"di?nt" (with glottal stop)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:31:21 -0500, Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
>
>In any case, the use of glottal stops by BE speakers didn't come to my
>attention again until rap music became popular. I've since heard the
>glottal stop used by many, many rappers. Then I noticed that on trash
>TV - Jerry, Maury, et al. - not only BE speakers but also
>Latino-English speakers, whose speech patterns appear to be based on
>those of BE rather than those of standard English, and even some white
>speakers who talked black were all using the glottal stop. However the
>glottal stop came to be used by rappers - I doubt that they all come
>from North Carolina -  IMO, the glottal stop seems to have become an
>in-group marker of the rap culture and, unfortunately, seems to be
>spreading like wildfire. I first noted its use by kids in Roxbury (the
>Harlem of Boston, as it were) about ten years ago. I haven't noticed
>its use by West-Coast blacks, yet, but I figure that it's only a matter
>of time.

In recent years the exaggeratedly glottalized "Oh no you/he/she di[?]n't"
(as a response of outrage, or mock outrage) has become a hackneyed
catchphrase.  My sense is that the expression had its origin in hiphop and
then started turning up on those "trash TV" shows in the late '90s (with
appropriate hand gestures and head-bobbing).  From there it became a
source of mockery for white Americans, as in this bit from Saturday Night
Live's "Weekend Update" (April 2002):

     -------------

     http://snltranscripts.jt.org/01/01pupdate.phtml

     Tina Fey: (nods head) Bill Clinton - Bill Clinton revealed
     in Newsweek that he is getting a new chocolate lab to replace
     his dog, Buddy. Bill says, with Hillary away in D.C., he just
     needs another bitch in the house.

     Jimmy Fallon: Oh, snap! Oh, yes, you did!

     Tina Fey: (gets up from her chair and starts flapping arms) Oh,
     no! Oh, no, you didn't! Oh, snap! OKAYYYYY! [etc.]

     -------------

There are examples of "oh no you didn't" on the Usenet newsgroups alt.rap
and rec.music.hip-hop about ten years back:

     -------------

     Date: 1994/04/20
     Message-ID: <94110.191901SCW112 at psuvm.psu.edu>
     Newsgroup: alt.rap

     In article <1994Apr20.214045.27522 at random.ccs.northeastern.edu>,
     nickman at ccs.neu.edu (Jeff Nicolai) says:
     >
     >- Chuck D. from Public Enemy is from a middle class family in
     >Long Island.  As an 'oppressed' rapper from the ghetto........
     >he ain't Shit!!!!

     oh no you didn't...

     -------------

     Date: 1995/08/03
     Message-ID: <030895.10035334596.n at frontier.canrem.com>
     Newsgroup: rec.music.hip-hop

     >Da Brat and Latifah are lesbians.  Please don't deny it...

     UH, oh no you DIDN'T! Latifah I ain't care aboutm but, but tha Brat?
     That's cold man, that's cold.

     -------------

Of course, we can't know how these examples were meant to be pronounced,
but this example from 1993 has a pronunciation spelling indicating
glottalization:

     -------------

     From: Enuma Olanrewaju Ogunyemi
     Subject: Re: Black labels
     Date: 1993/09/07
     Message-ID: <26irmb$gu9 at senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
     Newsgroup: alt.rap

     Again you are being unnecessarily rude.  BTW a lot of English folk
     don't think Americans speak proper English, so using statements like
     "Webster and the rest of reasonable (no you di'int!!) society"
     doesn't mean much outside the U.S.

     -------------

Such glottalized pronunciation spellings became more common in the late '90s:

     -------------

     Date: 1998/11/13
     Message-ID: <19981113002102.07786.00000858 at ng-fq1.aol.com>
     Newsgroup: alt.music.ska

     >abba or erasure
     >
     >blech!! my ears are already starting to bleed just thinking about
     >it!! get a mop, quick!

     oh NO he di-ent!!

     -------------

     Date: 1999/10/19
     Message-ID: <380D2CA4.51F0F7B at pacbell.net>
     Newsgroup: alt.music.prince

     3 chains o' gold
         oh no he DI'INT!

     -------------

     Date: 1999/10/24
     Message-ID: <38137c26.490249861 at news-server>
     Newsgroups: rec.arts.mystery

     >And what do sluices, which are used in placer gold mining have
     >to do with books? Is this another weird Americanism?

     OH NO HE DI'NT

     -------------

By now, of course, the catchphrase is well and truly played out.

--Ben Zimmer