tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Feb 02 11:57:24 1997

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RE: Another Attempt at Controversy

Voragh writes:
>...And I'm not really sure we can
>easily distinguish between -taH and -lI' or between -pu' and -ta' without
>using *several* more words.

If one takes seriously attempts to formalize the grammar of "Black English"
("Ebonics"), it can be accomplished with one word: "done".

{Sop} "He eats."
{SoptaH} "He be eating."
{SoplI'} "He done be eating."
{Soppu'} "He been eating."
{Sopta'} "He done been eating."

I heard this on NPR's "All Things Considered" some months ago.  A linguist
whose name I don't remember was pointing out the consistent nature of this
sort of usage, claiming that though it's not standard English, it is quite
grammatical in "Ebonics".  He made a point of using the term "aspect" when
talking about the usage of "be" and "been" in this way, and how in English
the direct parallels are "is" and "has been".  He had a term for using the
word "done" in this way, too, but I don't remember what it was.  He stated
that it didn't have the same meaning as "finished", which was something he
had to explain in detail after giving the "he done be eating" example.

Not that this is useful in any way except for those people trying to learn
Klingon whose "primary" language is Ebonics.

-- ghunchu'wI'

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