The demand for large numbers of Spanish translators in America's war on drugs will come as no surprise given the route cocaine takes to the US.

But an attempt to recruit people who speak what some controversially regard as a homegrown United States language has put the Drug Enforcement Administration in the unique position of seeking translators to understand what African Americans are saying to each other.

The administration is hiring nine speakers of Ebonics – a term that appeared in the mid-1970s to describe US black vernacular English – to translate wiretaps and video surveillance tapes to a standard that will allow government agents to "follow the money" and that will stand up in court.

Ebonics is described by some linguists as English incorporating the grammar of African languages, but as it also includes many words invented on the streets, it is dismissed by others as mere slang.

Nonetheless, the administration is confused enough to ask firms providing translation services to provide the nine Ebonics translators to cover an area from Washington DC to New Orleans and Miami and even the Caribbean.

The move is a contentious one. American officials have in the past denied that there is any such thing at Ebonics.

"A lot of times people think you're just dealing with a few slang words, and that you can finesse your way around it," John Rickford, a Stanford University linguistics professor, told the Associated Press. "And it's not – it's a big vocabulary. You'll have some significant differences."

Although Ebonics has been rejected as a concept by many scholars, it drew nationwide attention in 1996 when a school board in Oakland, California decided to recognise it as a primary language and to offer instruction.

The move was widely criticised as likely to undermine African American children's command of English. Jesse Jackson, the African American leader, described it as a "an unacceptable surrender, borderlining on disgrace". He later changed his position, saying he had misunderstood that the school's intent was to use Ebonics to improve the students' English.

"It seems ironic that schools that are serving and educating black children have not recognised the legitimacy of this language," said H Samy Alim, a Stanford linguistics professor. "Yet the authorities and the police are recognising that this is a language that they don't understand. It tells us a lot about where we are socially in terms of recognising African-American speech."

The administration's need for Ebonics translators was revealed in a document outlining its requirements, first published by The Smoking Gun.

The administration says most of its requirements involve Latin American Spanish but it is also seeking people fluent in 114 languages listed either as "common" or "exotic". The common tongues include Arabic, Farsi and Punjabi. On the exotic list are Baloch from Iran, Berber dialects, Chimora from Guam, Ibo from Nigeria and Norwegian.

The Ebonics translators are to be assigned to the Atlanta field division where there will be a similar number of Vietnamese, Korean and Laotian speakers – and 144 Spanish translators.

Wire slang



In the US TV series The Wire, Baltimore police spent hours listening to wire-taps. Paul Owen untangles the jargon.

We got to book We've got to leave

I need a re-up I need a new supply (eg of drugs)

Word is bond I mean it

I might got to drop him; I ain't even playing I may have to kill him; I mean it

I might could school you here; I banked him I might be able to teach you something about that; I beat him up.

Got $10 I can hold? Can I borrow $10?

Is he shook? Is he scared?

Well, later. I got to grind Bye. Got to get to work.