your mother's a gunther?

[William Salmon]

There is of course the Swedish fetish rocker/rapper 'Günther', best
known for the hit single "Ding Dong Song (You Touch My Tra-La-La)".

Günther was a special guest at a Yale, Saybrook College Master's Tea
this past February.

Not sure if this is the source of the African-American mother insult or
not though.  Here is his address:

http://www.gunthernet.com/

I haven't followed all of this 'gunther' query, so my apologies if this
suggestion has already been posted.



> Does "Gunther" perhaps appear somewhere in popular culture (e.g. =
> character in a movie) which would have brought it specially to the =
> attention of African-American youth and hence to the rappers? Otherwise, =
> how many rappers are even aware of the German name "Gunther"?
> =20
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Gordon, Matthew J.
> Sent: Thu 7/13/2006 10:27 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: your mother's a gunther?
>
>
>
> Couldn't this just be the German(ic) name Gunther? Calling someone's =
> mother a German man's name might be insulting.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Mircea Sauciuc
> Sent: Wed 7/12/2006 11:38 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      your mother's a gunther?
>
> Hi,
>
> Listening to a rap battle between some east-coast rappers, I noticed one =
> guy
> insult the others mother by calling her a "gun-thu" (the last 'u' would =
> be a
> schwa sound).  I assume it would be spelled "gunther," but that produces =
> no
> results in the OED or any other dictionary.  I've asked some
> African-Americans hoping they'd have a better idea, and they said =
> they've
> heard of it before, but are unsure of its meaning.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> -mcs
>
> Mircea C. Sauciuc
> Department of Linguistics
> University of Kansas
>
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>



~Will Salmon

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org