ahold

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:24:45 -0400, Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:

>On Jun 14, 2005, at 2:17 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>> I guess I've heard the stress on the second syllable (nearly always)
>> when the word is used as a question: [Is that] a'ight?
>
>Hale yeah! ;-) It's also stressed on the second syllable in exclamatory
>use.
>
>> and on the first (sometimes) when it is a statement [that is] a'ight.
>
>I also agree with "sometimes." After re-running this past my focus
>group, I'm forced to admit that "AW 'ight," stressed on the first
>syllable, is likely to occur only in simple agreement: "Suhmo'?"
>"Aw'ight." ("Aw'ight" more-or-less represents my personal preference in
>pronunciation and is not meant as a reflection on the validity of
>"a'ight" as eye-dialect.)

When did the "a'ight" spelling first start appearing, anyway? It showed up
rather suddenly on the alt.rap newsgroup beginning in the fall of '92,
with usage gradually building before it peaked in the late '90s/early
'00s.  Here's the earliest appearance:

-----
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.rap/msg/37cd20e40a38717b
20 Oct 92 16:36:08 GMT
I think Mary J. Blige's 411 is a'ight.
-----

The spellings "aiight" and "aiiight" began appearing on the newsgroup in
1994. (The rap duo Gang Starr had a song on their 1994 album _ Hard to
Earn_ called "Aiiight Chill...").


--Ben Zimmer