Etymology of "Ska"

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:17 AM -0400 6/12/05, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>I also have this /l/ in my mind's ear. As I reproduce it in my own
>mouth, it seems 1) to have a backer tongue-tip contact than is usual
>(perhaps even slightly retroflexed, touching behind rather than on
>the alveolar ridge) and 2) to have a geminate or "long" /l/ in the
>second /l/ of the word.
>
>I am surer about the second than the first, since a variety of
>articulatory positions might achieve the same acoustic effect.
>
>dInIs


Absolutely right--perfect description.  I was also thinking the
effect was stronger on the second /l/, and the gemination is
definitely part of it.  One especially nice thing about this list is
the constant reassurance that my brain isn't the only one that still
stores all these vital records (scratched as they may sometimes be).

Larry

>>At 12:47 AM -0400 6/11/05, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>>>Unfortunately, the _Gleaner_ at the time seems to have been directed at
>>>>Jamaica's slender white minority, so it apparently missed the first
>>>>five
>>>>years of the ska "rage". It wasn't until ska had become popular in
>>>>England
>>>>(Millie Small's "My Boy Lollipop" was a huge hit there)
>>>
>>>As it was here, reaching no.2 in 1964. The singer herself appeared on
>>>Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
>>
>>There was *something* about those /l/s in the way she sang
>>"Lollipop"; can anyone help identify the relevant phonetic feature?
>>I can still hear it in my mind's ear 40 years later...
>>
>>Larry (with no special /l/, alas)
>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
>Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
>A-740 Wells Hall
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48824
>Phone: (517) 432-3099
>Fax: (517) 432-2736
>preston at msu.edu