A Glossary of Gullah Words

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thirty years ago (that's a full generation ago, for those like me who need a reminder) a fellow graduate student described herself to me as a "geechee" because she came from rural, coastal South Carolina.  Evidently the word applies to whites as well.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: A Glossary of Gullah Words
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On Jan 2, 2005, at 5:39 PM, Jerry E Kane wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jerry E Kane
> Subject: A Glossary of Gullah Words
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Gullah Tours - Charleston, SC - Abridged Gullah Dictionary
> http://www.gullahtours.com/gullah_dictionary.html
>
> Glossary of Gullah Words taken from The Black Border by Ambrose E.
> Gonzales
>
> Amazon.com: Books: The Black Border: Gullah Stories of the Carolina
> Coast
>

"Gullah" reminds me of "geechee." Among blacks in East Texas along the
border with Louisiana, this term, _geechee_, is applied to blacks from
Louisiana, particularly those who speak what's known to ETx blacks as
"Gumbo French." It also is applied to black Louisianans with French
(sur)names, e.g. the bluesmen Clifton Chenier and Jean Baptiste "J.B."
LeNoir, the jazzman Jean Baptiste "Illinois" Jacquet, the R&B singers
the Trenier Twins and Antoine "Fats" Domino. Sometimes, merely speaking
an obviously non-Texas dialect, such as that of New Orleans, is enough
to render a person geechee. There's no opprobrium that attaches to
being considered geechee,

-Wilson Gray


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