New Law Blogs

Wanted: DEA Ebonics Linguists

By Andrew Ramonas

The Drug Enforcement Administration is looking to hire about nine specialists fluent in Ebonics to assist in narcotics investigations, according to government bid documents first reported by The Smoking Gun.

The full-time experts would work out of Atlanta to help the Justice Department agency interpret, translate, transcribe and monitor intercepted communications. The DEA is looking to hire up to 2,100 linguists who are fluent in 114 languages, according to the request for proposal issued in mid-May. Contractors were expected to respond to the request for linguists  by July 29.

The DEA identifies Ebonics as a “common language” spoken only in the United States. Merriam-Webster defines Ebonics as “black English” that first came into use in the 1970s.

There is debate over whether Ebonics is an American-English dialect or its own language. Many Ebonics words are English words without the final consonant, according to The Smoking Gun. Ebonics is often used in rap music.

Full post as published by Main Justice on August 23, 2010 (boomark / email).