[Ads-l] OK history

Wed Dec 10 19:17:55 UTC 2025

It may or may not be relevant to interpreting this passage, but there is no comma between “Kay” and “massa” in the original text. J. L. Dillard frequently quoted the passage in his work, and he seems to have added that comma.

Original text on Google Books:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Tour_in_the_United_States_of_America/cCUwAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1

Matt Gordon

From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Z S <000020c279e4c7e1-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2025 at 11:19 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: OK history

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The earliest example, *ke* (transcribed "kay" in the written record),
occurs in the speech of Native Black Americans in 1784 and predates the
Boston Morning Post "source" theory cited below from March 23, 1839, by
over half a century.

"Kay, massa (says he), you just leave me, me sit here, great fish jump up
into da canoe, here he be, massa, fine fish, massa; me den very grad."
Smyth 1784, 121

The above example (which I know many if not most list members are well
aware of) from Native Black American speech documented by Smyth in 1784 is
semantically and contextually identical to the Kikongo *nge* 'yes',
'indeed', 'affirmative', 'so...';  Bentley documents its variants as *nga,
inga, ngeta,* and *ika*. I believe Laman also mentions a Kikongo variant
*eka* with the very same meaning.

Laman states (under *ngeta*) it is "used to introduce a remark, express an
opinion or give a polite response", which matches the use documented in
Native Black American speech in 1784.

I remember reading an exchange on this very same mailing list some years
ago about the prenasalized *nke* (I believe the person on this mailing list
wrote "unkay" or "mmkay", but I'd have to search my notes) in which list
members mentioned its notable prevalence among Native Black Americans in
particular. This is also worth noting as it pertains to the Kikongo *nge*
'yes', 'indeed', 'affirmative', 'so...'.

I've seen implausible Wolof theories bandied about as a straw man to make
African etymologies altogether appear comical or far-fetched, while both
the 1784 occurrence in Native Black American speech and the widespread
Kikongo *nge* (also *ngeta*) are conveniently ignored or willfully omitted
from the discourse to make a "playful misspelling of oll korrect" as a
source more easily accepted by the public. Even the NPR write-up makes no
mention of the earlier 1784 citation in Native Black American speech.

Regards,
ZS

On Wed, Jul 23, 2025 at 4:55 PM Andy Bach <
00001cec09419685-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Most scholars now fall in line behind the conclusions of Allen Walker Read,
> a Columbia University English professor who set out in the 1960s to settle
> the mystery of OK's origin. He followed its trail back to a playful
> misspelling of "all correct" as "oll korrect." The term first appeared in
> the Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, although "it had probably been
> used colloquially before that," according to Doug Harper, who created the
> Online Etymology Dictionary. It germinates from a linguistic fad of the
> time — a playful trend not unlike Cockney rhyming slang in which people
> "would abbreviate common phrases with deliberate, jocular misspellings," he
> says.
>
> https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2025%2F07%2F23%2Fnx-s1-5463788%2Fok-origin-martin-van-buren&data=05%7C02%7CGordonMJ%40MISSOURI.EDU%7Ced694c2e3f7d4cee042d08de38102ce3%7Ce3fefdbef7e9401ba51a355e01b05a89%7C0%7C0%7C639009839550769944%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=iD6jwYupzYLo0Lrg96pPPK6VQVLqPDEifKcjzlyfJrE%3D&reserved=0<https://www.npr.org/2025/07/23/nx-s1-5463788/ok-origin-martin-van-buren>
>
> --
>
> a
>
> Andy Bach,
> afbach at gmail.com
> 608 658-1890 cell
> 608 261-5738 wk
>
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