Confessions of a recovering depressive
Ah woke up dis mornin’ to mah alahm clock at eight A.M. shahp. Guuurl, wah you do dis to yoself? You BIN sacrificin yo sleep sence da fust naichu got to Stanford. Ain’t nevuh bin any diffrent. Well, recently you been sleepin ovuh atchyo boyfrien’ house. Das diffrent.
Den ah had went into de kitchen to fin’ some cereal. Here go dat asshole from my dorm. Das de bitch yell at me free weeks ago ’bout stealin his sleepin spot in our dorm ski trip. Ah would’ve likeded to skin his ass. But den ah might could get in trouble wif de POlice. Ah dun even acknowledge his presence anymore, jus suck mah teef at him. Ah wish I didn’t haf to see’m. Den mah day wouldn’t staht off so bad. Can’ nobody do nuffin ’bout assholes. De wuhld’s jus full ov’em. Wah God can’ takum away, Ah’onno.
I be bikin to biochem class evry day. Today no diffrent. Biochem class so fah away, an i’ss hahd to bike in da rain. Ah’ma be gettin me a raincoat dis weekend. It don’t be steady rainin’ like dis in oduh places, do it? Anuduh girl come late, she has ran to class probly. Ah nevuh seen huh befoe. Da midtem tes not so hahd. Mah frien, she aks me what do ah tink. Ah’m like, i’ss pretty easy. She say i’ss hahd fuh huh.
Ah ain’t go to dance class today. I be going to anoduh dance class tonight anyways. Allistuh is mah fren, Ah aks him could he be mah dance pahtnuh n he say yes. Da dance team captain, she come tellin me dat class is mandatory, like she know who ah am and what classes I been to.
When Ah got to neuro class, da class done stahted. ah almos fell ’sleep in dat class. I finna jus lay mah head on da desk right dere! Da prof talk to us so fas, ah don’t tink hardly no one can unduhstan him. Da odduhs in de class, dey is some crazy smaht folks. Las quahtuh I liketa failed one class. Ah don’t tink so fah mah grade is very good, but if ah work hahd enough ah might can get bah. Maybe ah should aks foh some hep in dat class.
Mah computuh has a pictuh of Shi Xiao Long, a Chinese Kung Fu stah. He so fine, I wish he were mah baby-daddy.
Ah done finished two exam so fah. Ah ain’t know iss a libry up heuh in de fof flo’ uhda maf buildin. Now Ah’m studyin in da maf library to prepare fo mah ebonics midtum. All dese tesses!
Written for purely pedantic purposes to help myself study for my Linguistics of African American Vernacular English class.
3 Responses for "Mah Thusday – ebonics style"
Is this ebonics or a rough imitation? As I understand it, ebonics is more a modern-day interpretation and amalgamation of a historical set of social dialects. It doesn’t necessarily require muzzling every word and sentence, in my opinion.
Also, an interesting song on the topic: “Ebonics” by Big L.
PS. Get the Subscribe to Comments plugin (I think that’s the name) for WordPress to help commenters stay engaged in the conversation.
Of course ebonics is a “modern” version of historical speech, just as any language evolves. Ebonics includes many different regional variations of African American vernacular. However, many of them share common patterns, such as the ones I have illustrated in this post. The degree to which specific users employ either standard english or ebonics in their speech varies with factors like region, age, gender, and social class. Perhaps this sounds “muzzled” to you because I am trying to write out phonetics, whereas one would not be surprised to consistently hear the same grammatical patterns and pronunciations in speech. Additionally, why do you call it “muzzling”? Using ebonics is not bad, simply different.
That said, yes – this was written to help me practice using the concepts we learned in class. I did purposefully try to use ebonics in all applicable contexts, which may not be reflective of how often a real speaker of ebonics would speak.
Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions. Although I am a computer ignoramus, but I’ll try to figure out how to install the plug-in.
seems like I was successful.
PS – check out “Precious” or “Push” the book and basis for the movie. You may come to believe that this post is not as exaggerated as you might think
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