punch not < panc

[Jim Rader]

There are occasional exchanges about the etymology of slangisms on
ADS-L, the e-mail list of the American Dialect Society.  You can find
info on how to subscribe at the ADS website
(www.americandialect.org).  I should point that the focus of the list
is not etymology, but American speech in general (phonetics,
regionalisms, usage, neologisms, dialects, etc.).  Etymological
discussions that do not center on Americanisms are definitely off
topic.  I know of no e-mail list devoted solely to etymology.

As for African origins of jazz and jive terms, the locus classicus is
an essay by David Dalby, "The African Element in American English,"
that appeared in _Rappin' and Stylin' Out: Communication in Urban
Black America_, ed. Thomas Kochman, Univ. of Illinois Press, c1972.
I think it not inaccurate to say that most of Dalby's proposals have
not been accepted.  A continual stumbling block to progress in this
area is that neither specialists in African-American Vernacular
English (or AAVE, as it's usually abbreviated) nor specialists in
African languages take much of an interest in etymology.

Jim Rader

> Secondly, is there a more appropriate list around that delights in
> etymological niggles, as this has nothing deep to do with sigmatic aorist
> laryngeals? I want to ask someone their opinion of deriving the jive terms
> <bug, dig, guy, hepcat, honky> from Wolof; but not here.

> Nicholas