knowumsayin; Promosexual; Pocket Opera

[Dennis R. Preston]

No, the questioner (who stretches the idea of word to include allegro
speech phrases), has "Do you know what I am saying" in mind. My
favorite treatment of this in popular culture is in in a Oliphant
cartoon where one of his "little people" outide the main action it
says "Nome sane." I pretty sure it was during the universal press
misunderstanding of the so-called Ebonics debate.

dInIs

>KNOWUMSAYIN'
>
>    Probably the listener has in mind "knowwhatimean."  That
>catchphrase was popularized by the "Ernest" character in commercials
>and in films.
>
>--------------------------------------------------------
>PROMOSEXUAL
>
>    From the VILLAGE VOICE, Voice Coices, 12 June 2001, pg. 131, col. 3:
>
>    ...Martin Lewis, a self-declared promosexual...
>
>--------------------------------------------------------
>POCKET OPERA
>
>    From the VILLAGE VOICE, 12 June 2001, pg. 66, col. 4 photo caption:
>
>(Composer Philip--ed.) GLASS AND AKALAITIS CREATE A "POCKET OPERA."
>
>(Ninety minutes of Kafka's IN THE PENAL COLONY.  Can't wait for the
>promo--ed.)

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736