Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 08:39:11 CST

From: Ellen Johnson Ellen.Johnson[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]WKU.EDU

Subject: origins of slang



My research on vocabulary slang suggests that words and phrases often

do NOT originate in any particular ethnic or social group these days

and spread from there. Television, radio, and the many other ways

language is communicated to a wide variety of people at once make

another type of explanation more likely: its use by an icon of

popular culture. I agree we are too quick to ascribe slang to AfAm

origins.



"It's all good" does sound new-agey to me, but no way is it

pop-Buddhist. For Buddhists, all of us here confined to the wheel of

birth and death are suffering in various degrees depending on our

level of attachment to this illusion we call "reality".



Ellen

ellen.johnson[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]wku.edu