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Ebonics, Ivonics and Apponics: Two views on mastering the English. language
Black English vs. white English
It is all the rage these days to talk about a language within English that is spoken by a group of blacks insulated in the East Bay. Although it receives TV signals, a portion of Oakland is so cut off from the rest of the republic that students, under the eye, if not the tutelage of graduate students with theses to write, are reportedly growing their own language.
Ebonics is a cruel hoax that should be weeded out. Black English exists, true enough, but it is little more than the continuing ad hoc usage of phonic twists, antonyms and street-spun euphemisms. It is as old as the bondage of U.S. slaves and the subsequent segregation of their so-called freed descendants.
Ivonics, on the other hand, is a language of the powerful that miraculously has escaped scholarly study. Derived from "ivory" and "phonics," Ivonics is spoken in the White House, the U.S. Senate, boardrooms, the Supreme Court, personnel offices, behind the bulletproof glass at welfare offices, at Texaco and wherever else one can get a whiff of power.
While employing English words, Ivonics obscures their normal meaning to the point of frustration and even tears. Speakers employ...