Very OT: Uncle Remus frightened me as a child Re: "Jazz Means Happy and Loose Like" (1917)

Wed Dec 5 15:16:56 UTC 2007

It looks like "Br'er" but it's supposed to sound like "Bruh," no?  Of course, I always said and heard "br'er" (as in "prayer") till I realized I could sound smarter the other way.  Have I now outsmarted myself?

  As for Mr. TurTOOL, my imperfect recollection of the story is that the buzzard, turtle, and rabbit had grown up together in the rural poverty unfortunately so prevalent among these wild creatures, but that the buzzard and turtle had somehow "struck it rich."  When the rabbit, now employed in the fertilizer industry, had occasion to call on his former chums with a delivery for their new, fancy estate, he was greeted in condescending manner by the butler, who informed him with little tact or subtlety that his own employers had altered  their patronymics so as to exhibit a faux-Gallic stress pattern thought prestigious by the vulgar, thus presuming to raise themselves ostentatiously above their humble origins.

  Quite amusing, really!

  Ah, yes. To "do you _a_ solid" is the form with which my researches have made me most familiar over the past forty "odd" years. Its apparent faddishness today is a surprise.

  JL

  Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Very OT: Uncle Remus frightened me as a child Re: "Jazz Means
Happy and Loose Like" (1917)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"*Remusian* 'Bruh'"? I thought that the "Remusian" stories used
"Brer." I heard the story from my mother about sixty-five years ago
and she used [br@] and not [brei@(r)], which is the only pronunciation
I've ever heard used among blacks for the spelling, "brer." Either her
memory is wrong or my memory is wrong or the versions are simply
different. Like, how does the turtle get into the story? And, of
course, things do change with the passage of time.

I've just heard "do you _a_ solid" used on the tube for the umpteenth
time. Yet, I've known the expression as "do you _some_ solid" for the
past sixty or so years. I wonder how "a solid" is negated. To negate
"some solid," I say, "I can't do you no solid," which probably takes
no one by surprise.

So, is "err" pronounced [^r] or [ei at r]?

-Wilson

On Dec 4, 2007 7:48 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: Very OT: Uncle Remus frightened me as a child Re: "Jazz Means
> Happy and Loose Like" (1917)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The version I heard in the '70s also included "Mr. TurTOOL is out by the pool." I don't recall the Remusian "Bruh" honorifics, however.
>
> JL
>
> Wilson Gray wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: Very OT: Uncle Remus frightened me as a child Re: "Jazz Means
> Happy and Loose Like" (1917)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When I was a child, somebody gave me a copy of the book for Christmas,
> but I wasn't able to make any sense out of it, even with the aid of
> the accompanying illustrations and nobody in my family was able to
> read it to me. Nineteenth-century Black English eye-dialect wasn't
> taught in school. Nowadays, I know that "brer" doesn't spell "brayer"
> and that "sezee" doesn't spell "see zee."
>
> Here followeth the only tale of anything at all like those of the
> Uncle Remus school that I've ever heard. It dates from around the time
> of my mother's childhood, AFAIK. Ca.1910? Earlier? Later?
>
> Bruh Rabbit and Bruh Buzzard were partners in a business cleaning
> outhouses. After a day's work, Bruh Rabbit went by Bruh Buzzard's
> mansion. Bruh Rabbit rang the doorbell. The butler answered the door
> and asked,
>
> But: Yes, sir? May I help you?
> Rab: Bruh Buzzud tuh home?
> But: Yes, sir. Mister BuzZARD is out in the yard.
> Rab: "No lie? Well, tell 'im that Bruthuh RabBIT is heanh wit duh shit."
>
> -Wilson
>
>
>
>
>
> On Dec 4, 2007 9:47 AM, Amy West wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Amy West
> > Subject: Very OT: Uncle Remus frightened me as a child Re: "Jazz Means
> > Happy and Loose Like" (1917)
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > A personal anecdote:
> >
> > I never read the Uncle Remus stories as a child. I have a distinct
> > memory of pulling it off the shelf of the branch library in
> > Tonawonda, NY, opening it, and not recognizing it as any type of
> > English I was familiar with -- and I was used to foreign languages
> > with my dad doing German and Russian translations -- nor the type of
> > English that my (white) Southern relations spoke. And it scared the
> > bejeesus out of me. I put that thing back on the shelf and never
> > touched it again.
> >
> > ---Amy West
> >
> > >Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 16:01:56 -0500
> > >From: "Baker, John"
> > >Subject: Re: "Jazz Means Happy and Loose Like" (1917)
> > >
> > > "Rastus" seems to have been popularized by Brer Rastus, the
> > >deacon of a colored church, in the story "Uncle Remus's Church
> > >Experience," collected in Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus, His Songs
> > >and His Sayings: The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation 190 - 93 (1881;
> > >copyright 1880) (Google Books full text). But Harris does not seem to
> > >have invented the use. Here's an earlier, passing example:
> > >
> > > "While Brudder 'Rastus Putts passes round de hat, de
> > >congregashun will please sing de useal Ducksholiday to de same good ole
> > >tune."
> > >
> > >Professor Julius Caesar Hannibal [probably a pseudonym], Black Diamonds;
> > >or, Humor, Satire and Sentiment, Treated Scientifically 15 (1857;
> > >copyright 1855) (Google Books full text).
> > >
> > >John Baker
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> 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
>
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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

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