Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides a partial timeline of the African American Vernacular English word "finna". Citation/s are provided for each entry.
The content of this post is presented for linguistic and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
This is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on the word "finna", Click the "finna" link below for more pancocojams posts in this series.
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COMMENTS ABOUT THE USE OF THE WORD FINNA BEFORE ANY SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF WRITTEN AND/OR RECORDED USE ( that I have found thus far online)
Excerpts from several sources and are given in no particular order. Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.
Excerpt #1
"Finna, sometimes pronounced or spelled as finta or fitna, is a shortening of the expression fixing to, like gonna is a shortening of going to.
[...]
Fixing to has a long history in Southern American English, and its sense of “getting ready to” is seen as early as the 1700s, where fixing meant “to intend,” “arrange,” or “make preparations.”
By the mid-1800s, the verb was settling into the phrase fixing to, widening in meaning from just “preparing to,” to mean “going to,” “intending to,” or “getting ready to” do something. It’s still used like this today in some Southern dialects.
Finna emerged from fixing to in African American English and is recorded in hip-hop lyrics in the late 1980s. For example, N.W.A.’s 1987 “3 The Hard Way” features the line “I finna kick this sh-t,* alright!” and King Tee’s 1998 “Act a Fool” includes “I’m finna act a fool.”
-snip-
This word if fully spelled out in this article.
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Except #2
From https://www.bustle.com/articles/98028-what-does-finna-mean-heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-slang-term-because-fish What Does "Finna" Mean? by Mikaela Gilbert-Lurie, Aug. 7, 2015
..."It seems like everyone is saying "finna" these
days, but the expression actually has its roots in African American Vernacular
English (AAVE). Most etymologists trace it back to a shortening of the very
common Southern phrase, "fixing to."Julia Thomas and Timothy
Grinsell, two linguistic researchers from the University of Chicago, published
a paper of the proliferation of the phrase "finna" (as well as its
similar cousins, "fitna" and "finta"), which actually
claims that "finna" and "gonna" — as well as
"bouta," which is short for "about to" — have historically
had slightly different meanings, even though they are used relatively
interchangeably today.
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Excerpt #3
From https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/28740/what-is-the-history-and-geographic-area-of-the-word-finna
1. ..."The Online Slang Dictionary states:
….this is a phonetic spelling of one common pronunciation of
the southern United States colloquialism
It started round about 1917, and was due to the
pronunciation techniques of the American-Africans in the South. Since then, due
to increasing travel opportunities, it has spread to the North and Midwest as
well.
edited Jul 9 '11 at 11:23, user2683
answered Jun 6 '11 at 4:58,
**
2,… while "fixin' to" is the origin of
"finna," your answer explains "fixin' to" rather than the
history and geography of the particular slang "finna."
Jun 6 '11 at 20:04, Eri
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PARTIAL TIMELINE OF THE THE WORD "FINNA"
1985- "First Known Use of finna
in the meaning "used for "fixing to" in informal speech and in representations of such speech
"I'm finna do the biggest show of my life," he [Lil Nas X] joked before going on stage.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/finna
-snip-
In the context of definition, the word "known" means documented/recorded.
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1985-1990 - "finna first recorded
[finna is] "a phonetic spelling representing the African American
Vernacular English variant of fixing to, a phrase commonly used in
Southern U.S. dialects to mark the immediate future while indicating
preparation or planning already in progress:
Oh, no, she finna break his heart!"
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/finna
-snip-
I haven't found who first recorded (documented) the word "finna" in the United States, where it was recorded, and who said that word etc,
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[Notes about songs with the word "finna" given by decades]
Most of these entries lean heavily on results from https://www.lyrics.com/lyrics/finna . Here's the general results for the word "finna" in songs by decades, beginning with the 1970s (retrieved on Sept. 2, 2021]
"
No results for the 1970s.
Yee yee! We've found 10 lyrics, 0 artists, and 0 albums
matching finna in the 1980s.
Yee yee! We've found 157 lyrics, 0 artists, and 0 albums
matching finna in the 1990s.
Yee yee! We've found 569 lyrics, 0 artists, and 0 albums
matching finna in the 2000s.
Yee yee! We've found 892 lyrics, 0 artists, and 0 albums
matching finna in the 2010s.
No results for the 2020s."
-end of quote-
For this partial timeline, I've selected a few song examples from the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. All of these selected examples (and almost all of the lyrics.com/finna entries) are from the Rap/HipHop genre.
The links for the song entries in this partial timeline are from lyrics.com/finna by decade.
WARNING: A number of these lyrics.com/finna entries contain profanity, violence, sexually explicit content, and/or "the na word". I purposely chose examples without this content. A number of the examples that I didn't include in this partial timeline are probably far more influential than some of the examples that I did include.
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1988
King Tee- "Act A Fool"
'Won't be back 'til mornin', don't have to go to school
(Better get ready) I'm finna act a fool"
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1988
The 7A3 - "Goes Like Dis"
"I want to know how's everybody feelin?
