shawty

[Jackie Schmitt]

I see there's been some discussion of "shawty" earlier ('09-'10) but I want
to revisit it.  Particularly, what are the implications of a shawty's
race/ethnicity, age, gender/sex, or relationship to the speaker?

I see "shawty" is well-attested to as a direct address in the Urban
Dictionary sources from earlier but it can also be more generic (Google
reveals examples like "shawty wanna thug," "shawty wanna hump," "proud to
call her my shawty," etc.)  "Shawty" also seems to become an exclamation in
songs (q.v. "girl," "baby") -- I'm really divorced from pop culture, but
the first example that comes to mind for me is T-Pain in Lonely Island's
"I'm On A Boat."  I'm sure there are other, better, non-parody examples.

I can attest to shawties not being exclusively black, as some sources
suggest.  In my old neighborhood (Midwest, lower-class, maybe about 75%
African-American) I got catcalled by several young black men who addressed
me as "shawty."  (I am unequivocally white, in my early 20s, and pass as
female.)

Here's where things get weird:  I know a man (probably at least 50 years
old, and black) who refers to his two grandchildren (a 6-year-old boy of
ambiguous race, and an 8-year-old girl who passes as white) as "shawties"
(not as direct address, and in fact only when they're out of the room).
 I'm not sure how reliable this is -- it could be a classic example of
older speakers adopting slang and changing its meaning.  It could be an
older use of "shawty," indicating that the term's meaning has become more
specific over time.  It could be bleaching of meaning more generally.

Do we have a date for the first appearance(s) of "shawty?"

Jackie Schmitt

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