finna

[Rachel E. Shuttlesworth]

When I taught at Mississippi State during Spring 2003, I first noticed
"finna" and interpreted it as a modification of "fixin to" (fIksInt@)
(which in my Alabamian mind means "about to" or "going to"). Some of my
students would say fI?nt@ (with a glottal stop /?/ replacing the /ks/
<x>), some said fI?n@ (with the /t/ gone) and still others said fIn@
(with the glottal stop gone). Since I first started paying attention to
its use over a year ago, I've heard it here a lot in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
as well, mostly from younger (under 30) AAVE speakers. To me, it could
work with that meaning in the examples you've found, especially the
first and third uses.



Orin Hargraves wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Orin Hargraves <orinkh at CARR.ORG>
> Subject:      finna
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Can anyone fill me in on finna? I keep coming across it in blogs; seems to be
> a straightforward substitute for “gonna.” Random examples:
>
> This isn't finished at all. it's finna be epic.
>
> Jacob wants to go to the beach, but I'm finna stay in the city and just relax.
>
> imma let her have all the easy shots because im finna take tha ball and make
> tha game a lil harder.
>
> What’s the pronunciation? And why does f substitute for g?
> Is it mainly AAVE? — that’s the impression I get from context.
>
> NB: watch out for the false positive Icelandic hits if you Google it.
>
> Orin Hargraves

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Rachel E. Shuttlesworth
CLIR Post-Doctoral Fellow
University of Alabama Libraries
Box 870266, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0266
Office: 205.348.4655/ Fax:205.348.8833
rachel.e.shuttlesworth at ua.edu