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