated by repetitive media misrepresentation and memorialized through government policy. This association is further exacerbated as it is often used to justify violence against black people and exemplifies how the use of ebonics to appear more intimidating influences public perception. It is particularly frustrating when these terms are adopted with little to no understanding of its proper use and employed as a source of profit by corporations. Here is an example of how non black people often adopt AAVE without an understanding of how to properly use it.

The privilege of a higher education, especially outside Africa, broadened my original horizon and encouraged me to focus on the environment, women and development in order to improve the quality of life of people in my country in particular and in the African region in general. The Green Belt Movement is a national, indigenous and grassroots organisation, whose activities are implemented mostly by women.

Speak with confidence.

State of emergency declared. The history of African Nova Scotians reaches back to the early founding years of the province. Explorer Mathieu Da Costa is credited with being the first to arrive as part of an expedition that founded Port Royal in In the s, small populations of French and English Black settlers were part of colonial towns such as Louisbourg and early Halifax. The first large group of immigrants were the Black Loyalists who came as refugees after the American Revolution between and A group of exiled Jamaican Maroons followed in , settling in Preston Township. They helped build Government House, worked on new fortifications at the Halifax Citadel and served in the militia.

Why does Africa have so many languages?

This term was given to the San during their long battle against the colonists. The San interpreted this as a proud and respected reference to their brave fight for freedom from domination and colonization. Many now accept the terms Bushmen or San.




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