DW1.b

In Chapter 3 of A Reader for Writers Keith Gilyard explains his personal experiences with Black English further with "Rapping, Reading, and Roleplaying". Throughout the text, Gilyard provides citations and examples to further certify that Black English itself is a "legitimate linguistic system and not merely a collection of verbal aberrations arrived at by the reckless violation of the rules of a so-called superior variety of English"(Gilyard pg.25).

This idea got me thinking about the language that I was taught to use at home and school in comparison to the ideas of the chapter. I had always thought that this structure of English that I learned was the only correct form to use. Any variation of this was wrong or just had an underlying purpose about it such as nonconformity or individuality. Maybe it was peoples' reaction to years of oppression by a higher government. The differences of Standard English and Black English brought up in Gilyards essays are very interesting because he doesn't look at Black English from the angle that I see it as. He grew up around it and sees them as not the same by grammar and sentence structure, but by meaning and the people that you are around understanding what you're saying. "We will make mistakes of course, but the point is that the mistakes are insignificant if they don't interfere with actual meaning."(Gilyard pg.31). It seems to me that Black English is mostly a simplified version of the Standard English. The sounds of the vowels and past tense and such is much simpler. He goes on to say that all of the forms of English are intermingled and that it is impossible for a language to remain pure. So in theory, if language is constantly changing then there couldn't possibly be a "right" or standard English to use.

In my first writing, I provided an example of how people judge by the way other people speak. Every region of the U.S. has it's own accent and different versions of certain words that we all learn from our household language. A lot of people, while first meeting you, might find it funny and make assumptions about you based on stereotypes before they even know you. Gilyard would definitely agree and add a lot more to the idea of a different "home" language that I wrote about. He would know, from his own personal experiences, about coming to a new environment and having to learn the ability to be bidialectal and open to certain situations within that new environment.