I heard an interesting theory last night from a choir director re: THE vs. DE, etc.

Joe B's understanding is that since slaves were not permitted to look a white person in the eye, the dropped head (and resulting constricted airway) would make THE come out as DE, and/or that a white person would hear it (and thus transcribe it) that way.

Then.... one can extrapolate from there that DE is what babies would hear as they acquired language.... and since English was not the first language of newly-arrivibg enslaved persons.... well, there you'd have the birth of Ebonics.