Dan Burley

[Wilson Gray]

Is there any distinction between _hep hip_ and _cool_ in AAVE or in
AALE? How old is _uncool_?

-Wilson

On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 1:01 PM, 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: Dan Burley
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
-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

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