I was reading a book on pronuciation and I came across this so I thought it would be of interest. :-)
"A Plum in your Mouth: Why the way we talk speaks volumes about us" by Andrew Taylor (pg.134)
"...the West African language established itself for some time as a common tongue among many slaves in the Southern States. It also brought a few words of its own into the language, often through the medium of black music - the Wolof
hipi means to see or be aware, and survives in English as
hip, while the slang
dig, meaning to like or to sympathize with, comes from the Wolof
degg, to understand."
In a general note, if anyone wants to check out my multi-lingual blog on language, linguistics and politics go here:
http://corcaighist.blogspot.com Slán go fóillín libh go léir! :-)