DEA Looking For People Who Can Translate "Ebonics"
Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 10:30AMThe Drug Enforcement Administration records people doing things that may or may not be illegal, but sometimes you don't know what these folks are saying. If they're speaking Spanish, then need a translator who knows Spanish. If they're speaking Chinese they need a translator who speaks Chinese. And if they're listening in on black gangbangers and drug dealers in the Southeast region of the United States, apparently, they need you, slang bangers, to tell them what these so-called "Ebonics" spouting linguists are saying.
Finally, those who have been listening to nothing but Clipse, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne all their lives can use their abilities for a career in law enforcement!
From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via the Associated Press):
Federal agents are seeking to hire Ebonics translators to help interpret wiretapped conversations involving targets of undercover drug investigations.
The Drug Enforcement Administration recently sent memos asking companies that provide translation services to help it find nine translators in the Southeast who are fluent in Ebonics, Special Agent Michael Sanders said Monday.
Ebonics, which is also known as African American Vernacular English, has been described by the psychologist who coined the term as the combination of English vocabulary with African language structure.
Some DEA agents already help translate Ebonics, Sanders said. But he said wasn't sure if the agency has ever hired outside Ebonics experts as contractors. ...
Linguists said Ebonics can be trickier than it seems, partly because the vocabulary evolves so quickly.
"A lot of times people think you're just dealing with a few slang words, and that you can finesse your way around it," said John Rickford, a Stanford University linguistics professor. "And it's not — it's a big vocabulary. You'll have some significant differences" from English.
What DEA really means is they need someone who understand the ever-evolving terms that revolve around black street slang used by drug dealers and criminals. But since it would make too much sense to say, "Hey, maybe we should hire that Lil Wayne on a Work Release program of translating some of this hippity hoppity slang these supposed criminals use," then went all 1996 on it and called it "Ebonics."
Ebonics, depending on who you ask, is either a real or a completely imagined thing. Proponents argued that some black people were speaking a whole different language independent of English. Other's argued that augmented or "bastardized" English is not a whole other language. For example, I don't always understand what British people are saying because I don't understand most British slang, but I still agree that British people obviously speak English and I would be able to communicate with a British native without too much difficulty. Slang is slang. Colloquialisms are colloquialisms. But it's all still in English, just with a different accent, different idioms, sayings and affects.
Meaning: My Arkansas-born Granny Snob is not speaking a different language from me. We communicate just fine even though she uses a different dialect, slang, affect and terminology at times because ... we're both native English speakers.
So, yeah, I fall on the side of "Ebonics is not a real thing."
Now slang is real. Slang does change rapidly. And those involved in street crime don't always use the same language as your average hippity hoppity lovin' kid on the street because they (obviously) don't want you to know what they're doing. But unlike the tests the DEA has for people who translate different languages, there is not official "test" to measure one's abilities at deciphering mutated street hustle.
And there lines the rub. How do you actually determine if your one cousin who sounds like he never even walked past a school, let alone went inside one, is qualified to understand what gang bangers are talking about? Your cousin might just be a lazy speaker. That doesn't mean he knows drug slang.
Drug slang and hippity hop language are not always one in the same!
From The Atlanta Journal Constitution:
Rickford said that hiring Ebonics experts could come in handy for the DEA, but he said it's hard to determine whether a prospective employee can speak it well enough to translate since there are no standardized tests. He said the ideal candidate would be a native speaker who also has had some linguistics training.
Finding the right translators could be the difference between a successful investigation or a failed one, said Sanders. While he said many listeners can get the gist of what Ebonics speakers are saying, it could take an expert to define it in court.
"You can maybe get a general idea of what they're saying, but you have to understand that this has to hold up in court," he said. "You need someone to say, 'I know what they mean when they say 'ballin' or 'pinching pennies.'"
(Hat tip to reader Abra for the link!)
