Brad from Allen, Texas, is curious about a term he’s heard only in Texas. It’s used to refer affectionately to a mother or grandmother: T Jones. Most uses of this term for a parent or grandmother seem to occur in the Dallas area. It’s been around since the 1970s, but not much more is known about the expression or its origin. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “T Jones in Dallas”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Brad Andrews. How are you guys doing today?
All right. Where are you calling from, Brad?
I’m calling from Allen, Texas.
Well, welcome to the show. What can we do for you?
Originally, I’m from Mississippi, and I moved to Texas about 10, 12 years ago.
And when I first moved here, I would hear a term all the time that I’m not really used to.
It’s called T. Jones.
I’ve heard people refer to it as a grandmother or a mother.
I just want to know a little bit about the phrase, what exactly does it mean, and where did it come from?
So T. Jones, like T as in Thomas Jones?
Correct.
Where did you hear it? Where did you learn T. Jones?
Originally when I moved to Texas, I’m from Mississippi originally.
When I moved here, I would hear it all over Houston.
A lot of people said it in Houston.
And after that, I moved to Dallas.
And again, the phrase, I’ve heard it all over Texas, but nowhere else.
Yeah, that’s what I know about it as well.
T. Jones, usually spelled as the letter T and the name Jones to mean mother, sometimes father, very rarely father, sometimes both parents together, is very specific to Texas and usually centered around Dallas.
Most people report it from Dallas.
And it’s African-American usually as well.
Sometimes it pops up in collections of street slang or youth slang.
But it’s been around since the early 1970s.
And it’s a kind of big fat origin unknown, unfortunately.
We don’t know.
And I have seen no theories at all on the origins.
Was it named after a particular person?
Was T the initial of a matriarch of a clan or something?
Nobody really seems to know at all.
But it’s interesting.
There’s two interesting things about what you’re telling me.
One is, boy, people in Dallas are going to be surprised that you heard it in Houston.
Because everything that I’ve read on this, both in casual speech and in slang dictionaries, firmly associates it with the Dallas region and not Houston.
Okay.
And the other thing which kind of surprises me is that it’s still got so much life in it.
It’s still out there being used because I thought it was waning and kind of fading in its use.
But you’re saying that you still wear it?
Absolutely, all over the place.
Okay.
Brad, I’m wondering what kind of context do you hear it in?
Is it a particularly affectionate term or would you just use it in passing?
It’s always used as an affectionate manner.
For example, I’m going to my T. Jones house. She’s cooking today.
And again, I don’t know when it necessarily means grandmother or mother.
It’s just used kind of sparingly between the two of them.
And I’m very cursed that you guys have no idea where this thing came from.
Yeah, it happens a lot, actually.
Particularly with slang, because slang kind of comes up from different communities that we might not be a part of.
And the histories don’t travel with the words as the words themselves start being used by more people.
Oh, I’m glad I was able to stump you guys.
I feel good about that.
Congratulations, Brad.
The nice thing about this show, Brad, is now that we’ve talked about T. Jones, meaning mother or other things, we may get emails and calls from people saying, look, I have a source for this from the 1950s, or my grandfather used this in the 1940s.
You never know what we’ll uncover.
Sometimes we get great information, and I’m hoping that’ll happen this time.
Yeah, so keep listening.
Thank you so much.
I love the show, guys. Keep it up.
Thank you.
Appreciate the call.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
T. Jones.
T-Jones. Sometimes it’s spelled T-E-E, Jones, but almost always it’s the capital letter T or the lowercase T in a space, and then Jones either capitalized or not capitalized.
Fascinating that it’s so localized.
Right? Well, we don’t all speak alike, right?
There’s this illusion about the monolith of American English where there’s one American English, but there has never been one American English, and we’re not merging either.
Right.
We’re growing increasingly unlike each other in certain ways when we speak.
Well, if you know something about T. Jones, give us a call, 877-929-9673, and we welcome your emails about anything regarding language.
The address is words@waywordradio.org.
