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howard richler
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 10:07 pm
Post subject: schvoog |
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I was watching The Sopranos recently and one of the Italian-American
characters used the derogatory term "schvoogs" to refer to blacks. As
far as I know, this is a Yiddish term that blends schvartze with
boogie, and I was surprised that it would have any currency outside of
the Jewush community. Is the term used in some parts of the USA by
non-Jews?
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Bill Bonde ( ``And the La
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 10:07 pm
Post subject: Re: schvoog |
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"Don A. Gilmore" wrote:
| Quote: |
"howard richler" <hrichler@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:feb755de.0411110832.12acbbce@posting.google.com...
I was watching The Sopranos recently and one of the Italian-American
characters used the derogatory term "schvoogs" to refer to blacks. As
far as I know, this is a Yiddish term that blends schvartze with
boogie, and I was surprised that it would have any currency outside of
the Jewush community. Is the term used in some parts of the USA by
non-Jews?
The term used by Mafioso Italians in Kansas City is "fungi" (FOON-jee),
which is literally "mushroom". Apparently it refers to the resemblance of
large afro hairdos to toadstools.
...Don't ask me how I know.
Cause you are the Shell Answer Man of ethno-religious slurs? |
--
So I was feeding the hummingbirds but not changing the feeder sugar
water quickly enough and it fermented into something like that stuff
that Hunter S Thompson was drinking in the Rum Diary, anyway, so I had
these drunk birds flying everywhere just like mosquitoes in Minnesota,
dashing up one side of me, darting down the other, crashing into the
windows, falling off their perches, didn't even know they perched,
flying backwards, flying backwards, it was like something out of the
Exorcist. After a while though, I got bored with it all. Next Summer I'm
going to Alaska to feed french bread soaked in Wild Turkey to polar
bears. Wish me luck! |
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Ben Zimmer
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 10:08 pm
Post subject: Re: schvoog |
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"Don A. Gilmore" wrote:
| Quote: |
"howard richler" <hrichler@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:feb755de.0411110832.12acbbce@posting.google.com...
I was watching The Sopranos recently and one of the Italian-American
characters used the derogatory term "schvoogs" to refer to blacks. As
far as I know, this is a Yiddish term that blends schvartze with
boogie, and I was surprised that it would have any currency outside of
the Jewush community. Is the term used in some parts of the USA by
non-Jews?
The term used by Mafioso Italians in Kansas City is "fungi" (FOON-jee),
which is literally "mushroom". Apparently it refers to the resemblance of
large afro hairdos to toadstools.
|
In one episode of The Sopranos, Tony calls his daughter's boyfriend, who
is part Jewish and part African-American, a "ditsoon" (< "tizzone"
'ember, cinder') and a "mullignan" (< "melanzane" 'eggplant').
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Jess Askin
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 10:08 pm
Post subject: Re: schvoog |
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"Don A. Gilmore" <eromlignodNOSPM@kc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:2vhja9F2lgvf8U1@uni-berlin.de...
| Quote: | "howard richler" <hrichler@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:feb755de.0411110832.12acbbce@posting.google.com...
I was watching The Sopranos recently and one of the Italian-American
characters used the derogatory term "schvoogs" to refer to blacks. As
far as I know, this is a Yiddish term that blends schvartze with
boogie, and I was surprised that it would have any currency outside of
the Jewush community. Is the term used in some parts of the USA by
non-Jews?
The term used by Mafioso Italians in Kansas City is "fungi" (FOON-jee),
which is literally "mushroom". Apparently it refers to the resemblance of
large afro hairdos to toadstools.
...Don't ask me how I know.
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I wouldn't dream of it. |
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Don A. Gilmore
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 10:08 pm
Post subject: Re: schvoog |
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"howard richler" <hrichler@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:feb755de.0411110832.12acbbce@posting.google.com...
| Quote: | I was watching The Sopranos recently and one of the Italian-American
characters used the derogatory term "schvoogs" to refer to blacks. As
far as I know, this is a Yiddish term that blends schvartze with
boogie, and I was surprised that it would have any currency outside of
the Jewush community. Is the term used in some parts of the USA by
non-Jews?
|
The term used by Mafioso Italians in Kansas City is "fungi" (FOON-jee),
which is literally "mushroom". Apparently it refers to the resemblance of
large afro hairdos to toadstools.
....Don't ask me how I know.
Don
Kansas City |
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Areff
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 4:12 am
Post subject: Re: schvoog |
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Ben Zimmer wrote:
| Quote: | In one episode of The Sopranos, Tony calls his daughter's boyfriend, who
is part Jewish and part African-American, a "ditsoon" (< "tizzone"
'ember, cinder') and a "mullignan" (< "melanzane" 'eggplant').
|
"Mulignan'" is probably almost as well-known in the New York region as the
Yiddish "shvarze" /SvAts@/, and has a similar degree of offensiveness.
