[Ads-l] Lewis Porter on "jazz"

Thu Sep 26 22:54:09 UTC 2024

I don't want to get involved in any large dispute about the etymology of "jazz," but I can't resist responding to Z S's comment that "our etymologists are trained to simply pore through databases for citations."  I think etymologists other than myself and a few others on this list and elsewhere usually suffer from the opposite extreme of never dealing with citations from databases, rather they exclusively rely on conjectural arguments.  The most renowned etymologist in the English-speaking world, Anatoly Liberman, has probably never in his life used an online database for etymological research.  Much etymological scholarship deals with older terms from before the period covered by online historical text collections, but for terms originating in recent centuries databases can sometimes yield probative evidence.

Fred Shapiro

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Z S <zrice3714 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2024 3:58 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Lewis Porter on "jazz"

I read the author's opening paragraph and his five bullet points.
Restricting one's research to published citations to determine the origin
of a given word, or when a given word or definition was "first used" or
came into existence is extremely simplistic and problematic. (I said as
much several years ago when I disclosed the African etymology of the Native
Black American *hep/hip* and its calque "happenin"). When there is a
population of African descent in a given country, not looking at all
relevant African languages when researching said population's speech and
folkways is just brazenly irresponsible. Suggesting that to do so evinces
an "agenda" is illogical. (I'm assuming the author was alluding to the late
David Dalby?) The author states the following:

*********

"Today one still finds "gism" or "gizz" used to mean 'semen.' But—and this
is important—" jazz" was not used in a sexual sense until 1918 and beyond,
after it was already identified with [...] music. That is, the sexual
meaning was not part of the origin of the word, but something added later.
So the Bottom Line here is that "jasm" did not suggest sex and neither did
the word "jazz" originally. "

***********

The author's statement presumes that 1) the sole "sexual sense" of "jazz"
among the Native Black American population of the United States - an oral
population - is identical to that of, derived from, or the natural result
of "gism," meaning 'semen'; and 2) that any usage (sexual or otherwise), if
not previously published, simply did not exist. African retentions and even
Negro Dutch retentions are consistently overlooked in the United States
because our etymologists are trained to simply pore through databases for
citations.

Moreover, the author does not mention the NBAL use of "jazz", 'to
fornicate', 'to fuck' (it is always vulgar when used in this sense among
the said population). I've yet to see anyone thus far address this specific
meaning of the word "jazz" among Native Black Americans. Most researchers
simply stop at "gism", 'semen' as a suitable explanation for the NBAL
"jazz", 'to fornicate, 'to fuck'.

I've yet to encounter any mention of the Kikongo *zuuza* 'fornication',
'fornicator', (also, 'prostitute', 'prostitution') as a potential point of
origin for the NBAL usage of "jazz", 'to fornicate', 'to fuck'. (I expect
most to know that the Kikongo /z/ usually occurs as /dʒ/ or /tʃ/ among
Native Black Americans when preceding a vowel.) If the Bakongo (and
neighboring groups) were the largest plurality in the antebellum United
States - this is proven by the country's own trafficking records and agreed
upon by nearly all of our historians - why are our etymologists not looking
there for clues?

The author takes a very strict linear approach, which I find problematic. I
was told that *jih, jihlike, *and* jivelike* 'very', 'really', 'pretty'
were "nonsensical" uses derived from the earlier published Native Black
American uses of the homonym(s) *jive*, simply because they sounded alike
and the earliest citations were for the latter rather than the former. Had
I taken the same linear approach, I would never have discovered its origin
in the Mandinka *jawuke* 'very', 'really' (< Mandinka dʒaw / dʒawoː /
dʒawu ‘bad’
+ Mandinka -ke ‘a Mandinka suffix equivalent to the English suffixes -like /
 -ly’)

Also, I didn't see any references to field research in the write-up. Where
are the interviews to inform one's "first (sexual) use" claims? Through
field research, I learned that though *jih* and *jihlike* predominate in
early citations, their earlier forms (discovered by interviewing elderly
Native Black Americans) were *jaavlike* and *jaav*. The linear approach
would have failed me in this case.

The author states: "every person has a favorite story about the origin of
the word "jazz"—and an agenda to go with it." I'm old enough to remember
when white Americans freely referred to Jazz as "jungle music", so the
notion of people clamoring to be the source is surreal to me. Whatever the
case, to be certain: every writer, publication, and publisher has an agenda.

Regards,
ZS

On Wed, Sep 18, 2024 at 7:47 PM Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Back in 2019, Ben alerted us that jazz historian Lewis Porter had
> written something on the etymology of "jazz" for WGBO.
>
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flistserv.linguistlist.org%2Fpipermail%2Fads-l%2F2019-March%2F154311.html&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C6874a9d9a4314c5bdbaf08dcde659ea3%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638629775236750928%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=08gj30zPmXNDBujUpoW%2BjVIIf847HrXhk4iP87N1KcM%3D&reserved=0<https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2019-March/154311.html>
>
> Lewis (cc'd here) has recently posted two of six planned pieces on the
> etymology of "jazz."
>
> In writing these analyses, he supplemented his own research findings
> with some things revealed in ADS-L discussions and in recent personal
> communications with ADS-L members and non-members.
>
> You can read the first two parts at
>
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flewisporter.substack.com%2Fp%2Fthe-word-jazz-1-of-6-its-true-origins&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C6874a9d9a4314c5bdbaf08dcde659ea3%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638629775236772653%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=kawVKksAY9%2FxaeL848gJUZ4ns3z96pRGksAXBVl2TuU%3D&reserved=0<https://lewisporter.substack.com/p/the-word-jazz-1-of-6-its-true-origins>
>
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flewisporter.substack.com%2Fp%2Fthe-word-jazz-2-issues-around-dates&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C6874a9d9a4314c5bdbaf08dcde659ea3%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638629775236784511%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=5sZJn8PwGNwCHwggjef0HOusHTbDEwmhGfSXjDhmORo%3D&reserved=0<https://lewisporter.substack.com/p/the-word-jazz-2-issues-around-dates>
>
> Several of you have researched and written extensively on the possible
> origin(s) of "jazz" and may have thoughts to share on Lewis's work.
>
> I'll try to send along links to his remaining posts as he publishes them.
>
> -- Bonnie
>
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