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<font size=3>At 10:48 AM 10/11/2000 -0400, Doug Wilson wrote:<br>
><br>
>I'm not sure that the equivalence of 'ho' with 'whore' is legitimate.
I<br>
>agree that 'ho' formally or etymologically = 'whore' ... but in
the<br>
>dialect(s) from which the transcription 'ho' is generally used the
word has<br>
>been generalized to mean essentially 'woman', I think.<br>
><br>
The generalization is not universal among
speakers of African American English. It depends on who is referring to
who, in what context, and what kind of relationship the speaker has to
the referent. I think the last condition is very important. For general
discussions of such terms, interested readers may want to check Geneva
Smiherman's and Arthur Spears's contributions to AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH
(1998) edited by Mufwene, Rickford, Bailey, & Baugh.<br>
<br>
Sali.<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><br>
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<div>Salikoko S.
Mufwene
s-mufwene@uchicago.edu</div>
<div>University of
Chicago
773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924</div>
<div>Department of Linguistics</div>
<div>1010 East 59th Street</div>
<div>Chicago, IL 60637</div>
<div><a href="http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html" EUDORA=AUTOURL>http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/linguistics/faculty/mufwene.html</a></div>
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