"Gwine"

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Gwine" became an iconic spelling in minstrel songs: Foster's "Gwine to run all night, gwine to run all day!" and "I'm gwine to Louisiana with my banjo on my knee!" come to mind instantly.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: "Gwine"
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"Y'all" was so much fun that we should do another one, "gwine," that
should be less controversial. I'm no longer certain of how or when I
became familiar with this example of old-school Negro dialect. But I do
recall hearing it spoken in jest by a schoolmate in Texas around 1947.
Otherwise, I was familiar with "gwine" only from the movies, especially
George Pal's dumb-nigger animated cartoons and from comic books and
such written in Negro dialect. But, similarly to "y'all," as a
singular, I never heard it spoken in real life.

For years and years, I listened to all kinds of blues and rhythm &
blues, talked with colored folk from all over the South, and the
closest that I came to hearing a real "gwine" was "goina." Then, one
evening in 1979, I was listening to an interview with Sunnyland Slim,
an old-time blues pianist and a native of Mississsippi, on the local
NPR station, when I heard him say quite clearly, "They was gwine
broke!" My reaction was, "Damn! It's true! In fact, it's still a living
form!" Then I noticed that Memphis "She plays guitar like a man" Minnie
used "gwine." That was odd, because I'd been listening to her songs for
years without hearing any "gwine." But that mystery solved itself.
Sometimes, Minnie chose to use "gwine"; other times she chose to use
"gon(na)." I assume that she originally used "gwine," shifting over
time to "gon(na)," as "gwine" fell out of fashion. But that's just a
guess.

Sunnyland Slim and Memphis Minnie are both now deceased. Has "gwine"
finally died with them?

-Wilson Gray


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