Ain’t nobody got time for double negatives…said no grammar pedant ever. To a prescriptivist, using double negatives for actually emphasizing more negation is just the worst. If I’m not saying nothing, obviously I must be saying something. As the assumption goes, because two negatives must logically cancel each other out, people who use double negatives in this way must also logically be uneducated or unintelligent. This, of course, is a false belief that is still widely shared in mainstream American culture (possibly even among speakers who regularly use double negation themselves).

Anisfeld M., Bogo N., Lambert W. E. (1962). Evaluational reactions to accented English speech. J. Abnormal Soc. Psychol. 65 The equivalent, Tolliver-Weddington (1979); the antonym, Smith (1992) and Smith (1998); both as summarized in Baugh's words. KOJII Languages is designed to spread the linguistic and cultural facets of less known languages across the world. Founded in 2019 by Joshua Conrad-Tanakh and his company JCSURGE, KOJII Languages aims to provide a comprehensive digest program for as many lesser-known languages as possible by providing a unique approach to teaching known as ‘infotainment’ in a semi-formal and informal tone. Please consider sharing our articles, and following us on social media. Walker M., Wänke M. (2017). Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions. PLoS One 12: e0181306. 10.1371/journal.pone.0181306By and large, the news coverage of the Oakland proposal was unobjectionable, if ineffective at generating much attention.

Faul F., Erdfelder E., Buchner A., Lang A.-G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behav. Res. Methods 41 Well, why does this matter? As flippantly as we can talk of language myths, put simply, what’s widely considered bad grammar, or bad language, can have truly problematic repercussions for how many people live, especially for those who speak dialects that aren’t considered standard, mainstream, or prestigious. It still is very much the case that many people, without thinking, can harbor negative assumptions about the different ways other people speak. This can have a profound effect on how whole speech communities can live, learn, work, and even play. Getting job interviews, renting an apartment, raising kids to have better options and advantages, even getting through an unexpected, fraught interaction with the police— all these things can be made much harder simply because of a particular accent or dialect. Labov W., Ash S., Boberg C. (2008). The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change. Payne K., Downing J., Fleming J. C. (2000). Speaking Ebonics in a professional context: the role of ethos/source credibility and perceived sociability of the speaker. J. Techn. Writ. Commun. 30 Georgia State’s Washington describes the Oakland resolution as mistaken and remembers the media response as an expression of racist attitudes in America at the time. And she says she was extremely nervous about participating in the The Atlantic article featuring her work and the dialect that came out earlier this month. But she believes that, after years of keeping their heads down, advocates of using the dialect to teach mainstream classroom English are re-emerging. “The dynamics have changed… The times have changed.”

Stepanova E. V., Strube M. J. (2018). Attractiveness as a function of skin tone and facial features: evidence from categorization studies. J. General Psychol. 145 Perryman-Clark, Staci, "Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures (WRA) 125 - Writing: the Ethnic and Racial Experience.", Composition Studies, 37 (2): 115–134 Loudermilk B. C. (2015). “ Implicit attitudes and the perception of sociolinguistic variation” in Responses to Language Varieties: Variability, Processes and Outcomes. Ebonics pronunciation includes features like the omission of the final consonant in words like 'past' (pas' ) and 'hand' (han'), the pronunciation of the th in 'bath' as t (bat) or f (baf), and the pronunciation of the vowel in words like 'my' and 'ride' as a long ah (mah, rahd). Some of these occur in vernacular white English, too, especially in the South, but in general they occur more frequently in Ebonics. Some Ebonics pronunciations are more unique, for instance, dropping b, d, or g at the beginning of auxiliary verbs like 'don't' and 'gonna', yielding Ah 'on know for "I don't know" and ama do it for "I'm going to do it." What does Ebonics look like?