Question on derivative

[georgeous]

where did the words "innit" and "man" derive from when ebonically talking. I know that "innit" is obv short for "isn't it" and that's short for "is not it" but that doesn't seem to then make sense?

[jennymac]

Innit is used quite a lot here in Wales for as long as I can remember (57 years old)  How it originated I cannot say.

I assume it is used now from the Afro-American rappers and copied over here whereas we use it at the end of a statement we have just made. i.e Its a nice day innit.

[Kay]

I live in Wales too born and bred and its right,we do say " Innit". Im 56 and its been said as for as long a I can remember.

[Chillum]

isn't it a kind of Eskimo?

[Quizmonster]

It's obviously been around in speech for longer, but the earliest recorded use of 'innit' in writing dates back only to the late 1950s. I'm not sure why you feel it doesn't make sense, as it is just elision of the underlined letters as follows: is not it and a duplication of the 'n' to distinguish it from 'in it' and to indicate that it is pronounced as in 'winning' rather than as in 'dining'.

'Man' has been used as a mode of address for centuries, but - as currently used - I imagine it to be of West Indian origin.

(I like the Eskimo reference, C!)

[jno]

I've heard people in India use the same idiom - 'He's a nice boy, isn't it' - where it also doesn't quite make sense on the face of it. I think the meaning is a more general 'Is what I have just said not the truth?'

[jno]

ah, I've crossed with Quizmonster again. I think georgeous' point was that 'innit' sometimes is spoken after a sentence in which 'it' wasn't the subject. As for 'man', it may well be African/American but recent use sounds as if it may have been boosted by beatnik slang in the 1950s.

[Quizmonster]

Ah! I missed the point there. This is the Alistair McGowan 'Rio Ferdinand/Gary Lineker' sketch version of 'innit'. I get it now, innit?

[pochulina]

Thats nice, innit   equals    thats nice, isnt it...   no?

[jno]

well, it's related to ebony, so it's a comic/PC way of saying black... but I'm not sure 'innit' is black slang, though 'man' probably is.

[Quizmonster]

'Ebonics' is a combination of 'ebony' for 'black',as Jno suggests and 'phonics' meaning 'spoken sounds'. In all, therefore, 'the sounds of black speech'.

[glyphical]

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