M. Lynne Murphy 104lyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]muse.arts.wits.ac.za

Department of Linguistics phone: +27(11)716-2340

University of the Witwatersrand fax: +27(11)716-4199

Johannesburg 2050

SOUTH AFRICA



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Date: Sat, 1 Mar 1997 12:23:17 -0800

From: Arnold Zwicky zwicky[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CSLI.STANFORD.EDU

Subject: Re: No problemo!



Lynne: but the -o in "no problemo" is a different thing. it's

spanish, which contributes a lot of slang to american english...



alas, no. spanish would be problemA (which is masculine gender,

despite its -a, because it's a greek-derived word in -ma).

"no problemo" is mock-spanish. still probably not the same

thing as "daddy-o" etc., but not spanish.



arnold (zwicky[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]csli.stanford.edu)



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Date: Sat, 1 Mar 1997 15:43:01 -0500

From: "M. Lynne Murphy" 104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA

Subject: Re: No problemo!



arnold said:



alas, no. spanish would be problemA (which is masculine gender,

despite its -a, because it's a greek-derived word in -ma).

"no problemo" is mock-spanish. still probably not the same

thing as "daddy-o" etc., but not spanish.



you're right.



is the british tabloid nickname for michael jackson (jacko--which one

is starting to see in the u.s. as well) part of this phenomenon, or

is it just because it rhymes with "wacko"? i'm trying to think if -o

is used generally in brit english as well.



lynne, a wacko who's moving to waco



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