Damn it, how's everybody feelin
We finna get FUNKYYY!)
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1989
Geto Boys - "Read These Nikes"
"Here I go again, another brawl, a conflict
Someone finna get their ass kicked
If you ain't down with the Geto Boys
Get your happy ass out of dodge."
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1990
Above The Law - "Ballin"
"I made it ride higher while I'm ballin through Cali
So listen, I'm finna start dissin
All you Eastside rappers, you had to start pissin
Me off, you're soft, you're finna get tossed
By two boss players who's your dope rhyme sayers"
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1990
Boo-Ya T.R.B.E - "Riot Pump"
"? Alamo
Caged like a criminal
And I know from the frontdo'
Busta, let me go, I'm finna tell the Roscoe
Pump the pusher, I'm the criminal
(To all you posses) 187 from a limo (limo, limo, limo)
They say we're gangsters, so let the stage be the streets
Our drive-by's ? I took the posse with me
Renegades with braids finna unload the gauge
Boo-Yaa tribe! Boo-Yaa stage
1997
South Central Cartel - It Don't Stop
"[CHORUS L.V]
Gees on the move
Westside and Eastside finna act a fool
You know it's all to the gees
Hittin switches with the S.C.C.
Radio don't give us props "
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2000
Common - Announcement [Sped Up]
Through your hands up when we in the house
Yeah, this is hiphop, baby
I'm finna take you to the tip-top, baby
And tell your girl that the tickets is out
Cause this is hip hop, baby
I'm finna take you to the tip-top, baby
2005
Various Artists - "Real Life"
"S
Always talkin' bout how they, finna do this and finna do
that
Finna get that new Benz and finna buy they girl a Cadillac
I try to mind my business, they strike at me with a
vengeance"
June 21, 2014- use of "finna" with "fleek" in a Vine (mini video)
"As Matt Эллен notes in his answer, the road to mass adoption
of fleek runs through a Vine mini-video uploaded on June 21, 2014, by Peaches
Monroee. If you don't have Flash on your computer (as I don't), you can relive
Ms. Monroee's 12 seconds of stardom here on YouTube. One commenter at YouTube
conveniently transcribes the audio of the mini-video as follows:
We in dis bi-ch*, finna get crunk; eyebrows on fleek, dafuq?
The suburban, red-state translation is roughly this:
[...]
Whether Ms. Monroee would ever explicitly include "are" in such a construction is a matter of conjecture, but it seems to me that all English speakers show a great deal of variation in the words that they sometimes make explicit and sometimes omit. "...
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/215078/what-does-fleek-mean-and-when-was-it-first-used/218809#218809, Sven Yargs, Aug 14'15 22:07
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.
As shown in that vine, Peaches Monroee is a young African American woman.
**
"As I noted in answer to the question "What does 'fleek'
mean and when was it first used?, a very famous early instance of the use of
the phrase "on fleek" runs thus: "We in dis bi-ch*, finna get
crunk; eyebrows on fleek, dafuq?" There is no explicit auxiliary verb for
finna in this quotation; instead it is implied in the structure "We ...
finna ..."
Sven Yargs, Aug 14 '15 at 20:06, https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/266956/how-to-use-the-word-finna-correctly
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in these comments. [Note that "dafuq" is also profanity, although that spelling is a barely hidden "polite" spelling of that word.]
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2015
Tamar Braxton - Catfish
"Baby I know the real you (Baby don't flex)
Baby I know the real you (Don't Flex)
She finna know the real you too"
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2017
Kodack Black -Unexplainable
"Everybody finna have their own impression
I've been through too much so I don't like expressing
Tell you one thing you gon' ask another question
If I tell you how I feel you gon' take advantage
Yeah I know you read the text but you ain't get the message
I speak in codes it ain't for you if you don't understand it
Think what you want to think you could keep guessing
Why should I even Tweet when all you finna do is @ it?
If I tell you 'bout myself I'm finna go to stressin
'Cause I might go to ventin' and I'mma start reflectin'"
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2017
Various Artists - "Go Off"
"All up in the club, I think I'm finna go off
Look at my shoes, damn it , I'm finna show off
I'm blowin real pressure, my Gucci shoes are better"
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2017
Musiq (Soulchild) - Party Life
So, yeah, I guess tonight finna be one of those nights"
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March 2020 - "Finna" added to Oxford English Dictionary
https://public.oed.com/updates/new-words-list-march-2020/Oxford English Dictionary
"finna, v.: “‘Fixing to’ (see fix v. 16a); intending or preparing to; about to.”
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April 2020
March 11, 2021
@Dictionarycom
Mar 11
🚨 New word alert! 🚨
"finna," a phonetic spelling representing the African American Vernacular English variant of "fixing to," is one of the 600 words we just added to http://Dictionary.com
https://twitter.com/Dictionarycom/
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