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TWO
Ebonic Genesis

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

In January 1973 Robert Williams hosted a conference in St. Louis
titled "Cognitive and Language Development of the Black Child."
Two years later he published Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks.
There he defined Ebonics in the Pan-African tradition of W. E. B. Du
Bois. Over two decades later, Williams affirmed the international foun-
dations of his linguistic creation. During testimony before the U.S. Sen-
ate (see chapter 5), he stated:
Ebonics has two major dimensions as a language:
1. A lexicon or the vocabulary of the language,
2. Morphology or the study of the structure and form of the language
that include its grammatical rules. Ebonics may be defined as the
linguistic and paralinguistic features which on a concentric continuum
represent the communicative competence of the West African, Carib-
bean, and United States slave descendent of African origin. It includes
the grammar, various idioms, patois, argots, ideolects, and social dia-
lects of Black people. ( Williams 1975:vi)

-15-

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Publication Information: Book Title: Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic Pride and Racial Prejudice. Contributors: John Baugh - author. Publisher: Oxford University Press. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 2000. Page Number: 15.
    
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