Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 14:55:53 EST From: Larry Horn Subject: Re: Rickford on Ebonics in Discovery Amazing. I just stumbled across Rickford's article in a copy of Discovery (a magazine I've never read before) in the waiting room of my kids' orthodonist earlier this week. And to the best of my recollection the version at the website is indeed the published version, besides having color illustrations (which a xeroxed version for a class packet wouldn't) and useful links to other relevant material. Thanks, guys! ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- At 01:37 PM 11/20/97 -0500, you wrote: >One of my graduate students just handed me a copy of John R. Rickford's >"Suite for Ebony and Phonics" (_Discover_ Dec. 1997: 82-87). > Some version of this article, maybe identical to the print version but maybe not, is at this URL: http://www.enews.com/magazines/discover/magtxt/9712-1.html At the bottom of the article are four related links, one of which is "American Dialects Society" [sic]. A quick skim indicates that the piece is oriented toward a generally-educcted audience and argues that, speaking descriptively, AAVE is a rule-governed variety of English with influences from west-Afr languages etc. I'm sure there are plenty of nuances to the piece beyond that, but all I have time for just at the moment is a quick skim. Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu