Date:    Mon, 15 Jun 1998 21:58:23 EDT
<br>From:    Ron Butters <RonButters[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
<br>Subject: "the man" in WSVE
<br>
<br>I am familiar with the term THE MAN from working-class white (and black)
<br>speakers in the South (particularly in Wilmington, NC), who in the early 1970s
<br>(and probably earlier) used the phrase to indicate what I would have indicated
<br>by THE BOSS. For example, if someone came to a job site looking for work, he
<br>might ask, "Who is the man?"
<br>
<br>I'm not questioning  the fact that the spread of THE MAN as a recent vogue
<br>term stems from AAVE, but I think it most likely that it originated in the
<br>South in relationship to the general phrase BOSS MAN, rather than (as an
<br>earlier writer suggested) specifically in AAVE as a term women used for their
<br>husbands and bouyfriends.
<br>