Cackalacka, Cackalacky, and variants [long]

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

German presents a word that sounds almost the same as Cackalacka, viz. "Kakerlake" (= cockroach).  Moreover, to German ears the "Cacka-" part of "Cackalacka" sounds almost identical to the German word "Kacke"
(excrement; not quite as offensive a term as Scheiße).

   So what's going on?  My guess is that an American who spent some time in Germany, say a serviceman, picked up the terms Kakerlake and Kacke and then applied them to North/South Carolina, since "Carolina" starts with the same "Ca-" sound. Whoever did this must have had some unpleasant thoughts about those two fine states.  Carolinians, almost universally unaware of the German word "Kakerlake," then evidently accepted the term as a poetically folksy variant of "Carolina" and even "folksified" it further to "Cackerlacky."  The spelling of course was also altered.

     Some people get their jollies by slipping something off-color or derogatory by an unsupecting public.  It's possible that Cackerlacka for "Carolina" is one more example of this.

Gerald Cohen

> ----------
        Original message, July 6, 2005, from: Bonnie Taylor-Blake
> For the past two or three years, there's been some interest at the University of North Carolina in tracking down the origin and early uses of
> "Cackalacky" and "Cackalacka," slang terms of somewhat indeterminate age for "Carolina."
>
> The term, and it's important to note that it appears in many forms [1], is used with regard to both North and South Carolinas.  And while the use of
> "Cackalacky" doesn't seem to be particularly prevalent at the moment, it is gaining in popularity, which may be due in part to its use in hip-hop and rap.  In fact, the earliest printed form I've managed to find is this,
>
> ---------------------------
        <snip>