Why does everything have to be "validated" these days? The reason AAVE (any patois, for that matter) is frowned upon is because it's lazy English. I commonly use "fixin' to" when talking about an action I am imminently going to perform. That's because I'm in the habit of doing so, and everyone in my family said the same thing when I was growing up. But if I go to Minneapolis, Philly, or NYC and tell someone "I'm fixin' to go to the Wal-Mart for some peanuts," I would be immediately labelled as a hick.

Guess what? That's okay. I don't care. You sayin you don't want none a these peanuts? Aight.

But if I ever get to the point where my well-being is threatened by some yankee's opinion of my fixin to do's, just take me out and shoot me like a dog.

I've been trying to put my perspective, the perspective of the level of linguistics I'm familiar with, across so that someone can say "Yes that makes sense from that perspective".

• Use of Ebonics/AAVE has negative social connotations.
• Ebonics/AAVE is used primarily by those of lower socio-economic levels.
• Ebonics/AAVE has a strong cultural and historic background.
• Ebonics/AAVE is as valid a language, from a theoretical linguistics perspective, as Standard American English or Hoch-Deutsch or Martian or whatever.

Those are the four points I wish everyone could understand. This thread got kind of out of hand, I'm not even sure where we started out, and I apologize for getting pissy and insulting folks.

Yeah, pretty fucked up, they wouldn't want to hurt anybody's feelings.

I hear that the next initiative is to have Ebonomatics for those that make errors in mathematics because it's not in terms they use at home (no I won't give any of the tasteless examples that pop immediately to mind, involving dime-bags and crack rocks).

Should we add the AAVE/Ebonics War, and call a truce? ;)

I speak the same way my family does in rural Missouri when I'm back there. I've been in NY for 8 years so I speak, largely anyway, the way they speak here. It helps that since elementary school I've been pretty strongly pressured to develop a Region-Neutral Dialect.

Language is one of the most beautiful things in our world and it sucks to see people shit on the way people tell each other things like "I love you" and "Pass 'da peanut buttah I'm'a fixin' ta' have a sammich".

I'm sorry Mr.Noodle I think I caught an early revision of this post in one of my other replies. Still...good message.

I think that's a good idea. I've got an idea for a new thread though so keep your eyes peeled.

i'm not sure which college you are attending, but in most of the more reputable ones they don't teach insulting someone as an effective means of getting your point across. but if you do feel the need to insult me, come up with something better you son of a motherless goat.

Pretty much my point. You want to call it a language, go ahead. Just don't mind if I call you a dumb jerk for speaking it. THAT was my point!

It's over bud. Anyway, I believe I apologized.

i ain't yer bud, bra.

http://www.blogthings.com/amenglishdialecttest/

What kind of american english do you speak?

<table style="color: black;" width=400 align=center border=1 bordercolor=black cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2>
<tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#A8FFB3">
<h3>Your Linguistic Profile:</h3>
</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#D9FFD8">
65% General American English</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#A8FFB3">
20% Dixie</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#D9FFD8">
10% Upper Midwestern</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#A8FFB3">
5% Yankee</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#D9FFD8">
0% Midwestern</td></tr></table>

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.blogthings.com/amenglishdialecttest/">What Kind of American English Do You Speak?</a>
</div>

80% General American English
5% Dixie
5% Midwestern
5% Upper Midwestern
5% Yankee

<table style="color: black;" width=400 align=center border=1 bordercolor=black cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2>
<tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#A8FFB3">
<h3>Your Linguistic Profile:</h3>
</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#D9FFD8">
70% General American English</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#A8FFB3">
15% Dixie</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#D9FFD8">
10% Yankee</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#A8FFB3">
5% Upper Midwestern</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#D9FFD8">
0% Midwestern</td></tr></table>

Strange I'm from Missouri and have no Midwestern expressions?

I call Soda/Pop/Coke: Soda or Soda Pop
I say "Catta Corner" or when I'm around the part of my family with a Missourian Drawl I say something kind of like "Catter Corner" or "Catte' Corner" where the ' is a glottal stop.

taking this one atm, will edit with results

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?te...02516259233005

Your accent is nothing exceptional; it may be "colorful" or you might just be from Southern California. You also don't catch some grammatical points, and are thus probably one of the people contributing to the death of the subjunctive, which is just as well. More than half of test-takers fall into this category; no one, as of this writing, has scored higher than 85% on the orthophony aspect of the test.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 47% on orthophony

You scored higher than 4% on eugrammacy


********************
Actually, when I wasnt in England, most of my youth was in California and Arizona (which is all Eastern Californian anyways), so I'm not surprised I have a California Dialect.

You scored higher than 13% on orthophony
You scored higher than 69% on eugrammacy