'sup?

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 19, 2004, at 3:43 PM, William Stone wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       William Stone <W-Stone at NEIU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: 'sup?
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>
> In the northwest suburbs of Chicago, 'sup' is very much a Caucasian
> teen greeting.  African-American teens all seem to use a flapped
> 'whatup'

FWIW, on an episode of Law & Order, a black adult refers to a group of
black teenagers as a group of "[hw^D^ps]," where "D" is the SPE symbol
for flapped "t." Law & Order is set in the City, but who knows where
the writers get their BE slang from from?

-Wilson Gray

>  and have for a while.  My 15 year old has certainly been
> using it for at least two years.  How long has this variant of 'what's
> up' been around?  Where did it originate?
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> I first noticed  /tsup/~/sup/ in NYC about 1970.  When I came to
>> Tennessee in 1974, it was used there as well, almost entirely by
>> young African Americans, as in NY.
>>
>>
>