New Orleans Slang in the 1880s

HISTORICAL studies of American slang are not frequently possible because of the relative scarcity and unreliability of the written records of the slang used in earlier periods. A good opportunity for such a study is furnished, however, by The Lantern, a weekly journal published in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the 188os.1 This journal deals with politics, amusements, and commerce, and claims to be primarily interested in the 'correction of existing evils in the political, social, and commercial world.' The important thing, however, from the point of view of this study, is that the idiom used in the journal is regularly that of the streets, saloons, shows, gambling houses, race track, ring, and baseball park of New Orleans. City and state politics occupy the greatest space, though sports and night life receive generous attention. There are also in each issue two gossip columns which are written wholly in the dialect of the uneducated

Linguistics · Slang · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism · History · Philosophy