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Originally Posted by KillaQueen
for it to be considered a dialect, it would have to have its own LOGICAL grammatical structure, vocabulary and pronounciation, all put down on paper, analyzed and 'disected' by professional linguists, not some drop out hip-hopper. killing a language with the purpose of being cool, tough, special or whatever will never ever result in a dialect, much less a proper, whole new language.
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I don't see how Ebonics is killing the language. The standard English used in the States is still relatively the same. Ebonics hasn't crept into business, politics, or universities. Nobody else is using it other than those that have already been specified. The only threat to standard English are some Bushisms here and there (e.g. misunderestimate, nucular) and that isn't saying much.
The level of hysteria over ebonics in this thread is extremely disproportionate to the reality of its usage. Even if you were to encounter a person who frequently uses it, that person would be speaking the standard English of the US to you.
Dialect:
Dictionary.com
di·a·lect
n.
1.
a) A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists: Cockney is a dialect of English.
b) A variety of language that with other varieties constitutes a single language of which no single variety is standard: the dialects of Ancient Greek.
2.
The language peculiar to the members of a group, especially in an occupation; jargon: the dialect of science.
3.
The manner or style of expressing oneself in language or the arts.
4.
A language considered as part of a larger family of languages or a linguistic branch. Not in scientific use: Spanish and French are Romance dialects.
Britannica.com
1.
a) a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other regional varieties and constituting together with them a single language <the Doric dialect of ancient Greek>
b) one of two or more cognate languages <French and Italian are Romance dialects>
c) a variety of a language used by the members of a group <such dialects as politics and advertising -- Philip Howard>
d) a variety of language whose identity is fixed by a factor other than geography (as social class) <spoke a rough peasant dialect>
e) REGISTER 4c
f) a version of a computer programming language
2. manner or means of expressing oneself : PHRASEOLOGY
Cambridge Dictionary
dialect
noun [C or U]
a form of a language that people speak in a particular part of a country, containing some different words and grammar, etc:
a regional dialect
The poem is written in northern dialect.
"Different" or "distinguished" are the operative words here; dialects cannot conform to the standard English grammatically, vocubulary-wise, or whatever. Whether it "degrades" the accepted standard English or not is a matter of taste, not a matter of whether it is a dialect or not.
I think we have just about exhausted the topic here, neither of us are going to convince anybody otherwise. I have no intention of ending the topic prematurely but let's just agree to disagree.
And uh,... I just wanna holla out cha, it's been a plejah conversatin' wid y'all, bitches!
Fer real, yah heard!