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johnhunt ●
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johnhunt said...
This has the potential to become one of the greatest posts ever...
My cursory research of the web reveals in Wikipedia, a world renowned expert reference on all things knowable - the following illustrative and definitive explanation:
The phrase "Is you is or is you ain't" is dialect, apparently first recorded in a 1921 story by Octavus Roy Cohen, a Jewish writer from South Carolina who wrote humorous black dialect fiction.
I believe the reference of the phrase in the song and the movie was merely a reflection of the local vernacular and most probably had common usage in the southern lexicon of the times.
This post was edited by 81 Alumnus on 5/9/2012 at 3:20 PM
81 Alumnus
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81 Alumnus said...
My mother, who was born in 1919, used the phrase often. She ascribed it to "Amos and Andy." I'm pretty sure she didn't know Louis Jordan from Michael Jordan.
She wasn't as sophisticated as Dutchboy. But, to her credit, she always gave straight answers to simple questions.
"Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?"
dutch30805
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who here remembers