[Ads-l] Antedating of "Blaccent"

[Stephen Goranson]

John, thanks, but I tentatively regard both suggestions as tenuous. Though white frat boys in 1959 seem relatively more likely suspects than Future Homemakers of America for one interpretation, please try to imagine a "skit" based on black accent clothing.

Neither guess suffices, so far, in my opinion.

Stephen Goranson
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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of John Baker <0000192d2eeb9639-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, August 7, 2025 12:48 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Blaccent"

While a minstrel show skit cannot be excluded as a possibility, I have to assume that the Future Homemakers of America would have been more likely to focus on black-accented clothing.


John Baker


> On Aug 7, 2025, at 12:39 PM, Stephen Goranson <0000179d4093b2d6-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> I also wondered what the word could have meant. If not a typo.
> So far, sadly, I could not exclude (having been researching Dixie lately), a black-mocking minstrel-like take, such as a two-person skit with misunderstandings.
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 6, 2025 10:33 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Antedating of "Blaccent"
>
> Thanks for the correction, Ben !  My apologies for the obvious antedative over-reach.
>
> I wonder what the Missouri high school girls meant by "blaccent" ?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben Zimmer <00001aae0710f4b7-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 5, 2025 11:14 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Antedating of "Blaccent"
>
> It seems highly unlikely that this is the "blaccent" that the OED defines
> as "a way of speaking that uses the pronunciation, cadences, or grammatical
> features of African American English." The 1959 cite is about Missouri high
> school girls in a talent show put on by the Future Homemakers of America.
>
>> On Tue, Aug 5, 2025 at 3:32 PM Shapiro, Fred <
>> 00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>>
>> blaccent (OED 1986)
>>
>> 1959 Carrollton (Mo.) Weekly Democrat 13 Feb.4/7 (Newspapers.com)
>>
>> Talent night was held Thursday night. ... The following won ... a skit
>> "Blaccent."
>>
>>
>>
>
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