_Splib_ redux (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

>...he happened to have a magivney-giver in his possession

For a minute there I thought you wrote "magivney-giver."  But that would be
impossible, because it's too bizarre.  (Surely you didn't mean a "MacGyver
kidney"?)

Or am I being presumptuous? Please elucidate!

JL


.On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 3:56 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: _Splib_ redux (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at wmich.edu>
> wrote:
> > The words for pot in there make me believe that either someone confused
> "splib" with "spliff", or the two words fused together at some point for
> some speakers.
> >
>
> FWIW, I didn't become aware of the word, "spliff," till I saw the
> movie, "The Harder They Come." Of course, since I haven't the foggiest
> as to the origin of "splib" and have had only one FOB Jamaican in my
> entire life,
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> And not to mention that, when I was "'coming up," weed wasn't a part
> of the lifestyle of us "boojies," use of that substance being
> considered "low-class" and "a disgrace to the race." Why, bluespeople
> and jazz musicians used it! I was 35 before anybody that I knew
> offered me a toke. And lied about how he happened to have a
> magivney-giver in his possession: left behind by the previous occupant
> of his new apartment.
>
> Speaking of _boo[dZ]ie_, I've recently begun to hear that word
> pronounced "boo[Z]ie." It could mean that [Z], once alien to the
> speech of the real soul-person of whatever social class or level of
> education, is now becoming normal. Of course, once upon a time, AFAIK,
> it was generally the case that the intervocalic glo?al stop was
> non-occurrent in any version of AmE, BE or not. But that's no longer
> true.
>
> --
> -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
>
> Once that we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity,
> or evil intent, we can uncumber ourselves of the impossible burden of
> trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition
> that we could be in error, without necessarily deeming ourselves
> idiotic or unworthy.
>  –Kathryn Schulz
>
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>



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