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What is Ebonics? Is it a language or not? Ebonics, referred to as black English, is a language with clearly evident African American roots. It has been found that, when learning English, African-Americans adapted the language using some of the structure and rules of their own native tongue. This Black English has carried on through slavery and then freedom for hundreds of years. Though often incorrectly defined as a language, it really is a nonstandard …

…regional and local dialects. People move around more, which makes for a blending of accents and vocabularies. Television, radio and the movies have all done their part to equalize the language. As a consequence, we have lost dialects that will never return, such as the way English was spoken around the turn of the century. But despite centuries of active effort, Ebonics has not faded away, and it does not appear likely that it will.