The tense and time of verbs in Black English or Ebonics is not the same as in Standard English. As Toni Morrison pointed out:
It’s terrible to think that a child with five different tenses comes to school to be faced with books that are less than his own language.
Maybe the number is not five, but it is something like that. The sense of time built into the grammar of Black English is different, it is not what comes with Standard English.
Many think Black English is a bad copy of Standard English, something that shows up particularly in getting the forms of the verb “to be” all wrong.
But that is not what is going on. It seems messed up only because it is being used differently – because the sense of time is different. In fact, it is the clearest proof that Black English is not improper English but a form of English in its own right.
For example, if you say:
Julian BEEN married.
with the stress on “been”, most black Americans will tell you that Julian is still married and has been married for a long time. Whites, on the other hand, will tell you that Julian is no longer married: because they see the BEEN as a mistake for “has been”. They assume Black English is a bad copy of White English.
Here are some of the ways you can talk about walking:
- He walk – an action without regard to time
- He is walkin’ – an action in the present
- He walkin’ – also an action in the present. Same as “he is walkin'”. The “is” can be dropped.
- He be walkin’ – an action that is done all the time or over and over again
- He been walkin’ – an action in the past that took some time
- He BEEN walkin’ – an action that has been going on a long time and is still going on. The “been” is stressed.
- He done walked – an action completed in the past
- He finna walk – an action in the near future
- He’ll be done walked – an action completed in the future
In old Hollywood films you will also hear:
- I’se be walkin’
As far as we know, that one was made up by white script writers. In fact, when people who do not know Black English try to copy it, they tend to overuse “be” and use it the wrong way.
Where did all this come from? Black English did not grow out of White English: it grew out of Creole English, the kind you can still hear in Jamaica. It uses English words but with a different grammar.
So who talks like this? Here is who said “He walk” in black Detroit in 1969:
- 1% upper middle-class
- 10% white collar
- 57% skilled labour
- 71% unskilled labour
Even Oprah will talk this way sometimes. One day she ran into a man looking for her house. He asked her, “Don’t she have a house down there?”. Oprah answered, “I believe she do”.
See also:
Abagond 
Your entries are amazing. I learn something new and gain a deeper appreciation of black culture every week from your blog. I just wanted to write and say Thank You! Keep it up!
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McWhorter’s “Word on the Street” is a wonderful discussion of this rich topic. The reality is that the “standard” version of any language is an arbitrary choice of one among many variants. Well, not so arbitrary, really — generally the “standard” version is the one used by the wealthy or the majority.
I grew up in a remote, sparsely settled part of the country with its own strong local vernacular, strong enough that when I went away to college in the big city people there wondered if I was from a foreign country. Even now when I return home I find myself code switching back into my vernacular. There is a comfort in it just the same as the comfort of the aroma of mom’s home cooking.
Interestingly, what we call “Ebonics” (when I was in college it was “Black English Vernacular”) is not as far removed from our standard American English as many commonly used European dialects are from their root standard languages.
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Great post.
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Interesting, informative, loved it
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I forgot to mention that I happen to love the diversity of regional and cultural dialects in this country, just as I love regional foods, architecture, dress styles, etc. I think that this heterogeneity add something unique to America that makes this nation great. Unfortunately, due largely to the heavy influence of electronic media, this heterogeneity is disappearing. Just and many languages are dying on a global scale, so are regional dialects, dress styles, cuisine and culture dying all across American, being replaced by a bland shopping mall sameness that is soul-crushing in its withering ennui.
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I completely agree with that. Growing up I was afraid that the whole world would become like New Jersey (a very bad thing to a New York mind), though now it seems it will become like some yet-to-built suburb of Shanghai.
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Blanc2, thanks for the McWhorter reference. I am not surprised he wrote about it, but I did not know where.
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I guess. I was always told that it was just ghetto and bad grammer. But each it’s own. It still sounds ugly and makes the girls sound like men to me. I’m not used to it, but alot of friends and my boyfriend talks like that, so meh. I still wouldn’t teach my children to speak “black” english because it won’t get you a job and there are many more ways to express your culture than talking like some stupid hick.
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@abagond
I greatly enjoyed this post.
I wish you would cite your sources more, especially when you give statistics.
I was intrigued by “In old Hollywood films you will also hear: I’se be walkin’.” It brought to mind a number of questions: Does the structure in question pre-date Hollywood? Did it ever occur in blackface minstrel shows? Did blackface performances by African-Americans and coon songs written by African-Americans represent contemporaneous African-American Vernacular English more accurately than those by whites?
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I do not see myself as a scholar: if I know something as a layman then I assume it cannot be that hard to find out.
Coon English is my name for the fake Ebonics that white script writers put in the mouths of black actors. It is not how black people talked – it is how white people think they talk. One of the biggest giveaway is the improper overuse of the word “be”. White people hear black people using the word “be” more than they do and so they think they are using it indiscriminately when in fact it has a particular meaning – just like any other word.
You hear stories of black actors going to Hollywood and LEARNING from white people how to talk like (a white person’s idea of) a black person.
In that vein I find it curious how white people seem to have this imitation black person act that they have apparently been practising.
