Dan Burley

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 9:47 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The intro to HDAS draws attention to the writing of Dan Burley (1909 - 1962,
> acc. to Wackipedia), the African-American journalist and musician who
> probably did more than any other individual human being to expand and
> popularize "jive" (urban BE slang), through his columns in the _Pittsburgh
> Courier_ and later in NYC's _Amsterdam News_, which he also edited.
> Burley wrote _Dan Burley's Original Handbook of Harlem Jive_ in 1944  (ISTR
> an earlier edition in 1941 that I was unable to obtain) and _Diggeth Thou?_
> in 1959.  I see that Thomas Aiello has recently edited both under the title
> _Dan Burley's Jive_ (2009). About time!
>
> My point?  ProQuest now carries the _Amsterdam News_, and a search for "Dan
> Burley" reveals hundreds of his weekly columns back to the late '30s.  They
> get jivier as time passes.  OED and others should find many antedatings
> there.  And some whippersnapper might find diss. inspiration.

A search on the ADS-L archives will turn up several posts of mine
citing Burley's "Back Door Stuff," as it appeared in the Amsterdam
News and the Chicago Defender.

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0512C&L=ADS-L&P=R1615
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0512D&L=ADS-L&P=R4384
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0802A&L=ADS-L&P=R4306
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0802B&L=ADS-L&P=R2259
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0809A&L=ADS-L&P=R2413
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0809A&L=ADS-L&P=R4552

I also made mention of Burley's column in my On Language column on
"cool," as evidence that the term was *not* in common "jive" use in
the '30s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/magazine/30FOB-onlanguage-t.html

--Ben Zimmer

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