Slang “Finna”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Elise. I’m calling from Dallas, Texas.

Welcome, Elise. What can we help you with?

Well, okay, I have an interesting situation.

So I’m a school teacher. I teach seventh grade.

And this is my first time in Dallas. I used to live in Los Angeles.

And I noticed my kids over here were starting to say this word, and I didn’t know what the word was.

The word was finna, F-I-N-N-A.

And I noticed they would especially use it with each other or if they wrote each other notes, they would say this word finna.

And I didn’t know what it was.

They would say finna go to the store or finna hang out with my friend.

And then I started realizing that it was actually a slang term for fix into.

And I thought that was so interesting because we don’t say fix into in California.

We say I’m going to or I’m going to go to the store.

And so I started seeing the connection there between finna was a southern thing and gunna was maybe a non-southern thing.

That’s what I wanted to ask you guys about.

Yeah, I think the southerners also say gunna.

But yeah, so finna is a really tight condensation of fixing to.

It’s very standard in the American South.

And Gulf States also appears in African-American vernacular English throughout the United States.

And through hip-hop, finna is actually transmitted to the larger culture.

And so you’ll actually find it in the language of people who have no historical connection to African-Americans or to the American South.

Really interesting.

But it does follow the same pattern as going to and want to.

I want to go to the store.

So wanna instead of want to.

And the rarer one, which is trying to.

I’m trying to fix this.

Trying to.

I’m trying to fix this.

So those are the four big boys in China kind of being the left out one there.

But yeah, so this is a really common kind of colloquial way of speaking.

Good on you for having the ear to sense the regional differences there and not come out heavy handed to judge them harshly.

Well, at first I started telling them, don’t do that. Like, speak properly, you know.

And then I thought, if it’s a colloquial thing, if it’s a slang thing, who am I to correct their mannerisms, I guess.

Yeah, if they’re standing in front of the classroom giving a presentation, that’s when they need to bring out the fixing to, not the finna.

But yeah, just talking to their pals, that’s a different story.

The Dictionary of American Regional English, that amazing work at daredictionary.com, traces back fixing to, not the finna form, to the 1930s.

And I’m sure it’s much older than that and probably came into the United States through the Scots-Irish heritage.

Interesting. Very, very interesting. Well, thank you for that information.

Sure thing, Elise. Thank you for calling.

And good luck with the kids. You’re doing the best work out there. Teachers are our people.

I appreciate that very much. Thank you.

All right. Bye-bye.

I’ll stay. Nice to talk to you. Bye.

Okay. Bye-bye.

What word has caught your ear? Give us a call about it, 877-929-9673.

Or you can send it to us in email. That address is words@waywordradio.org.

Or find us on Facebook and Twitter.