Black parodies of white (Hollywood) ideas of acting black:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/black-acting-school/
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/aisha-muharrar-black-best-friend/
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Coon English does go back to the minstrel shows of the 1800s. Not sure if black-written material was more “accurate” when the whole thing was done for the benefit of white people.
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@abagond
You’ve referred to the incorrect overuse of the form “be” as a common mistake made by whites when imitating African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). It seems that mistakes with the verb “be” are common among non-native speakers, regardless of race. On video John McWhorter explains when AAVE permits the deletion of the equative forms of the verb “be” and apparently refers to African-American author Cora Daniels’s use of “I be Ghetto!” which he identifies as a mistake in AAVE (cf. http://www.aei.org/files/2007/11/14/20071114_20071114McWhorter.pdf):
http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/3124?in=19:59&out=24:26
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RE: …I find it curious how white people seem to have this imitation black person act that they have apparently been practising.
The Wikipedia article “Cakewalk” suggests slaves had an imitation white people act, with which some entertained their masters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk). If this is correct, white performances of cakewalks in minstrel shows were a white imitation of blacks acting like whites.
RE: Not sure if black-written material was more “accurate” when the whole thing was done for the benefit of white people.
I’m not sure if it’s accurate to say “the whole thing was done for the benefit of white people.” All black minstrel shows enjoyed popularity with many blacks. I’d imagine the performances were segregated and performances before black audience were at least partially tailored to the audience.
I wonder how capable early minstrel performers, white or black, were of accuracy or authenticity. Weren’t they mostly Northerners with little firsthand knowledge of the slave culture in the South?
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I just saw this post. Thank you! I’ve been saying this for years!
I majored in English, taught English, and am a stickler for grammar. My family scoffs when I proclaim that I plan to raise my kids speaking Ebonics as well as standard American English (even though I grew up speaking it at home). Why? I’ve always argued that it allows for subtle differences in time that Standard American English doesn’t! It is a valid English dialect and not a misuse of “the English language.”
It’s sadly ironic that writers, who usually spend copious amounts of time, energy, and money researching for their books, scripts, etc., get this so obviously horribly wrong. All they have to do is spend quality time with people in their local community. I find it offensive because it shows a disregard, a lack of respect for a people, my people.
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Is there a book on Ebonics because I don’t know much about it?
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V8
The dispute is not the existance of those terms as I fully agree that southern America uses it regularly. The issue is do they type or write these terms down in sentences? If you look at the amount of southern Americans you have interacted with on thisithread then the answer is clear.
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Rmoreno
I’ve always argued that it allows for subtle differences in time that Standard American English doesn’t! It is a valid English dialect and not a misuse of “the English language.”
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You got that right!
(oops? am I going to be deleted for mock ebonics?)
It was only after coming here and having some of my comments deleted for “mock ebonics” that I really understood the value of using so call ebonics. I was at a loss to get the same clarity and gravity using standard English.
When I really need to tell the truth, I don’t want to sound like a white person.
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@sharina well i’m no expert on the subject, but language is my thing, really, when it comes down to it, and our grammar book for the kids here has me wanting to kind of broach the topic of ebonics, but that is subject to approval and guidance by my AA co-writer of course
there is a school of thought that ebonics is derived from the way slaves were taught english by southern whites, so that could understandably provide a theory why ‘fixin to do such and such’ is still used by southern whites; nobody uses that up here in Philly that I talk to, maybe older people? idk.
i really couldn’t speak to the prevalence of “fixin’ to” in the written word, at all.
The couple books i’m reading now are “The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, and the Education of African-American Children” edited by Perry and Delpit, which is a collection of essays mostly on Oakland, and “Through Ebony Eyes: What Teachers Need to Know But Are Afraid to Ask About African American Students” by Gail Thompson
I just wanted to get some insight on Ebonics as a cultural landmark for presenting the case for SAE and its importance for young scholars, but since I speak Ebonics/code-switch a lot, it is of great interest to me, and also well, you know, I just find it interesting.
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V8
Im No expert either so we are in the same boat. Fix’in is one word I hear my grandmother say, but also a word she does bot write down in a sentence.
Thanks for mentioning the book. I would be interested in reading it as well.
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Ebonics is a butchering of English, same way Haitian is a butchering of French.
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Sharina
V8
Fix’in is one word I hear my grandmother say, but also a word she does bot write down in a sentence.
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Maybe thats because when no one can see you, its important to be “seen” as a white person?
BTW, there are people in England that don’t speak English; at least not any I can understand.
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Bobby M
Ebonics is a butchering of English, same way Haitian is a butchering of French.
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What are you going to DO about it Bobby M?
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*smh at trolls desperation for MY attention*
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I was in the camp that Ebonics was just urban slang. Basically because of how it was talked about by the media when the media decided to report on it back in the day. Now I “get it” so to speak. The media could have explained it in 30 seconds well enough to understand what it is. Instead they just kept asking opinions of people on the street who didn’t know anything about it as a loaded question insinuating it might just be slang. Glad I was curious enough to lean something new today.
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Whatever, still sounds stupid to me. They not even be tryin’ to speak proper English.
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@ John Adams
Is the word “tryin’” proper English?
LOL!
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