BE _dah-dah-dah_ (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE


>
> On The Judges, it's normal to hear contemporary black speakers using
> "dah-dah-dah"
>
> "And then he said, 'Man, I don't owe you no more money! Talk to your
> old lady, somebody!' _dah-dah-dah_ [,d^d@'da]."
>
> in place of the more-courtly _and so on and so forth_ used by my
> parents and grandparents.
>
> IAC, this _da-da-da_ is, IMO, very likely merely ordinary
> "dot-dot-dot" from _..._, less interesting in terms of inventive
> sound-symbolism than the _splah-dah-dah_ ['spla,da,da] used by black
> GI's or the _obba-stobba_ [,ab at .'stab@] used by boyz in the 'hood in
> L.A. in gear-dagum (IIRC, "days of yore" in Beowulf; the hyphenation
> is that of Tolkien).
>

Possibly related to "yada, yada, yada"?  I've heard "di-dah, di-dah,
di-dah" used similarly, probably by white folks.



>. You got off
> the train in Amsterdam. What other country? Language? Just a different
> dialect. Nothing special about that.

Mike Myers, in the commentary for "Austin Powers:  Goldmember" claimed
that Dutch makes you sound like you have a speech impediment.



Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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