knowumsayin

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>It sounds to me like "No-am sane?" (the a is a schwa and the vowel in
>"sane" is
>rather long and NOT nasalized.)  Aaron McGruder, in his Boondocks cartoons,
>spells it "knowhumsayin" or "knoowhumsaayin".  I don't know why the "h".

There are varying degrees of elision, the most severe in my (no  doubt
limited) experience giving approximately "kn'm say'n'" /n at msE(@)n/ as I
perceive it. More often, I've heard something like McGruder's version,
"know wha'm sayin'" /no(u)hw at msei@n/ -- whence the "h" /h/, or perhaps
really the "wh" /hw/, I think.

-- Doug Wilson