CP Time

[Wilson Gray]

On Nov 4, 2004, at 3:35 PM, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: CP Time
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> --------
>
> Wilson, I have heard this for a very long time and from folk who are
> most definitely not boojies (and who definitely do not have /s/ after
> "people"). But my momma told me a long time ago that I was runnin
> with the wrong crowd.
>
> dInIs
>
> PS: Truth is, I have rarely heard the "full form"; only when some
> lame asked what it meant.

If I wrote anything that implied that I thought that "CP time" was a
fresh term, I apologize. It's probably two days older than water. As
far as my experience of the living use of the term is concerned, "CP
time" is the pretty much the only way that I've ever heard the term
used. However, I've never heard "colored people time," only "colored
people's time." However, I do not doubt that there are speakers who say
the former.

  As for your moms, you better had listen. Yo momma she tellin you
straight. (The "better had" is a St. Louis BE-ism that merely adds
emphasis and has no effect on the tense of the main verb.)

-Wilson


>
>
>
>> On Nov 4, 2004, at 12:24 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>>> Subject:      CP Time
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --
>>> --------
>>>
>>>  From the comic strip Boondocks:
>>> http://www.ucomics.com/boondocks/2004/11/02/
>>>
>>> Huey:  I dreamt I talked to God last night . . .
>>> Huey:  He said, Don't worry about the election 'cause everything
>>> would
>>> work
>>> itself out soon.
>>> Huey:  Of course, to God, "Soon" could be, like, 50 million years.
>>> Caesar:  Yeah, He's been on C.P. time lately.
>>>
>>>
>>> I've seen/heard "C.P. Time" as "Colored People Time", but never in
>>> such a
>>> mainstream form.
>>>
>>
>> Aaron probably recked without the ADS, figuring that "the other group"
>> would be too lame and unhip to have any idea what the reference was.
>> Or, perhaps, he just didn't care, since he uses a lot of in-group
>> references in his work. If this kind of thing interests you(-all),
>> you(-all) may want to watch Chappelle's Show on Comedy Central. He's
>> the sketch-comedy version of Richard Pryor, so to speak. Or as it
>> were.
>>
>> FWIW, I know this only as "colored people's time," with the possessive
>> "s" pronounced, since I've heard it used only by  boojies as a down
>> (sic) of the underclass types who, with their lack of couth, their rap
>> music, and their blink-blink (sic) persist in interfering with the
>> upward progress of the Talented Tenth. Bill - or, rather, William -
>> Cosby, EdD, you know what I'm saying.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
>         Asian and African Languages
> Wells Hall A-740
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
> Office: (517) 353-0740
> Fax: (517) 432-2736
>