[Ads-l] Provisional comments on jitney in David L. Gold, L.B. 2018-2020

[Stephen Goranson]

The 1897 copyrighted song text of “The Jetney Queen” was written by “Carroll Fleming” [elsewhere less often spelled Carrol Fleming], who tentatively can be identified as the “professional name” of Fleming Poore, born in Lexington, KY in 1865 and died in the Bronx, NY in 1930. Carroll Fleming was, according to IMDb.com and other overlapping sources, an actor, director, writer, formerly a newspaper-man in Cincinnati.
If this identification is correct, it may be worth noting that he does not appear, e.g., in his movie roles, to be black.
Such may be relevant, given David L. Gold’s proposal that Jetney was an autonym for black, African-American, Negro. But was it in fact a self-designation? If the song lyric author was not black, the question becomes whether he is realistically reporting “colored parlance.” So far, given the reported early uses of jetney and jitney and gitney, that is far from established, in my current view.

Stephen Goranson

From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2020 10:15 AM
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Subject: Re: Provisional comments on jitney in David L. Gold, L.B. 2018-2020

As mentioned below, David Gold (p. 406) cites a "1898" text "In the colored parlance I'm the Jetney [...]"
He does not provide a citation of the source. Perhaps he means the 1897 song lyric in "The Jetney Queen," words by Caroll Fleming...

In any case, sheet music here:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://digital.library.ucla.edu/apam/librarian?VIEWPDF=SY106949PDF__;!!OToaGQ!_VH_ZabYAehs_ggUq1IzpATqfy1CzAuxIoI1bCDlKBTPEW-kh2-FRKWRnom16RJG$

Stephen Goranson
________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2020 9:34 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Provisional comments on jitney in David L. Gold, L.B. 2018-2020

Concerning the publication, David L. Gold, “Pursuing the origin of the American English informalism _gitney ~ jitney_: On the alleged Louisiana French word _*jetnée_ and the fallacy of omne ignotum pro magnifico in etymological research,” Leuvense Bijdragen 102 (2018-2020) 383-417.
1) The first sentence of the Abstract (p. 383, with my ellipses) included: “The author’s first treatment of the informal American English noun _gitney ~ jitney_...(Gold 2009b)…”
I’m not sure how important it may be, but A. Liberman’s Bibliography of English Etymology lists at jitney, Gold 1983b, 1983h, and 1985b. And Gold 2009b, Chapter 9, “American English _jitney_....” in his Studies in Etymology and Etiology… (2009) 163-192 at footnote 1 reads: “This is an expanded version of an article which appeared in _Leuvense Bijdragen_ 87, 1988, pp. 155-170.” Also, Gold’s latest article cites me once at ads-l 20 July 2016, (a post which also requoted, with typos corrected, a 3 July post); those combined refer to Liberman’s Bibliography at jitney, among other publications, and also Gold’s 2009 publication.
2) David Gold may have misunderstood my proposal. I wrote that jitney/jetney may have derived from French jeton: “The antedatings of jitney (1899) and jetney (1898), as well as the 1915 memory of jetnée may show the origin in Black Louisiana French, from jeton.”
Quoting out of context sentence fragments of what I wrote (p. 408) may misrepresent what I think and thought and wrote.
Gold wrote “In its present state, Stephen Goranson’s suggested etymology of gitney ~ jitney rests on no verified evidence.” Whether that’s accurate I leave to readers.
Gold announced (409, 410, and bibliography) a forthcoming article that presumably will expand on an—uncited—1898 text including “In the colored parlance I’m the Jetney[…]”

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




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