connotation of English "bro"

Thu Jan 21 23:57:34 UTC 2010

Greetings to all yo bros out there

Never has a saying been more true in this context than Firth's "you know a word by the company it keeps". On my way to work I pass a City Mission (in Auckland, NZ) where homeless people congregate, and on more than one ocasion I have heard the highly respectable passers-by say "look at those bros" - definitely in a derogatory manner. QED. 

Wolfgang Sperlich

> From: bill-donna_davis at ntm.org
> To: an-lang at anu.edu.au
> Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:55:03 +0800
> Subject: Re: [An-lang] connotation of English "bro"
> 
> Greetings all,
> 
> Waruno,
> 
> I question the idea of _bro_ in English being either derogatory or 
> mening "white trash male." I have never heard it used in either of 
> those ways, but rather it is used extensively among males of a certain 
> generation (mine, in fact... i.e. baby boomers, I am 54). It is very 
> much analogous to Australian "mate." It shows a casual intimacy, and 
> it not derogatory at all. The younger generations, such as my 
> daughters and their peers, tend to prefer _dude_ (which interestingly, 
> is now gender NON-specific! my son-in-law calls my daughter "dude"). 
> Others use _bra_ which is cultural imitation of Jamaican/reggae 
> version of _bro_.
> 
> Also, among the Batak of Palawan island, Philippines, _mistir_ is used 
> as an English borrowing with the sense of "sir."
> 
> -Bill
> 
> 
> 
> On Jan 15, 2010, at 9:00 AM, an-lang-request at anu.edu.au wrote:
> 
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> >
> > 1. FW: Linguistic Contact in East Timor (Elizabeth Pearce)
> > 2. Re: FW: Linguistic Contact in East Timor (David Gil)
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:17:43 +1300
> > From: Elizabeth Pearce <Elizabeth.Pearce at vuw.ac.nz>
> > Subject: [An-lang] FW: Linguistic Contact in East Timor
> > To: "an-lang at anu.edu.au" <an-lang at anu.edu.au>
> > Message-ID: <C774F427.F9EA%elizabeth.pearce at vuw.ac.nz>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >
> > And bro is used as a term of address among whites as well as among 
> > Maori in New Zealand. (And I imagine in Australia also).
> > Liz Pearce
> >
> >
> > ------ Forwarded Message
> > From: Waruno Mahdi <mahdi at fhi-berlin.mpg.de>
> > Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:48:16 +1300
> > To: Austronesian languages <an-lang at anu.edu.au>
> > Conversation: [An-lang] Linguistic Contact in East Timor
> > Subject: Re: [An-lang] Linguistic Contact in East Timor
> >
> > Thanks David. Yes, this funny use of _mister_ is interesting indeed,
> > though I haven't heard it yet among Indonesians abroad. The funny
> > thing about it is, that there had been a Javanese herbal-medicine
> > (_jamu_) brand since the early 20th century, known as _jamu cap
> > Nyonya-Meneer_ (lit. 'missus-&-mister brand herbal-medicine').
> > On the package there was a picture of a Dutch couple, the word
> > _meneer_ being Dutch (also spelled _mijnheer_) for 'mister'. The
> > loanword in colloquial Indonesian Malay, _menir_, is/was gender
> > specific (masculine).
> >
> > Also the earlier Portuguese loan _sinyor_ (attested since 17th cent.)
> > was gender specific. Both (_sinyor_ and _menir_) were only used with
> > regard to white persons. I did not mention either of them earlier,
> > because they are no longer commonly used in the modern language.
> >
> > But the process of borrowing can sometimes have unexpected, or no
> > longer apparent loopholes. The word _bro_ (short for _brother_)
> > began to be used some years ago in Malaysia as gender-specific term
> > of address to a (male) friend. I noticed recently that it has also
> > started to be used by some young Indonesians.
> >
> > In view of the fact, that _bro_ in (American) English has a quite
> > pronounced derogatory meaning (something like "white-trash male"),
> > it seems very unlikely that the Malay word was a direct borrowing
> > from English. I tentatively suspect, therefore, that the original
> > precursor was _brother_ as term of address amongst Afro-Americans,
> > and that Malay _bro_ was shortened from _brother_ in Malay itself,
> > independently of the shortening to _bro_ in English. Does that
> > sound likely?
> >
> > I forgot to mention in my former input that Malay borrowed a number
> > of adjectives from Arabic, some with masculine ending (e.g. _hakiki_
> > 'essential'), some with feminine (_alamiah_ 'natural'), but the
> > loanwords were/are free of any gender connotation in Malay.
> >
> > Aloha,
> > Waruno
> >
> >
> >> Just a footnote to Waruno's excellent summary ...
> >>
> >> Any white person who has spent any time in Indonesia will be more
> >> than familiar with the recent Indonesian loan from English "mister",
> >> whose denotation is, simply 'white person', and is unmarked not just
> >> for number but also for gender ...
> >>
> >> David
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > An-lang at anu.edu.au
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> >
> > ------ End of Forwarded Message
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:26:38 +0700
> > From: David Gil <gil at eva.mpg.de>
> > Subject: Re: [An-lang] FW: Linguistic Contact in East Timor
> > To: "an-lang at anu.edu.au" <an-lang at anu.edu.au>
> > Message-ID: <4B4EAB0E.7000408 at eva.mpg.de>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> >
> > Waruno Mahdi wrote:
> >> But the process of borrowing can sometimes have unexpected, or no
> >> longer apparent loopholes. The word _bro_ (short for _brother_)
> >> began to be used some years ago in Malaysia as gender-specific term
> >> of address to a (male) friend. I noticed recently that it has also
> >> started to be used by some young Indonesians.
> >>
> >> In view of the fact, that _bro_ in (American) English has a quite
> >> pronounced derogatory meaning (something like "white-trash male"),
> >> it seems very unlikely that the Malay word was a direct borrowing
> >> from English. I tentatively suspect, therefore, that the original
> >> precursor was _brother_ as term of address amongst Afro-Americans,
> >> and that Malay _bro_ was shortened from _brother_ in Malay itself,
> >> independently of the shortening to _bro_ in English. Does that
> >> sound likely?
> >>
> > Well I'm not sure, but here are three reasons to suppose that it was 
> > the
> > shortened form _bro_ in English that was directly borrowed ...
> >
> > (a) In western Nusantara dialects of Malay/Indonesian, truncation to a
> > monosyllable usually (if not always) retains the final syllable, 
> > rather
> > than the penultimate, eg. _abang_ > _bang_, _mister_ > _ster_, 
> > _Dapit_ >
> > _pit_.
> >
> > (b) In eastern Nusantara dialects, eg. Papuan Malay, there is no
> > productive rule of truncation to monosyllabic forms, eg. _kaka_ > 
> > *_ka_
> > -- and in fact, in Papuan Malay, _bro_ has recently become very 
> > widespread.
> >
> > (c) In Papua at least, my impression is that people -- mostly trendy
> > teenagers -- who use _bro_ are also likely to associate with other
> > artifacts of African-American culture, eg. rap music, shoulder bags 
> > with
> > rasta colours, etc., which suggests to me that they borrowed the form
> > directly from African-American English. (Which is consistent with 
> > other
> > comments that have been made in recent postings on this subject.)
> >
> > David
> >
> > -- 
> > David Gil
> >
> > Department of Linguistics
> > Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
> > Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
> >
> > Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550119
> > Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
> > Webpage: http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
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> >
> > End of An-lang Digest, Vol 79, Issue 8
> > **************************************
> 
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