Gringo

[Dennis R. Preston]

Geoff,

I know the word, but it was not in common use in the early 80's.
Maybe rap culture has brought it back to the fore.

dInIs



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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Geoff Nathan <geoffnathan at WAYNE.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Gringo
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Dennis wrote:
>
>>  When I lived in Hawai'i int he early 80's, locals
>>  had trouble with what to call black folk. "Haole"
>>  meant "white guy" but also meant "non-local," so
>>  "black haole," since no local guys were black,
>>  came to be a resolution.
>Dennis, apparently you didn't move in the right circles.  The Hawaiian
>Creole word for black folk is popolo (stress on penult.).  It shows up
>in various of Frank DeLima's songs for example, and in the
>linguistically sophisticated popular guide to HC 'Pidgin to da Max'
>(disclaimer--the authors were classmates of mine)
>
>http://www.amazon.com/Pidgin-da-Max-Douglas-Simonson/dp/093584841X
>
>There's a great song--a kind of potted history of the Islands--called
>'The Greatest Place of All.  It includes a list of ethnonyms at one point:
>
>This is the land of Podagee,
>Koreans, Flips and Haoles and plenny Popolo
>Buddhaheads, Vietnamese, Samoans and Hawaiians give us dignity.
>
>There's even a local rapper called the 'Lolo Popolo' (lolo is HC for
>stupid--it's also in the HC word for pot--pakalolo 'stupid weed'
>
>Geoff
>
>--
>Geoffrey S. Nathan
>Department of English/Computing and Information Technology
>Wayne State University
>Detroit, MI, 48202
><geoffnathan at wayne.edu>
>Phones:  C&IT (313) 577-1259/English (313) 577-8621
>
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--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
15C Morrill Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-4736
preston at msu.edu

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