Splib

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 27, 2004, at 10:46 AM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: Splib
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>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Wilson Gray [mailto:wilson.gray at RCN.COM]
>> Sent: Monday, September 27, 2004 9:02 AM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Splib
>>
>>  This use of the phraseology, "I'm in sharp," is
>> together, hip, way out, charging, kicks ass, whales a while,
>> etc., and is very interesting.
>
> "whales a while"??  Is this a typo?  I would have expected "wail a
> while",
> as
> in "Jump Jive and Wail"
>

As we know, very little slang is ever written down or published, So, we
just have to make up a spelling. In this case, the expression sounds
like "whale a while" and not like "wail a while." I did consider using
"wail," but that's a literary word and not a street word. Also, "wail"
has a negative reading not in the slang phrase, which is extremely
positive. Of course, this means nothing, given that "bad" can be good.
This phrase also predates the slang usages of "wail." Besides, the
pronunciation is [hweil @ hwail], with absolutely audible
aspiration/devoicing of both of the initial wh's and not [weil @ wail].
There's also a related form, "be steady whaling" [st^dI hweilIn]  in
which alliteration is not available as an explanation. On the other
hand, BE sometimes does aspirate/devoice standard "w," as in
[hwEp]/[hwElp] for standard "welt." But this is a house word used only
of the welts on a child's back resulting from a whipping and is not a
street/slang word.

I have no reason to think that this "whale," an ad-hoc spelling, in any
case, is related to standard "whale."

I once read an article that argued that the aspiration of initial /w/,
in some sense, motivates its devoicing. My own opinion, FWIW, is that
devoicing, in some sense, motivates its aspiration.

-Wilson Gray