Cackalacka, Cackalacky, and variants [long]

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Thanks go to Larry Scroggs, Doug Wilson, Gerald Cohen, Peter McGraw, and Ben
Zimmer for their recent follow-ups on "Cackalacka."  (And I owe Doug an
apology for not finding his earlier "Kakerlake" reply -- it never occurred
to me to search the archives for "Cackylacky."  Had I thought to do so, I
would've also seen Erin McKean's original query [1] and Grant Barrett's
identification of a "Calinky" form [2], too.)

I must say that I much prefer to think that "Cackalacka" may ultimately stem
from "clanka lanka" (that *a cappella* refrain prevalent in a type music
popular to parts of the African-American community before WWII) than face
the possibility that it may have been coined as a term of disparagement
(with a play on "caca") by a member of the US military perhaps familiar with
the German words for cockroach and excrement.

But obviously that's just my native pride speaking.

-- Bonnie

[1]
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0206A&L=ADS-L&P=R3282&I=-3

[2]
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0206A&L=ADS-L&P=R3331&I=-3