shawty

[Darla Wells]

Shorty with the r was used a lot on the West Coast in the 80's and 90's by
white and hispanic people to refer to children. I've seen Shawty used here
in Louisiana to refer to the old lady when a guy doesn't want to get in
trouble for calling the wrong lady's name. My grandbaby's daddy (black)
uses it that way on women, without racial preference. But, and this gets
confusing sometimes, he also calls his daughters Shawty. I suspect the
first instance is the Shawty y'all are referring to and the use of it with
kids is similar to use in Southern California with an AAVE pronunciation. I
often call the kids shorties now still and I'm not African-American or
hispanic, but a very middle-aged Louisiana woman. Same word different
connotations and pronunciations depending on who says it. Some of it's a
Southern thing too, like S. Louisiana natives calling Mardi Gras, Mahdi
Gras.
Darla

2012/2/9 Jackie Schmitt <desaparecida at gmail.com>

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jackie Schmitt <desaparecida at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      shawty
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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