I’d say it in the case of ebonics de-evolution took place.

Before arriving at that solution, I downloaded a whole application just to compare the website in multiple IE versions. This download, at a whopping 200+ megs, was useless, like comparing crap-to-crap. The free application is called Microsoft Expression Web SuperPreview. I installed it after downgrading to IE7 from IE8.

Fun!

What you want to do is gracefully degrade for older browsers. This has been the intention of the web standards as they are updated over time. Older browsers (Even Firefox 3 will be considered outdated in a few years) can still render a page to a degree if you do it with degrading in mind. I wrote about how this technique is used.

http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/2006/09/05/preparing-your-website-for-ie7/

Jeffrey Zeldman is a well-known author who covers this technique extensively.

http://www.zeldman.com/dwws/

Because of forward compatibility can code the newer browsers and if ie6 doesn’t pick it up I’m ok with that as long as they get the information.

I’m not sure I have much business on your website, so I’ll make this my last post. I can’t speak for the other commentators, but I am in no way calling you a racist. AAVE is not linguistically inferior to standard English, in the same way that French, Tagalog, American Sign Language, and the many Native American languages, are not linguistically inferior or superior to standard English. Linguistically speaking, there are no primitive languages–all are equally robust and sophisticated. Socially, certain languages have more prestige than others, and there is no denying that AAVE is not valued in mainstream society. There are many worthwhile cultural artifacts that have come from these languages. American Sign Language has no written form, but there is a rich community of Deaf poets who use ASL as their medium to create beautiful and artistic works. In the same way, there is a vibrant rap and hip-hop community that playfully and artistically creates rhythmic sung and spoken poetry using AAVE (on this point you may want to do some research before considering only the most stereotypical types of rap songs). The value that languages and cultures have in their own communities is valid and cannot be derided or said to be inferior to the value of any other language or culture. Standard English has gained popularity not because it is a more pure and perfect form of language, but because of social and cultural reasons having to do with majority, race, and history.

I’m not an expert in web browsers, but as far as I understand Microsoft’s browser is inferior to other browsers because it lacks functionality–a point you explain well in your article. That there is something intrinsically wrong with Internet Explorer is probably true, but there is nothing intrinsically or linguistically wrong with AAVE, so no basis for the comparison.

I had absolutely no intention of starting a debate on the relative virtues of Ebonics with this post, and I’ve done my best to keep my mouth shut when a few commenters insisted that I am somehow a racist for the use of a perfectly valid analogy. After reading your comment, I can’t keep quiet any longer. While it may be true that Ebonics has a rule governed internal structure, the idea that it is not inferior to standard English is pure nonsense. Standard English is the universally accepted language of business and commerce throughout the world. Can you say the same for Ebonics? The Oxford English Dictionary lists 600,000 English words. Can you say the same for Ebonics? Can you point out great works of literature written in Ebonics to prove your point? Politically correct nonsense expressed in academic terms is still nonsense.

As for Ebonics, I am Caucasian, but grew up speaking it in addition to standard American English because of the demographics of my home town. It was nice to be able to fit in with all my friends. It’s also nice to know what the language variant is called, thanks to this discussion.

It’s too bad browsers aren’t identified as either corporate or personal to the web sites they visit. It’s also too bad they can’t use compatibility modes to be backward-compatible with legacy corporate apps.

We spent some time studying African American Vernacular English (AAVE), sometimes called Ebonics. Our professor, who is a linguist, noted some of the linguistic structures in AAVE. It turns out that AAVE, just like standard English, has an internal structure and is highly rule governed.

There are some linguistic processes that have taken place to produce AAVE as a non-standard dialect of American English because African American communities have been historically separate in the in the urban North. Separation causes independent linguistic evolution. Other communities that have been separated or isolated have developed their own dialects since the beginning of language. Not only does this apply to the American Southern dialect, Appalachian dialect, and other American dialects, but this same process describes how all languages were formed. They first start out as dialects of a particular language, and with separation and time, they become distinct languages. Indeed, this is how British English was differentiated from its parent languages.

It is true that AAVE is different from standard English, but it is completely false that it is “broken English”, “bad English”, or only spoken by people who are uneducated. Interestingly, it is not even true that it is only spoken by people who are Black.

The comparison that Chris Berry makes to prove the point of his otherwise entirely valid article is faulty not because it points out a difference, which it does, but because it serves to point out a deficiency. Microsoft’s Browser is indeed different and may well be inferior to other browsers (personally I believe this is the case). However, although AAVE and standard English are different, AAVE is not inferior in any way as a language, a tool to express thought and communicate, to standard English.

The problems that other commentators have mentioned is the lack of understanding between speakers of different dialects. This will happen between speakers of different languages as well. Does that mean that one language is inferior? Of course not, it simply means that there are two different cultures and languages at play.

Rebecca, I hope this satisfies your request.