Dear Openminded,
The exercise you posted in translating standards English (SE) text into Ebonics might be cute for some but for others, it may be seen as a grossly inacurate display of insensitivity. Do you know what Ebonics is?
Ebonics is a complex psycholinguistic structure that is derived from the social historical background of how Africans became African-Americans. As you know, Africans were taken from their homeland and brought to Uninted States for slavery. Thus, they had to learn English vocabulary. The reason I said vocabulary and not language was because we all know that the slavemasters did not allow the slaves to study the syntax and grammar of the English Language. Therefore, the slaves did exactly what anyone else would do while trying to communicate in a foreign language. They used the vocabulary of the target language and the syntax and grammar of their native language. To illustrate: In your little exercise, everywhere you deleted the consonant cluster (th) and substituted the letter (d), is because consonants do not occur in clusters in West African languages. Everywhere you deleted the (r) sound is because this sound does not exist in West African languages.
I have merely given you two examples of the thousands of correlaries between Ebonics and West African languages. I will give you credit for the fact that you referred to this complex linguistic structure by the correct name, Ebonics. There are those who still like to refer to it as Black English or non-standard English. You are also right about the study of linguistics being interesting. I particularly find it fascinating how these social and historical dynamics of an individual group of people shape their lexical repertoire. However, I'm not quite sure that I would agree with your humorous presentation of this linguistic phenomena. This issue is at the heart of many social academic and employment problems that African-Americans are faced with today, thus the lack of humor. I hope that this posting leads you to more scientific inquiry on this fascinating subject. I welcome your reply.