Meaning of "Ah Um"

[Lance Jaegan]

I'm writing a paper on Mingus and his work on Mingus Ah Um, and I remember reading in Mingus: a Critical Biography that it was a "jokey" title which "needs no explanation to anyone who has had to study latin adjectives." Frankly, it's gibberish to me. I searched on the 'net and couldn't find any explanation of the title, and I was wondering if anyone here could possibly enlighten me? It'd be nice to explain the title.

[Andrew Jones]

Not gonna bet this is right but.....
I ounce heard a woman purred it in a suductive pleased kinda voice sounded like aaaaaaaa mmmmmmmmmm never heard those written words in my head the same.
corse she cpuld have phrased it in a way thats more like i was forgeting her birthday all short and irritated

[Andrew Jones]

sorry about the spelling
Andrew

[amcrory]

No one else here took Latin in school?

Geez...

Well from what I remember (and I'm 99% certain of this), it's indeed a pun on a Latin grammatical concept.

Mingus is a "Latin-esque"-sounding name by virtue of the "-us" at the end... you know, like E Pluribus Unim ("Out of many, one."). Or Pastorius, for that matter (Latin for "shepherd," I believe).

So... what it looks like Charles did, was make up an imaginary Latin word (adj. in this case) -- Mingus. In Latin, that's the masculine form of the adjective. The feminine form would be "Minga" and the neuter form would be "Mingum".

So... in a Latin textbook, if "Mingus" were a real adjective, you'd see it listed like so:

Adj. -- Mingus, -a, -um.

Then, he took it, Anglicized it, and made it sound like someone mumbling.

Does that make sense? It's just a silly pun... but I would bet my next paycheck you'd never see anything that deep on a boyband title.

-a

[Don Higdon]

That was so well done, I'd believe it even if it weren't true.

[Andrew Jones]

That's great! thanks amcrory! Ive learned something today!
I hope I can still hear my ladie friend purrr those words when I look at the cover.
AJ