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Steelplate7 t1_j4gd5li wrote

Ok…I live in the sticks of Snyder county… what the fuck is a “Jawn”?

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Fantasyfootballl2211 t1_j4gf0gx wrote

Philly slang , person place or thing

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Extreme_Succotash784 t1_j4gkrtj wrote

That jabroni lawyer dude from Morgan and Morgan also tried to make it a first name. IM JAWN MORGAN. No you’re not.

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TheElectricShaman t1_j4glix2 wrote

Bruh there are so many of those billboards on my ride to work.

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ignissancti t1_j4gms2d wrote

I live in West Philly. The dude paid to plaster his face and Jawn Morgan slogan on the side of the trolleys, which head into deep southwest Philly. I feel the need to apologize on the behalf of white people.

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TheElectricShaman t1_j4gstf8 wrote

Hey I’m in west Philly too!

I feel like Philly needs to declare war on his ads like we did with the spotted lantern flies a few years back.

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artisanrox t1_j4gyf6c wrote

I'm gonna tell my grandkids about all the enemies I squished in the Great Spotted Lanternfly War.

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B-Eze t1_j4hu6hd wrote

He has a new one in sp saying "youse been hurt?" I'm more offended by that one lol.

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owenhinton98 t1_j4ial4q wrote

I was sitting in a bar yesterday and watched 3 buses pass by back to back plastered with that bullshit

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[deleted] OP t1_j4h5bz4 wrote

I will never call that firm because of those ads.

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sirfuzzitoes t1_j4i1x6s wrote

More people need to see this so I'm putting it out there.

There's a jawn Morgan billboard on rt 1 in bensalem. Ngl, I find it hilarious. Jawn has gone corporate.

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SwadianZunist t1_j4gw2fx wrote

Oh, so it’s kind of like jones. “I’m off to get me one of them soda jones.”

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ImperialIIClass t1_j4gf5m3 wrote

At this point, a jawn is whatever the hell you want that jawn to be.

Basically a catch all noun.

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JazzFan1998 t1_j4inl5e wrote

A pejorative, if you will, (and even if you won't.)

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[deleted] OP t1_j4h3vx1 wrote

It’s equivalent to Smurf

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erdtirdmans t1_j4hqvvb wrote

Smurf is almost always a verb except when referring to the smurfs themselves. Jawn is almost exclusively a noun (except in select cases of verbing)

To put it simply: You can smurf a jawn, but you can't jawn a smurf

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sirfuzzitoes t1_j4i14ok wrote

Profound knowlegical pearls gettin dropped right here.

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erdtirdmans t1_j4i3cl4 wrote

This is the type of information I've wasted my years accumulating 🤣

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OneHumanPeOple t1_j4goedd wrote

Jawn replaces any noun.

It can be used as code so that two people can openly discuss a secret topic. Example: “Pass me that jawn” where the jawn is a marijuana consumption device.

It can also be used when a person is referring to an object but isn’t sure what the object is called. It replaces other nonsense words like thingamajig, or Doohickey.

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[deleted] OP t1_j4gznde wrote

[deleted]

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erdtirdmans t1_j4hripp wrote

No, it doesn't. Thingamajig, whosawhatsit, and jawn are not pronouns

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[deleted] OP t1_j4hrw31 wrote

[deleted]

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erdtirdmans t1_j4hxzbe wrote

No, they're not. A non-specific noun isn't automatically a pronoun.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pronoun

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/her

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thingamajig

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/her?q=Her

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/thingamajig?q=Thingamajig

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sirfuzzitoes t1_j4i1c8s wrote

This is why I never argue grammar. I'm decent but hell if I'm proper learned about the intricacies.

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erdtirdmans t1_j4i4fpg wrote

It's a totally understandable mistake

A pronoun is a grammatical part of speech, so the closest definition of its terms is going to accidentally be overly broad when you try to test every word by it. If you went strictly by the layman's definition of a pronoun, it doesn't seem to exclude "jawn." However, you'll notice that almost every grammatical article you find about pronouns will at some point list all the pronouns. It's just hard to define the form, function, and intuited rules of a part of speech using the very same speech

But it's very clear that - functionally - "jawn" and "thingamajig" are not pronouns...

> The dog walked down the street > > It walked down the street > > Jawn walked down the street

Jawn doesn't work there

> He helped himself to some food > > Jawn helped jawnself to some food

Or here. It doesn't work because it's not a pronoun. Misusing it this way is one of those things that natives would instantly point to as proof that you're trying to sidle into Philly slang with no clue what you're doing.

Pronouns can behave in sentences completely replacing the totality of the noun phrase. Jawn cannot. Jawn needs an article (the/a), number, or adjective to precede it. Because it's a noun.

> Two dogs walked down the street > > Two jawns walked down the street

This applies everywhere it turns up

> Be careful with this hot pan > > Be careful with this hot thing > > Be careful with this hot jawn

Jawn is a normal everyday noun like pan and thing. The only thing that's remarkable about it is that it can work for every case of a noun.

> I met your wife yesterday > > I met your jawn yesterday > > Yeah, I've been to that bar > > Yeah, I've been to that jawn > > Pick me up a hoagie > > Pick me up one of them jawns

Normally things like the suits, popo, John Doe, people, thing, thingamajig, widget, anytown, the boonies, cooee, etc. are more specific in their non-specificity, because to be completely non-specific would theoretically ruin the whole point of communicating

Jawn is so fundamentally built on being completely non-specific that phrases like "one of them jawns" will be tossed in to make things even more confused... and yet, it still functions in communicative speech! HOW? I dunno. I don't make the jawns, I just use them

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sirfuzzitoes t1_j4jmv3w wrote

Thanks for the detailed response! (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

Great use of sidle too! What you said all makes sense. I'm well removed from getting learnt on grammar and sentence structure so I'm gonna defer to you.

You are absolutely right that adopters can be spotted by their (mis)use of the word. On another note, I love when people tell me they hate the word but still know exactly what I'm talking about when I use it. It is so culturally pervasive even objectors acknowledge it.

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Krash412 t1_j4gg17d wrote

Essentially a jawn is a noun. It can be a person place or thing.

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RayAyun t1_j4gyeo3 wrote

A "Jawn" can literally be anything. I have friends who will basically say "Yo, can I have that Jawn?" Asking for a tool to be handed to them but they won't point at which one or make any other description.

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4moves t1_j4i78hb wrote

jawn == thing. Nobody ever says what the jawn

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sirfuzzitoes t1_j4i0ytn wrote

Anything, generally. Person, place, or thing. Not a very or relative.

It's contextual and generally, people know exactly what you're talking about. Think "the thing" when you can't recall the name for a spanner wrench or something like that.

A jawn is not "a thing". It is anything.

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No1WrthNoin t1_j4hopzs wrote

Absolutely no fucking clue. But the shoes on the power lines immediately makes me think of the shitty side of town where drug deals were rampant. smh.

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