Reader Comments (17)
Thanks for a thoughtful and as always witty commentary. And greetings from Bakersfield ~ yes Danielle, Bakersfield ;o)
So they are looking for former drug lords with linguistics degrees? The average south easterner is not going to know all the drug slang because they are not drug dealers.
Yet another great post and very well stated. Thanks so much for the shout out!
Danielle, please forgive me and excuse my Ebonics. I meant to say "Thanks so much for the hat tip"
is it used solely by drug dealers and criminals? likely not. i do think folks need to learn how to speak the kings english when dealing with other people.
Is this some sort of promo for their SpikeTV show or something? I figured they were more concerned with illegal immigrants and the time/tested Dixiecrats...
"I don't understand most British slang, but I still agree that British people obviously speak English and I would be able to communicate with a British native without too much difficulty. "
Tell that to my 15-year-old British cousin from SE London Danielle. She has quickly developed a proficiency in a "dialect" that is difficult to decipher. If you heard her you'd swear she grew up poor, in a household where neither parent had a university degree (not true) and she hadn't received formal education. I swear she's worked hard at sounding like this (which is stupid to me). Hmm... maybe she could try out for a similar job in the UK.
And as far as you swearing that we speak the same English, just different dialects, but understandable (something I've said too often), next time someone gives me the crap that they didn't understand me because of my Caribbean accent I'll send them to you.
This reminds me a story arc on "The Wire" where they brought in a cop to "translate" language on the wire taps. So it's not completely implausible. *kanye shrug*
We totally talked about African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in my Intro to Linguistics class and it is at least a dialect of English, if not a language. (Seriously, this was a day that completely shaped who I am as a person; it's kind of fun to talk about it again.) It's not just slang because it has grammatical features including different verb tenses and aspects that you don't find in standard English. For instance the difference between "They fighting" and "they be fighting", the first implying a one time action and the second a state where they are ALWAYS fighting. (Ripped the specific example from http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~hana/201/HO10-BE.pdf) I liked this article too although I'll admit both are a little technical: http://www.stanford.edu/~zwicky/aave-is-not-se-with-mistakes.pdf
And I think it's important that we give AAVE it's credit, because too often we think the people who speak it are lazy or uneducated and don't know how to speak "proper" English. That's not true. The hypothesis, which I think is credible, is that the language arose as people from West Africa were forced to figure out how to speak English with little guidance. They raised their children to speak a pidgin English (pidgin being a code used for transactions between speakers of two different languages). Their children nativized the pidgin and formed a creole. The creole, because of it's origins in this case especially, is not considered privileged. Some African American parents who wanted their children to speak a privileged language did everything they could to raise their children to speak "proper" English. So now white people look down on the use of AAVE and even some African Americans (especially those who don't speak it) don't recognize the...language, I'm calling it a language people... as a legitimate means of expression in it's own right.
Danielle what you are talking about with Granny Snob is mutual intelligibility and it is sometimes suggested by linguists as the feature that distinguishes a language from a dialect. Standard American English and AAVE are both dialects of English because all three are mutually intelligible (for the most part). Spanish and English are different languages because there is no mutual intelligibility. In politics, languages tend to be defined partly by mutual intelligibility and partly by an army. Hence Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese are "the same language" even though the Mandarin and Cantonese speakers could not understand each other at all; Hindi and Urdu are "separate languages" even though they are at least as similar as Standard American English and AAVE. So language or dialect, that's not a distinction that matters too much to me. But AAVE is definitely a smart, legitimate means of expressing yourself.
But I do think Danielle has a very valid point when it comes to saying that speaking AAVE and being aware of drug culture and slang are NOT the same things. The DEA really needs to be careful. Also, the fact that they called it Ebonics was stupid. The word Ebonics was made up, never accepted by the linguistic community and recalls that big argument in the 90s which had the country arguing about nothing. Bad choice all around.
As Jo mentioned, most linguists would beg to differ that "Ebonics is not a real thing." It is not just slang; it has a distinct grammar. It is also known as African American Vernacular English, or AAVE. Next time, please do your homework before spouting off inaccuracies.
