flyting and rap

[Wilson Gray]

Well, actually, I had in mind whoever may have written for the show. I
recognize that it wasn't necessarily *literally* one of the brothers
who came up with the word. And, by "One never knows ...," I was
attempting to convey that, though *I* didn't ever hear anyone /
anybody say "breastisses" in real life until *after* I'd heard it on
In Living Color beaucoup times, that wasn't necessarily the experience
of the Wayanses or that of DAG or that of whoever else may have been
involved in its use on the show. For me, "breastisses" is a made-up
pronunciation of "breasts" used only on that show, on the cartoon
show, "Squidbillies," whose dialect is supposedly that of the
Appalachian foothills of North Georgia. For others, however, it may be
an ordinary colloquial word used in everyday speech.

One never knows. ;-)

-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.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 12:02 AM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: flyting and rap
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 8:46 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Well, "toastisses" would predate the Wayans Brothers' "breastisses."
>> IAC, they probably just made that one up. But, one never knows, do
>> one?
>
> Are you sure that wasn't the Wayans' costar David Alan Grier (now of
> "Chocolate News" fame), in the role of the convict Tiny?
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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