"Ho"

[Wilson Gray]

And I thought that the stories about such parties was urban folklore!
Well, I guess it's true, what they say: "Everybody wants to be a
nigger. Unless he is one."

-Wilson

On 4/13/07, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      "Ho"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Recently we have discussed the orthographic and lexemic differentiation of "dialect" pronunciations from "standard" pronunciations in regard to "curse"/"cuss" and "naked"/"nekkid"; what about the timely "whore"/"ho"?  In class I have had female students express astonished displeasure that I use the word "whore" in reference to Mary Magdalen; yet these same students (mostly white females) can be heard playfully referring to each other as "ho."
>
> What IS the current status of "ho," sociolinguistically speaking? Certainly it differs from "whore." At a folklore conference a couple of years ago, I heard a paper about parties held by campus organizations (in California, not Georgia!) titled "Pimps and Ho's [sic]" and "Ho's and Bro's" (as well as "White Trash" parties).  The (white) participants don costumes, tattoos, appropriate coiffures, jewelry, etc.
>
> And speaking of my students, especially in my Milton classes: My native and natural pronunciation of "naked" is [nEkId]. I sometimes (especially when reading aloud from _Paradise Lost_) actually TRY to say [nekId], but the result is still usually found guffaw- (or at least giggle-) worthy. Most of my students nowadays come from the upscale suburbs of Atlanta, first- and second-generation immigrants to Georgia from the Northern states.
>
> --Charlie
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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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