shawty (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

I first heard the term on the "autotune the news" youtube videos, in
2009.  Neal Whitman pushed it back to 2004 here:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1004D&L=ADS-L&P=R4300

DJ Kizzy Rock had a 1994 song called "Yeah, Shawty, Yeah"


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Jackie Schmitt
> Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 1:07 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: shawty
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
----------------------
> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jackie Schmitt <desaparecida at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      shawty
>
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------
> -
>
> 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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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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