Tuesday, August 24, 2010

the justice department needs ebonics translators

When ya look at a list of translator job openings for the Justice Department, you don't expect to see "Ebonics" as one of the languages... but it's there.

They're looking for people in Atlanta to help translate the slang language, leavint The Smoking Gun to say what's "appropriate":
"Ebonics has widely been described as a nonstandard variant of English spoken largely by African Americans. John R. Rickford, a Stanford University professor of linguistics, has described it as "Black English" and noted that "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)."

It's hilarious to me. Will Ebonics become a class kids can take in school?! COLLEGE, even?! I'd so sign up and get an A++! Maybe they'll even offer an AP version.

To add to the laughter that is this job posting, take a listen to a promo for the job: [NSFW]




So perfect.

I wonder how it pays... If it's good, I'm OUTTA HEA! Or... I'll tell DJ X to take the job... He's in ATL, after all.

love,
elizabethany

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