TOON215, Jan 10, 2020
In this episode of Slang 101 we go over what the word "JAWN" means. Voice over by TOON DOLLAZ Basic Animation by TOON DOLLAZ
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases a YouTube video about the African American Vernacular English word "Jawn" and includes several comments about this word from this video's discussion thread.
This post also presents excerpts of two online articles about the word "jawn" as well as a few examples of sentences that include that word.
The content of this post is presented for etymological and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown person/s who coined the word "jawn" and thanks to African Americans from Philly (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) for sharing that word with the rest of the world. Thanks to TOON DOLLAZ for his YouTube video that is embedded in this post and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE DISCUSSION THREAD FOR THE VIDEO THAT IS EMBEDDED IN THIS POST
These comments are numbered for referencing purposes only.
1. King Vegeta215, 2019
"Good Jawn Bro! Keep it up! You putting Philly on the map "
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2. suedefringe, 2019
"I pronounce it like dawn/Dawn ...but with a J ....... J/awn"
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Reply
3. TOON215, 2019
"Thanks for commenting. Yup thats right, sounds the same :) like DAWN, JAWN, PAWN, LAWN, SPAWN. As long as you got that (AWN) part right your good 🙏🙏🙏😊"
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4. CptKnots, 2019
"In Ohio they say mug and in virgina
beach they say jank"
-snip-
This commenter means that "mug" and "jank" are slang terms that has the same meaning in those places as the word "jawn".
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Reply
5. TOON215, 2019
"Dam that’s soo dope. Thank you very much
for sharing your knowledge 😊💯🤜🏽"
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6. Rob Monroe, 2020
"Ay yo, that jawn was on point!"
These quotes and/or sentence examples are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
QUOTE #1
From https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Jawn
"Jawn
Philly slang for a person, place, or thing (Jawn).
I cant find that jawn anywhere.
Did you see that movie? That jawn was horrible.
Yeah, I got the same jawn from Macy's.
That new Jawn that moved in down the block is HOT!
Gimme that jawn!
by Pab(Philly native) February 13, 2012
QUOTE #2
From https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Jawn
"Origin: Philadelphia
A word used in substitution for a place, thing, or person.
But it's never, under any circumstance, used by a dude to describe another
dude.
I was just at that jawn the other day!
Why you ain't got my jawn but i let you hold it?
Yo, that jawn tight!
You got your jawn on you?
by mrallen422 August 18, 2021
QUOTE #3
From https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-enduring-mystery-of-jawn-philadelphias-allpurpose-noun The Enduring Mystery of ‘Jawn,’ Philadelphia’s All-Purpose Noun
According to experts, it’s unlike any
word, in any language.
BY DAN NOSOWITZ, MARCH 24, 2016
"Taylor Jones, a PH.D. Student at the University of Pennsylvania, was unfamiliar with the bizarre stew of linguistic quirks in Philadelphia when he first started school there. An army brat, it seems like Jones grew up everywhere but eastern Pennsylvania. But one of his first interactions with legendary Penn linguist Bill Labov started him on the road to understanding his new city.
[...]
The word “jawn” is unlike any other
English word. In fact, according to the experts that I spoke to, it’s unlike
any other word in any other language. It is an all-purpose noun, a stand-in for
inanimate objects, abstract concepts, events, places, individual people, and
groups of people. It is a completely acceptable statement in Philadelphia to
ask someone to “remember to bring that jawn to the jawn.”
It is a word without boundaries or limits. Growing up in the suburbs just west of the city, I heard it used mostly to refer to objects and events. In the 2015 movie Creed, a character asks a sandwich maker to “put some onions on that jawn.” But it can get much more complex. It can refer to abstract nouns such as theories; a colleague of Jones routinely refers to “Marxist jawn.” It can also refer to people or groups of people. “Side-jawn,” meaning a someone with whom the speaker cheats on his or her significant other, “is a uniquely Philly thing as far as I can tell,” says Jones. “And not something you want to be.”
Jawn” can be singular: “pass me that jawn.” It can be plural, and in a couple of different ways. “Jawns” is fine, but you can also modify “jawn” elsewhere. “You can say ‘jawns,’ but more often it’s going to be, like, ‘Where’d you get them jawn,’” says Jones. It can be negative or positive or neutral depending on context.
It is a magical word, and did not come about in a vacuum. The rise of “jawn” dovetails with breakthroughs in the study of American linguistics itself. What we know about our ever-evolving speech patterns can, in part, be seen through this one weird word.
SO LET’S START AT THE beginning: Where
does “jawn” come from?
“The consensus is that it came from ‘joint,’ and from New York,” says Jones. Ben Zimmer, a linguist and language columnist who’s written and talked about “jawn” before, agrees, writing in an email that “‘jawn’ evidently developed as a Philly variant of ‘joint’ in the ’80s,” following the release of the popular 1981 single “That’s the Joint” by Funky Four Plus One, an early hip-hop group from the Bronx.
This infuriates Philadelphians, who
generally are very proud of their city and culture and most certainly do not
want to think that one of their city’s most distinctive words might have a New
York origin. Jones told me that he once expressed the New York consensus theory
on the local Philadelphia CBS affiliate and “people were furious, writing angry
tweets.” Sorry Philadelphians, but the linguists are pretty sure “jawn” comes
from New York. Luckily, it’s far outstripped its roots since its move south."...
-snip-
As to that author's position that there are no other English words like "jawn", notice that comment #4 which is given above from the discussion thread for the embedded video about "Jawn" indicates that in certain areas of the United States some people use the word "mug" or the word "jank" the same way that some people in Philadelphia use the word "jawn".
-snip-
Update March 31, 2022:
Here's a comment that I just happened upon which includes a slang meaning for the word "joint" which has the sane meaning as the word "jawn":
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e1WxqNBm7U&ab_channel=PetitePrincess92
Let's Start The Dance bt PetitePrincess92, Jul 27, 2008
spatton55, 2013
"Two of the best dancers doing this joint, too! Ladies, you are rockin it!"
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QUOTE #4
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-siC9cugqA&ab_channel=IGN Summer of Soul - Official Trailer (2021) Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder
-snip-
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_Soul
"Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is a 2021 American documentary film directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in his directorial debut about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.[3]
The film had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film
Festival on January 28, 2021 where it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience
Award in the documentary categories. It received a limited theatrical release
in the United States on June 25, 2021 before being released theatrically by
Searchlight Pictures and via streaming on Hulu.
It received acclaim from critics with praise aimed at the
footage restoration. It has won numerous awards, including Best Documentary
Feature at the 6th Critics' Choice Documentary Awards with a total of a leading
and sweeping six awards at that ceremony. It also won Best Documentary at the
75th British Academy Film Awards, Best Documentary Feature at the 94th Academy
Awards, and was also nominated for the Best Music Film at the 64th Annual
Grammy Awards.
-snip-
Questlove was born and raised in Philadelphia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questlove
QUOTE #5
Updated: May. 22, 2019, 4:07 p.m. | Published: Jul. 25, 2016, 5:53 p.m.
By Sean Adams
"Just in time for the Democratic National Convention, here's a list of Philly slang and turns of phrase that might come in handy if you visit the City of Brotherly Love.
From Fishtown to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, here's some Philly vocabulary that will come in handy next time you're in town!
[…]
'Jawn'
Meaning: an all-purpose pronoun, i.e. a nearby thing
"Yo, pass me that jawn."
Comment from the discussion thread for a sound file of the R&B song “Follow Me” by Aly us
Justin De Senso, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_fdOPvmBrI&ab_channel=oODJFriendlyOo
"My jawn right here. Run miles to this jam."
QUOTE #7
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zEcsIfe6lU&t=23s&ab_channel=GeneasPineapples’ Spritz, 2020
"I played swing swing so different 😂 I played the daddy outside shooting dice jawn 😂😂 I’m sitting here like what the hell y’all talm bout 😂"
-snip-
This comment refers to the African American hand clap rhyme “Rockin Robin” (Tweeleelee) that includes a line about “daddy outside shooting dice”.
-snip-
"what the hell y'all talm bout" is an African American Vernacular English way of saying "what the hell are you talking about". This suggests that the commenter didn't like the version of this hand clap rhyme that the two young African American women shared in that vlog. Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_You_Talmbout for information about the 2015 song "Hell You Talmbout" by Janelle Monáe.
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