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Re: Grammar


Poster: "Ed Hopkins" <Ed.Hopkins@MCI.Com>

Eogan observed:
> But it is important to realize that Ebonics is not "lazy talk" or "bad
> English" (like so many people have tried to call Southern English as
> well), but it does follow it's own rules of grammar and diction.  It's
> just different, not degenerate.

I think a good example of this is the way speakers of "Good English"
say it's "lazy" to leave off the "ng" sound in a word like "grillin'"
when they themselve leave off the "t" sound in "often".

In both cases the letter prob'ly became silent because of some
long-ago laziness, but now it's silent because you'd sound hypercorrect
(i.e. stupid) to your peers if you sounded the letter.

-- Alfredo

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