The Nu Naybahood: Funetic Ebonic Dictionary
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D. Munyunoo Jackson, Darryl Jackson

 Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
In late, 1996, a group of educators in the San Francisco Bay area tried, unsuccessfully, to get funding to make Ebonics an official language in the public school system. The premise was that African American children had their own way of speaking and writing that was understood by them, and by most teachers, but was not considered, "proper English." News of the Ebonics proposal sparked many debates among African Americans, with most opposing it. It also sparked tons of jokes and stories over the Internet - some funny, most not, and most racists. Stories of how supposedly Black people talk. I know some of it was meant to be funny, but I didn't see it that way because it was not based on the truth. How could it be when the information didn't originate in the Black communities or environments!

Ebonics is not new. It goes way back, even before the time of slavery in the U.S. There are many respectable books written on the subject of Ebonics, Black English, and the history and evolution of language and of people of African descent. But not until the case of the "unsuccessful Ebonic funding" did the nation, and the world, pay any attention to the word "Ebonics" and the way us Black folks talk!

I do understand that most of the jokes on the Internet were fabricated for laughs. So I, and many others, began to listen more closely to how we DO speak, say things, come up with words that mean certain things, and use old words and change the meaning without fabrication. And you know what? It's funny because it's real life.

In this book, I've collected words and terms that we use everyday. Some old, a lot new. Some of these words when you read them, are going to be hard to figure out at first because they look funny.

After reading many of these words, terms and sentences, I'm sure you'll say, "Yep, I've said THAT before!" Or else, you've heard someone else say it.

Now, the purpose of this book is mostly for entertainment, although there may be some educational value for those of you who are not familiar with some of the terms us Black folks use. I say entertainment, because it is NOT to be mistaken for an addition, or a replacement, for some of the great and serious work done on Black English. Nor will you find most of these words in Webster's or anybody else's dictionary. Cept this one, which I call, "The Nu Naybahood Funetic Ebonic Dictionary."

―Excerpted from The Nu Naybahood, Funetic Ebonic Dictionary by Darryl ''Wolf'' Jackson, D. Munyunoo Jackson. Copyright � 1998.