Reflections From a Murky Pond

Quch Tlho’taHghach!

Quch Tlho’taHghach. Sop QaQ! In other words and in English, Happy Thanksgiving. Eat Well!
 

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Ebonics aka African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a distinctive lect of the English language spoken by many Blacks within America’s borders. It is the descendent of West African Pidgin English and Southern American English. Like all lects it is a regular, systematic language variety that contrasts with other dialects in terms of its grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Therein lies the problem with Ebonics.

Language shapes thought because it shapes perception by defining the meanings of words, phrases and concepts. Simply put, a Black does not necessarily “hear” what a White is saying because the same word-sounds in Standard American English and Ebonics may have drastically different respective meanings.

A simple example is how a Black hears any statement by Whites about Black crime, whether it is Black-on-Black or Black-on-White. In many, though not all, cases members of the “Black Community” – native speakers of Ebonics – will not “hear” what the speaker is in their own minds saying. They derive a totally different meaning from it:

Around Blacks Never Relax

And that is the problem with Ebonics in a nutshell. It prevents us from having frank and open discussions about a plethora of serious topics and concerns. Not truly having a language in common means that Whites and the “Black Community” also do not have a basic cognitive framework in common within which to have such discussions.

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Science and technology, especially engineering require precise and specific measurements for the important sake of accurately completing necessary mathematical calculations. These are esoteric and often insular disciplines however, and many of these measurements and their more important conversions are not well known outside of the circles of engineering.

• The ratio of an igloo’s circumference to its diameter = eskimo pie
• 2,000 lbs of Chinese soup = won ton
• 1 millionth of a mouthwash  = 1 microscope
• The time between slipping on a peel and hitting the pavement = 1 bananosecond
• Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram
• Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile / hour = knotfurlong
• 365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer = 1 lite year
• 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
• 1/2 of a large intestine = 1 semicolon
• 1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz
• Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower
• Shortest distance between two jokes = a straight line
• 2,000 mockingbirds = 2 killomockingbird
• 1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 fig newton
• 1,000cc of wet socks = 1 literhosen
• 8 nickels = 2 paradigms

Enjoy and remember that, by any measure, humor converts to reduction in stress and the clearing of the mind.

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