OED & Jigaboo

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:03 PM -0400 4/11/07, Paul Johnston wrote:
>Maybe those in our list from the UK can fill us in, but when I lived
>there in 1973-85, "Jewess" was decidedly UNcool, at least in the
>sense of "old-fashioned", with overtones (at least) of racism.
>
>While soliciting info from the Britishers on our list, what's the
>pronunciation of the Oxfordshire Islip that the Long Island town is
>named after?  "ice-lip", "Eyes-lip" or something else?   I lived at
>the opposite end of the UK, so I don't know.
>
>Paul

Well, I can find an origin on line:

A village near Oxford, England; the name 
signifies a place on the edge or brink of the 
water; an island.

but not a pronunciation guide.  I wonder if it 
could be ['Iz lIp], as in Islington?

There's another Islip further north:
Islip (Northamptonshire) shows the use of a river 
name in a topographic name "slippery place by the 
River Ise"

LH

(The Wiki-entry for Islip, 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islip,_New_York, 
gives the pronunciation only for the US town, 
which it somehow locates 30 miles *west* of NYC, 
pretty tricky considering the situation of Long 
Island.)


>
>On Apr 11, 2007, at 3:20 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: OED & Jigaboo
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>---------
>>
>>OTOH, "negress" is so long out of date that most people don't know
>>that it was ever in date. I last (and first) heard it in 1959, spolen
>>by Greg McCurdy, of 'How ADJ is that?" fame. My impression is that,
>>theretofore, Greg had never before had occasion to attempt to converse
>>with a Negro - that was, of course, the term of preference, in those
>>days - and was, therefore, somewhat clumsy at it. IAC, in the course
>>of telling a lame story about an African "black" at a party - in those
>>days, an insulting term usually applied only to Africans, "Negro"
>>being reserved for Americans by the U.S. media - who was freaking out
>>over being invited to dance with the white girls at the party, Greg
>>quoted the African as claiming that he was accustomed to dancing only
>>with "negresses."
>>
>>OT third H, "negresse" is used in Louisiana "Gumbo French" to
>>translate, "woman, babe, chick, girl friend," etc. in zydeco-ic blues
>>songs.
>>
>>But isn't "Jewess" still cool in the UK? It seems to me that Bernard
>>Lewis(?) uses it throughout his writings. Well, it's been fifty years
>>since I've read anything by him (assuming that I have the right person
>>in mind). So, what do I know?
>>
>>-Wilson
>>
>>On 4/10/07, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>>Subject:      Re: OED & Jigaboo
>>>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>----------
>>>
>>>At 10:41 AM -0400 4/10/07, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>>>>On Tue, Apr 10, 2007 at 09:30:32AM -0500, Scot LaFaive wrote:
>>>>>  After hearing about Imus and being curious about "jigaboo," I
>>>>>looked it up
>>>>>  in the OED: "A Black person, a Negro." This made me think;
>>>>>isn't "Negro" now
>>>>>  considered somewhat offensive? I've heard that "Black" was once
>>>>>offensive
>>>>>  while "Negro" wasn't, but is it reversed now? Personally, I
>>>>>find "Black" as
>>>>>  acceptable and valid as "White," but I would never use "Negro."
>>>>>Though there
>>>>>  still is the United Negro College Fund....
>>>>
>>>>The OED's recently revised entry for _Negro_ has a long note
>>>>about the usage, including mention of the UNCF, and the
>>>>comment "...the term _Negro_ (together with related terms such
>>>>as _Negress_) has fallen from favour and is now typically
>>>>regarded as out of date or even offensive in both British and
>>>>American English."
>>>
>>>"Out of date" is crucial for _Negro_ (and I think
>>>there's a clear distinction vis-Ã -vis "Negress"
>>>which--like "Jewess"--is out-of-date *and*
>>>offensive).  In referring to, say, "the Negro
>>>leagues", it's not necessarily intended or
>>>received as offensive, although it is indeed
>>>generally "[out] of favour".  Similarly, there's
>>>"colored", surviving (hidden) in NAACP.
>>>
>>>LH
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>-----
>>                                                       -Sam'l Clemens
>>
>>"Experience" is the ability to recognize a mistake when you make
>>it, again.
>>
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>
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