terms of endearment

[Jonathan Lighter]

>  use of the form, "Yoami," is obligatory.
But on police tapes, it can be mistaken for "Yo' mammy!"

JL

On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 7:45 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: terms of endearment
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 8:22 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > *[Inaudible]*
>
> To say the least! I listened with ears sharpened by years of "pulling
> out" intercepted Russian voice-commo and heard nothing at all
> interpretable as anything in particular. It's what we used to call a
> "garble," back in the Security Agency, and nothing more.
>
> Now, if only his buddy hadn't felt the need to attempt to defend the
> application of the word to black people by white people in the *general*
> case,
> as opposed to merely denying that it had been applied in this *particular*
> case…
>
> But then, that's Florida, for you.
>
> It's said that black people in the Sunshine State aren't permitted to
> speak the word, "Miami," when talking to a white person. In such a
> case, the use of the form, "Yoami," is obligatory.
>
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org