Re: CHAT: Epicene man (was Re: ...y'know)

At 7:05 pm -0400 30/6/99, Sam Bryant wrote:
>Eric Christopherson wrote:
>>
>>> PS - in SW London, this use of 'man' has become epicene among the younger
>>
>>> generation; female students even use this mode of address when speaking
>>
>>> among themselves.  Does this occur elsewhere?
>>
>>
>>
>>Yes, it does, although I haven't heard it as often as with males here in the
>>US.
>
>My impression (as part of the "younger generation") has always been that it's
>more of an expletive, on the order of "jeez" or "gosh" or maybe better "whoa"
>or "wow",
Like 'boy' in older generations! 'Boy, you shoulda seen him!'   (Um - does
that mean 'boy' has grown up into 'man'  :)

than a vocative giving the name "man" to the listener. "Man, that was
>a good movie!" makes perfect sense for one female to say to another, but "Hey
>man, come over here!" doesn't.
But that is exactly the usage I've heard frequently in the last two or
three years - it is used as a generic vocative among many of my students.
"Hey, man, come over here" may certainly be addressed to a female, young or
old (no agism here), and may be uttered by male or female.

Ray.