slur & epithet, racially derogatory word

[Geoffrey Nunberg]

The evidence, and the nature of the innovation, both point strongly to an origin among the African American intelligentsia and literate middle class, which was also the presumptive readership of these media. In fact you see very little slang or marked BE vernacular in the pages of the Chicago Defender from this period, and then only in quotative contexts, not reportage. Langston Hughes used the word in this way in his 1940  autobiography ("Southerners often make that word a slur between nigger and Negro"). I don't see why one would one assume he must somehow have picked it up from BE vernacular.

Geoff



>
> From: Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> Date: April 3, 2013 2:01:29 AM PDT
> Subject: Re: slur & epithet, racially derogatory word
>
>
> It's not unusual for those who work in the AA print and other media (especially African Americans)  to utilize the lexicon of the AA community to connect with their predominantly AA readers.
>
> --Margaret Lee
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg at ISCHOOL.BERKELEY.EDU>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 1:29 AM
> Subject: Re: slur & epithet, racially derogatory word
>
> Among many. But as the cites suggest (and as Wilson confirmed), this use of 'slur'  doesn't seem to have originated in black vernacular speech but rather in the AA print media.
>
> Geoff
>
>> From: Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
>> Subject: Re: slur & epithet, racially derogatory word
>> Date: April 2, 2013 3:56:04 AM PDT
>>
>>
>> Some other words/phrases that moved swiftly from AAE into mainstream English are _24/7_, _back in the day_, and _chill/chill out_  , among others.
>>
>> --Margaret Lee

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