Colonial languages developed by enslaved Africans were all denigrated as broken dialects

Evidence

All the new languages that enslaved Africans had developed in the Spanish, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and British colonies were similarly denigrated in racist fashion as broken “dialects,” or inferior varieties of the standard European language, which in the United States was “Standard English.” Ebonics had formed from the trees of African languages and modern English, just as modern English had formed from the trees of the Latin and Germanic languages. Ebonics was no more “broken” or “nonstandard” English than English was “broken” or “nonstandard” German or Latin. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1171

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Ebonics’ linguistic legitimacy: it is a full creole language formed from African and English roots, no more ‘broken’ than English is broken Latin or German.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s goal of placing arguments — this is a clean antiracist reframe (Ebonics as legitimate language) versus the assimilationist ‘proper English’ hierarchy.
• SHARE: The analogy ‘Ebonics is to English what English is to German or Latin’ is a crisp, quotable point for anyone interested in creole linguistics.