Ragged but Right, pt. 2 ("bro")

[Wilson Gray]

On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 10:13 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Ragged but Right, pt. 2 ("bro")
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>
> The following went to George only, for the usual mysterious cyber-reason:
>
> "& Bros." of course, is a long-established abbr. in corporate names.
>
> Presumably its familiarity led to "bro." Â I can't imagine a child
> reading the abbr. and not pronouncing it as it looks. In fact, ISTR
> requiring an explanation at some early age.
>
> So - in theory - "bro" may have been in occasional and unrecorded
> humorous use for more than a century. Â It only became cool in recent
> decades, with "bro" = "buddy" somewhat more recently than that.
>
> JL
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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Away back when I was still a Protestant, our church, the Lane
Tabernacle C[olored] M[ethodist] E[piscopal] Church, was supplied with
complimentary hand-fans by a local, Saint Louis furniture store,
Goldman Bros., that catered to the local colored population. I read
the company's name, printed on the fans, as "Gold-Man Broze."

FWIW, I had absolutely no idea that _Bros_ was not simply a surname. I
didn't recognize it as an abbreviation or that it was in any way at
all related to the word, "brothers" [br^D at z], in casual speech,
[br^z], as in "the bruz 'n' cuz." (AFAIK, no one other than your
humble correspondent has ever committed this phrase to print.) The
singular is [br^(D@)], of course.

IMO, "bro" [broU] is a spelling-pronunciation based on the spelling,
_bro_. Cf. the case of _hunky_, pronounced [hOUNki], yielding the
approximate pronunciation-spelling, "honky" by those unaware of the
phonology of BE, in turn yielding the spelling-pronunciation, [haNki].
Since _hunky_ was a word artificially introduced to the black
population by the media, the non-native pronunciation took hold. Cf.
the native pronunciation of, e.g., _donkey_ as [d^NkI], but _monkey_
as [mOUNkI].

--
-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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