bad

[Dennis R. Preston]

Pat,

I don't think so. I played basketball as an old guy and learned "my bad"
from younger players. "My bag" came to me independently from music-street
culture.

The phonology is good - final stop loss (with attendant vowel
lengthening/diphthongization compensation), but the sense is no good.
What's "bag" got to do with "bad"?

dInIs (who played both)

>It used to be "That's my bag," which was later shortened to, "My bag."  I
>think that "my bad" is folk pronunciation of this slang expression.
>                PAT

Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
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