Linguistic Pet Peeves

Everyone has words, phrases, or expressions that can be called pet peeves. I have two of them. The first pet peeve is one you often see printed in newspaper obituaries: "So-and-so died surrounded by family and friends." It irks me because, one, it probably isn't true, and two, it makes those who knew the person sound like a bunch of vultures eagerly waiting for death to come so they can begin the reading of the will or to grab as many family heirlooms as they can. Plus, how would they know the exact moment of death? Was a doctor or undertaker present at the bedside beforehand?

The second pet peeve is "So-and-so is 95 years young." If you're 95, you're not young. Saying someone is 95 years young, instead of 95 years old, stigmatizes old age and is another example of ageism.

I'm Finna Discuss "Finna"

The first time I saw the word "finna" was in a Facebook post by one of my great-nieces (she's 36 years old). It was a strange looking word to me, a baby boomer. My first thought was that it was something she made up.

But one evening, to my surprise, as I was leaving the public library on 115th Street in Harlem, at closing time, I saw a book on a book cart with the title Finna: Poems. The book is by Nate Marshall and was published by One World in 2020.

On its back is a definition of "finna." It's described as being from African-American vernacular English and means "going to; intending to."

No doubt the word is used a lot by those involved in hip-hop culture.

Well, folks, I'm finna sign off, bringing this blog post to a close.