I am what I am .... (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 11:05 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
>
> From somewhere (vaudeville??):
> "Is you is or is you isn't?"

"Is you is or is you ain't?" most famously shows up in Louis Jordan's
1944 song "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?", but I dated it back to
1921 here:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0506B&L=ADS-L&P=R5951

--Ben Zimmer

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