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费城万能词“Jawn”的不解之谜（2016）
The enduring mystery of ‘Jawn,’ Philadelphia’s all-purpose noun (2016)
2016 — 2022，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
本文探讨费城方言中万能名词“jawn”的持久魅力——它可以指代人、物、事件等几乎任何东西。文章追溯了这个词的起源与演变，并指出语言学家认为它在任何语言中都找不到对应的词。
为什么经久不衰：一个能指代万物的方言词展现了语言的地方性与创造力，多次登上首页说明它对语言爱好者和费城人都有持久吸引力。
HN 评论精选
jawn 不只是 thing 的替代品，它能融合单复数、概括话题，用法非常灵活
很多人问为什么不直接用“thing”，我来解释一下。jawn 常用来融合单复数、概括一个话题，可以替代 thing、stuff 甚至“that's my shit”里的 shit，甚至能叠加使用。比如看到软椒盐卷饼会说“给我来点那个卷饼 jawn”，朋友看到我学数学和计算机，会说“你又在搞你的电脑 jawn 呢？”
auto查看英文原文
Quite a few people in the comments are asking why you couldn't just use the word "thing", I'll try my best to explain. I grew up in northeastern PA, but my dad lived on the outskirts of Philly, and I went to school not far from the city, with a large population of Philly natives, so I got a decent amount of exposure to jawn usage from different walks of life. Jawn has a few different uses, but I feel most often it was meant to blend plural and singular explanations of things, or to encapsulate the generalization of a topic. It can replace "thing" or "stuff" or "shit" (when shit is used like "that's my shit"). But it isn't just about replacement, as I've heard the phrase "that shit's my jawn", or "all that jawn stuff". It almost can be used as a replacement, or a doubling/accent of any word in a sentence, as long as you know what you're doing. For instance, if someone was at your house and saw you had soft pretzels, they might say "Let me get some of that pretzel jawn". They didn't really ask for one pretzel, but you would know that's what they wanted, or they want at least one. Another common usage was if someone was talking about something they didn't know a ton of details of. I studied Math and Comp Sci at school, and if I was studying and a friend who knew nothing about it came over, they might see me working and say "You all caught up in your computer jawn?". Not sure how ubiquitous this usage is, but we also used to digress into nearly nonsensical usages, and say stuff like "What's all this jawn jawn", which somehow was understood as emphasizing your disapproval, or lack of understanding of whatever the subjecting of the jawn-ing was. I don't know if I'm doing it justice, and it isn't until I really tried to flesh out my understanding of a word that I realized how difficult it could be, but maybe that helps someone understand.
jawn 是个跨越阶层和种族的平等词汇，但商业化可能让它变味
我用 jawn 相关的网名二十多年了。作为俚语它出奇地长寿，而且非常平等主义：蓝领白领、各种族都在用，没什么部落属性，不怕被挪用，用的人越多越好。不过“Jawn Morgan”广告牌出现后，我担心它可能已经过气了。
jawns查看英文原文
I've been using variations of "jawn" or "jawns" as my username for 20+ years. It's a word that has endured surprisingly well, as slang goes. And it's a conspicuously egalitarian term. You'll find it used in both blue-collar and white-collar settings, and across racial lines. There's very little tribal attachment. Nobody cares if you appropriate it. The general sentiment is the more jawn users, the better. But unfortunately, I'm afraid it may have jumped the shark when the "Jawn Morgan" billboards started appearing: https://billypenn.com/2022/05/25/jawn-morgan-billboards-philadelphia-personal-injury-lawyer-ads/
jawn 的流行程度被夸大了，最常说它的是模仿工人阶级做派的郊区中产年轻人
语言学上很有意思，但作为在费城住过几年的人，我觉得文中对 jawn 使用频率的描述有点夸大。说得最多的其实是那些从 Ardmore、Bala Cynwyd 等郊区富裕社区搬进城里、刻意模仿工人阶级腔调来证明自己“地道”的中上层年轻人。
sfkdjf9j3j查看英文原文
Interesting linguistics but as someone who spent a few years living in Philly I think the use of "jawn" is a little overstated here. I lived in both black and white working class areas, as well as gentrified/young professional areas such as nolibs and (to a lesser extent) fishtown. You know who says "jawn" the most? The kids of the upper middle class who grew up in ardmore/wynnwood/bala cynwyd/merion/etc. and moved to the city and now employ working class affectations to prove their authenticity.
夏威夷皮钦语的 da kine 是类似的万能词，但语义恰好相反
夏威夷皮钦语里的“da kine”也很类似。有意思的是，da kine 从不用于指自己不确定的东西——说“浪是 da kine”意思是浪正是你知道我会喜欢的那种。本文作者也写过一篇关于 da kine 的文章。
gerbilly查看英文原文
The word 'da kine' in Hawaiian pidgin is similar. The thing with da kine is that it is never used to refer to something one is not sure about. When someone says to you: "Why didn't you come to Queens with us yesterday, the waves were da kine!", they mean the waves were the kind of waves that I know you like. The author of the article above also wrote: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/da-kine-hawaiian-pidgin on the subject of 'da kine.'
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