That scene from "Airplane" is as funny to me now as it was years ago. (Airplane is one of those movies that I can watch over and over and still laugh like it's the first time I saw it.) But I wonder if they could have made that scene now, in today's political climate...
@ April
I'm sure Jo can speak for his or herself, but Jo argued that Ebonics was a made up term and that AAVE is a wholly separate thing from Ebonics -- arguing that Ebonics was never accepted by the linguistic community. That said, it's my personal opinion that speaking a different variation of English isn't like speaking a whole different language as AAVE is still based on English. Which was my point about being able to communicate with my grandmother even though she uses different pronunciations, accents, affects, slang and idioms from myself. Or being able to communicate with people from Jamaica. Or Great Britain. Or Australia.
In all these places English is the dominate language, but each country has their own ways to use language. But the base remains the same in all three. The type of English some African Americans speak is still English. I don't think it's a wholly different language. I sometimes struggle with accents or terminology, but I don't have a hard time communicating with different types of English speakers.
Anyway, my larger point was that drug slang and speaking in a black vernacular are two different things. They don't have a test for "drug slang." Gang bangers and other criminal elements are known for making up their own language to mask their illicit activities.
And let's not forget regional/neighborhood differences in dialect -- even in the DMV there are regional differences in dialect that have to be navigated.
Not sure how DEA is going to approach this...but it does give me a giggle to think about it.
@Danielle:
You argued that Ebonics was, essentially, made up. What people colloquially refer to as "Ebonics" is known linguistically as AAVE. AAVE is not just a set of "slang," as you keep insisting; it has a distinct syntax and morphology (and if you don't know what those things are, perhaps you should research them before blogging on this topic). You are probably correct that the DEA is likely looking for help parsing drug slang, rather than the grammar of AAVE/Ebonics. But your OP put forth a separate argument about the linguistic validity of Ebonics/AAVE, which can be easily debunked with basic research. You--and many others--may not consider it a "language," but that's a sociocultural and political issue, not a linguistic one. The old saw, after all, is that a language is simply a "dialect with an army and a navy."
@ April
My argument about Ebonics was about whether or not it was so different from English that it would be incomprehensible as it was a separate language. My line about "not a real thing" was in reference to that. But I am prone to hyperbole therefore that particular language was not precise and the post ended up giving off mixed messages.
I did not mean to imply that there was no such thing as a black dialect. Throughout this particular post I talk about not just the slang used by African Americans, but mention variations in pronunciation, sayings, accent and colloquialisms used by myself versus my grandmother. I, personally, don't believe what is often referred to as Ebonics is so dissimilar from standard English that it would incomprehensible to, say, a white person raised in the Northeast. There might be some difficulty with the variations in accent and word choice between a black Southerner and that of a white New Englander, but I feel that the term Ebonics is often misused by many to describe what is a dialect as a wholly different language and that's what I was pushing back against.
But exaggerating things with hyperbole can be hit or miss and I write most of my posts in a matter of hours or less. I could have written something more thoughtful and nuanced, but sometimes I just want to hit issues with a 2-by-4 and crack jokes. This means that sometimes my snark goes over to great comedic effect and sometimes it falls flat. So I understand your point. I can see how that remark would be maddening to someone who takes AAVE very seriously.
Is it wrong that I STILL find that scene funny as hell?!! And this reminds of the two cops on 'Sanford and Son' every time the white guy spoke Fred and Lamont would look at the black guy to translate but that would happen today either :(.
Danielle,
I'm from Queens, New York... lived in Boston for nine years and now live in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
They don't understand "Ebonics" (on which I agree with you) or AAVE either, unless they're reciting words from a Kanye or Akon song. Sometimes they look twice when I ask for water on a bad day. They speak Krio and other tribal languages. Does Krio sound like backwards English? (Painful for a journalist to speak at times.) A bit, but it's a full language here. So for the folks commenting, let's not blame Africa for this.
Also, I really enjoy your blog. Keep up the great work.