I'm interested in the origins of “I'm just saying” used postpositively. (Also its variant: “I'm not saying, I'm just saying.”) An example: “Have you ever noticed how many people end statements with qualifiers? I'm just saying.” It seems to be an update of “With all due respect,” or perhaps something I'm not thinking of. Is it an East Coast expression? I'm from California and have never heard it in speech, but have noticed it frequently in blog titles and posts.
"I'm just saying"
October 28th, 2006 by Nancy Friedman
55 Responses to “"I'm just saying"”
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Teaching English to Preschoolers with iPhones
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If you have kids and own an iPhone, please check it out. It's $2.
That phrase — which I like, too, in moderation — sounds as if it comes from Jewish comedians of the 1930s and 1940s, possibly from Yiddish theater and drama of the era, or possibly the stereotype of the Jewish mama, the zenta, who is usually a nagger: nags her husband, her children, her sister in Brooklyn. For example:
“I’m not saying marry a rich boy, Rachel, but it’s just as easy to fall in love with someone rich as it is with someone poor. I’m just saying .. ”
The rich, earthy, usually wise resonances of colloquial Jewish American speech seem to come across in this phrase. It’s subtler and often more persuasive than saying, “Now listen, I’m not ordering you, but .. ” or “I’m not telling you what to do, but .. ”
Maybe the famous “Molly Goldberg” said it on her radio program or “Mrs.Nussbaum”, or Hermoine Gingold, or someone like that. That’s my guess.
Roger, maybe it was just a typo, but I think you mean yenta, not zenta.
Thank you, yes. It was both a typo and an absent-minded error. Thanks for correcting me.
Thanks for the info.
Can you recall who said…”good night Mrs. ????? wherever you are”
Was in Jimmy Durante or Red Skelton??
“Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are” was Jimmy Durante’s radio sign-off.