Heard on the Judges

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Tue Nov 13 15:18:56 UTC 2007


Thirty-ish white-male defendant:

"I didn't have the money because I had to pay my _baby-mama's_ lawyer."

I was rather surprised to hear "mama's." My internal grammar had
primed me to expect "baby-mama lawyer," even though the speaker was
white, so the speaker attracted my attention.

I've been rather hoping that "baby-daddy" and "baby-mama" would ease
on over into the general lexicon. Perhaps this speaker's use of the BE
"baby-mama" with the standard -'s genitive is an indication that the
process is beginning.

-Wilson

--
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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