Like most semi-assimilated Italian words in the New York area, it is
specifically Neapolitan-derived. In Calabrese I believe it's
"mulingiana" (with a [dZ]), and the Sicilian equivalent might
be similar.
I've started to watch _The Sopranos_ (despite the fact that it
deserves some condemnation as an Italiansploitation[TM] vee-hickle) thanks
to my Netflix subscription. The accents (other than those of the
younger characters) are actually disappointingly inaccurate, though the
problems are pretty subtle, like that failure to adhere to the lax/tense
a-split (Tony's mother makes this mistake - her accent otherwise sounds
pretty convincing to me). New Jersey dialects don't have the short a
split, but I think most of the older characters
depicted on _The Sopranos_ are supposed to have New York City roots in
some proximate sense. Indeed, the nice opening sequence that shows Tony
Soprano driving from Manhattan through the wastelands and working-class
communities of Jersey till he gets to his nize suburban home is supposed,
I think, to represent his own sort of path to upward mobility.
A mistake that James Gandolfini makes over and over, and one that I've
seen in lots of other Italiansploitation vehicles with New York-region
characters, is using [In] for -ing nouns like "meeting", "feelings"
("meetin'", "feelins"). This is totally ridiculous -- I'm familiar with
lots of different accents and registers from the New York City area and
I've never heard any speaker with this feature.
--
Steny '08! |
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Ben Zimmer
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 6:06 am
Post subject: Re: schvoog |
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Areff wrote:
| Quote: |
I've started to watch _The Sopranos_ (despite the fact that it
deserves some condemnation as an Italiansploitation[TM] vee-hickle) thanks
to my Netflix subscription. The accents (other than those of the
younger characters) are actually disappointingly inaccurate, though the
problems are pretty subtle, like that failure to adhere to the lax/tense
a-split (Tony's mother makes this mistake - her accent otherwise sounds
pretty convincing to me). New Jersey dialects don't have the short a
split, but I think most of the older characters
depicted on _The Sopranos_ are supposed to have New York City roots in
some proximate sense.
|
I don't think it's ever been suggested on the show that the Soprano clan
has New York roots-- IINM Tony's grandfather emigrated directly to
Newark. Tony grew up in Newark and West Orange, according to the HBO
website. But that's still close enough to New York to take part in the
short-a split.
| Quote: | Indeed, the nice opening sequence that shows Tony
Soprano driving from Manhattan through the wastelands and working-class
communities of Jersey till he gets to his nize suburban home is supposed,
I think, to represent his own sort of path to upward mobility.
|
Yes, from Newark to the Caldwells -- strictly an intra-Essex County kind
of upward mobility. (Cue YJ.) |
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Michael J Hardy
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 6:06 am
Post subject: Re: schvoog |
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| Quote: | The term used by Mafioso Italians in Kansas City
is "fungi" (FOON-jee), which is literally "mushroom".
Apparently it refers to the resemblance of large
afro hairdos to toadstools.
...Don't ask me how I know.
|
.... and when drug dealers in a certain city invented a
language in which they could transact business by phone
without being understood by wiretapping police (until the
police deciphered it) the police called it "Nig-Latin".
-- Mike Hardy |
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Charles Riggs
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 10:06 pm
Post subject: Re: schvoog |
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On 11 Nov 2004 21:12:35 GMT, Areff <me@privacy.net> wrote:
| Quote: | I've started to watch _The Sopranos_ (despite the fact that it
deserves some condemnation as an Italiansploitation[TM] vee-hickle) thanks
to my Netflix subscription.
|
My favorite US TV drama. Doesn't an HBO channel air it once a week?
One of the few reasons I signed up for the HBO channels, so I hope so.
--
Charles Riggs
They are no accented letters in my email address |
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Ben Zimmer
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 10:06 pm
Post subject: Re: schvoog |
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Charles Riggs wrote:
| Quote: |
On 11 Nov 2004 21:12:35 GMT, Areff <me@privacy.net> wrote:
I've started to watch _The Sopranos_ (despite the fact that it
deserves some condemnation as an Italiansploitation[TM] vee-hickle) thanks
to my Netflix subscription.
My favorite US TV drama. Doesn't an HBO channel air it once a week?
One of the few reasons I signed up for the HBO channels, so I hope so.
|
If you get HBO2, then you're in luck. They're currently showing an
episode every night at 9 pm, making their way through all five seasons.
(I believe they're halfway through Season 3 right now.) But you're
going to have to wait until March 2006 (!?!) for the sixth and final
season to start airing. |
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