Encylopedia of New York State (2005); Re: Etymology of "Ska"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 18:08:12 EDT, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

>SKA--Newspaperarchive is doing more of the Jamaica Gleaner. Stay tuned. No
>use to rush these things.

I believe the crucial years of the late '50s and early '60s have recently
been added to the _Gleaner_ archive.  They weren't there when I was
antedating "reggae" and "rocksteady" back in January, but I noticed them a
week or two ago.  The run looks reasonably complete now.

There's still the possibility that pre-1964 "ska" cites have evaded OCR
(lurking in concert ads or music listings), but I haven't come across
anything yet.  I'm not hopeful, since as I mentioned the _Gleaner_ seems
to have been directed at the white power elite in those days (particularly
before Jamaican independence in 1962).


--Ben Zimmer