Rating: 
Summary: Black Talk on loan
Review: This book by Geneva Smitherman is a good buy because it is very recent and it aims at explaining what that language some call ebonics, at least the variant that exists in the USA, is. The book is a dictionary in a way but the presentation is giving a central idea. Black talk is the language AfroAmericans create and use in their community both to differentiate themselves from the whites and to speak a language that is not understood by the whites. They are thus smuggling meaning into white society that only them understand. But the main phenomenon the author shows is that the whites are copycats and borrow that language from the blacks and keep it on loan, without interest, and enrich their own language with it. In a way today's black talk is tomorrow's white talk and today's white talk is yesterday's black talk. This shows a great level of creativity and even a great level of inspiration : AfroAmericans inspire the whites with their creativity, which tends to imply that the creativity of the whites, particularly among young people, is black driven and black inspired. The question that is not answered is why AfroAmericans, as a community, are not recognized for what they are : an essential engine in the creativity of American society and culture. Some will say that this is only words, but words are the tools of the mind and these words transport meaning. This is the other question that is not answered : the meaning the whites use in those black words is not what the blacks convey with them. Are the whites unable to get this meaning ? Doesn't this meaning apply to white society ? Is it a last form of racism, the racism of the language and the mind? I think it is more complex and words, when they shift from one situation to another, necessarily change meanings. This is a case of languages in contact. The whites borrow the words but they implant the meanings they want in them.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan
Rating: 
Summary: Reference Library Must for Writers
Review: This is a great reference. As a working screenwriter and published novelist, I find I use this book almost every day. One nit, however: it would be a lot more helpful if the book were cross-referenced so that you could look up a common word and find the Black Talk "translation." Just a thought for those of us who aren't hip. BTW, this author is very good, a fine writer and her work is extremely well researched. Check out her other books.
Rating:
Summary: telling you like it TIS...
Review: This is a loving tribute to African-American language and phrases. If you love language and want to brush up (positively) on your "Ebonics", then this book is the one to have. I can't wait to read it to my toddler when he can mentally "break it down"!!! If you like being "in the mix", then hook it up!!!
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