calypso, calyptso 1933

[Stephen Goranson]

OED has calypso from 1934; the calyptso spelling is not noted. The spelling calypso

is used by the same author below, in a similar snippeted GB account in

If Crab No Walk: A Traveller in the West Indies  (London 1933) 102f.


Owen Rutter, "The Calyptso Songs of Trinidad," The Sackbut 14.3 (Oct. 1933) 74-77

(Proquest British Periodicals)

"The Trinidad Calyptso is a kind of concert at which the songs to be sung at Carnival time are

tried out in open competition....These calyptso songs are in no sense folk songs. They are expressly

composed for the occasion....a canvas enclosure had been rigged up....listening.... saying 'That's so, son,

 that's so'....they sang the refrain of the song twice over....chorus...patois...songs were mainly topical....

[lyrics quoted]...."


Stephen Goranson

http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/

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