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I remember one time when a friend of mine who spoke little English and threw a party…He was inviting people into his house and, he first said “come in, come in” and after a while, he started saying “between, between”. I asked him what he meant…He said he got tired of using the same words over and over, so he would use a synonym….
LOL, Mariana. Good one! And I share Joie's question. If you're cheering for a woman in Spanish, what would you say?
Hey Martha!
If you are cheering a female in Spanish you would say Bravo! just as if you were cheering a male. In this case is an interjection to express applause, admiration and it does not have gender.
Bravo means brave, . It can also mean fierce, rough and angry. I all these cases it has gender: bravo and brava.
Mariana
Podcast listener chiming in late...
If you'd like to see an amazing collection of desire paths, check out the Desire Paths pool on Flickr.
Liz said:
Gee — a MATH security question. That's scary !!
How about written “improprieties†— such as the capitalization of words in context where they normally are not capitalized? I often copy the style of old titles in A.A. Milne's children's books, to emphasize something in a sentence I've written. Here's an example (remember that I live in Georgia):
When it gets hot Down Here, everyone goes indoors.
The late, great, Hunter S. Thompson often capitalized the first letter of words, and sometimes the entire word for emphasis that gave some respite from the classics … ellipses, bold, italics, underlines — em dashes — semicolons; etc.
I've been a Practitioner of the same since High School.
I just heard a rerun of this episode, and it actually made it into one of my dreams last night. There was a guy in the dream named "Bo", kind of a rednecky auto mechanic. One of his coworkers called him "Bozart", which I thought was a hilarious play between his name and Beaux Arts, to the point that I was laughing out loud in the dream and maybe even in my bed. But of course Bo didn't get the joke. It then occurred to me that Bozart would make a good name for a clown who happened to be the mascot of an arts organization, though admittedly it seemed like a better idea in my sleep than it does now that I'm awake. Still, if there happen to be any arts organizations out there looking for a name for their new clown mascot, Bozart the Clown is all yours.
Here are a couple of words that probably do not appear in a dictionary. I've never heard them spoken in a way that indicated the speaker was knowingly or deliberately mispronouncing or combining words. Maybe that's because they seem to be such natural combinations that intensify the meanings so well.
"slickery" = slick + slippery
(for example, used to describe walking conditions on rainy days)
"flustrated" = flustered + frustrated
(for example, used to describe the annoyance of bureaucratic "red tape")
Pronunciations like "fambly" and "chimbly" for family and chimney are not mispronunciations, but are vernacular anachronisms according to my college linguistics prof. They are in commonest use in Appalachia and other regions where dialects have been preserved from settlement times and earlier. He said that it was accepted pronunciation in Elizabethan times to use an mbl sound combination for both "ml" and "mn". He said that Shakespeare likely pronounced the name of his tragedy "Hamblet."
I response to the Jody discussion about military chants, I wanted to see if anyone had heard the "I used to work in Chicago" song. My grandfather who was in the navy during WWII used to sing it sometimes and its another one of those dirty military songs. I only remember one or two verses so I'll post what I remember:
I used to work in Chicago, I did but I don't anymore
I used to work in Chicago, in a great big butcher store
A lady came in for some meat, I asked her what kind at the door
Sausage she said, and sausage she got, and I don't work there anymore
I used to work in Chicago, I did but I don't anymore
I used to work in Chicago, in a great big department store
A lady came in for a hat, I asked her what kind at the door
Felt she said, and felt I did, and I don't work there anymore
There were all kinds of other verses too, the Jody discussion just reminded me of this song.
I just heard a rerun of this episode, and it actually made it into one of my dreams last night. There was a guy in the dream named "Bo", kind of a rednecky auto mechanic. One of his coworkers called him "Bozart", which I thought was a hilarious play between his name and Beaux Arts, to the point that I was laughing out loud in the dream and maybe even in my bed. But of course Bo didn't get the joke. It then occurred to me that Bozart would make a good name for a clown who happened to be the mascot of an arts organization, though admittedly it seemed like a better idea in my sleep than it does now that I'm awake. Still, if there happen to be any arts organizations out there looking for a name for their new clown mascot, Bozart the Clown is all yours.
Indystan, this is great! And I'm delighted to learn we're invading your dreams. Mwuhahahhaha! First your dreams, then your credit card number . . .
My sister was helping out in a kindergarten class one time. The teacher was reading a book, and she asked the kids if she knew what animal the book was referring too. It was a book about warthogs. The teacher firmly believed that this animal is called a "Warth og" my sister tried to tell her that most of the world calls them "wart hogs" In the future if you run across a kid that thinks that Pumba is a "warth og" it could just be a mispronounciation done on purpose. I know that I now call warthogs "warth ogs" sometimes because of this story.
Goheels said:
I response to the Jody discussion about military chants, I wanted to see if anyone had heard the "I used to work in Chicago" song. My grandfather who was in the navy during WWII used to sing it sometimes and its another one of those dirty military songs. I only remember one or two verses so I'll post what I remember:
I used to work in Chicago, I did but I don't anymore
I used to work in Chicago, in a great big butcher store
A lady came in for some meat, I asked her what kind at the door
Sausage she said, and sausage she got, and I don't work there anymoreI used to work in Chicago, I did but I don't anymore
I used to work in Chicago, in a great big department store
A lady came in for a hat, I asked her what kind at the door
Felt she said, and felt I did, and I don't work there anymoreThere were all kinds of other verses too, the Jody discussion just reminded me of this song.
Dr Demento (what, you thought AWWW was the only radio show I listen to?) occasionally plays a recording of this song, "I Used To Work In Chicago", by a singer called Larry Vincent. He's also featured a version by Sammy Kaye and his Orchestra, and essentially the same song by Spike Jones and the City Slickers under the title "I'll Never Work There Any More".
Mispronunciation: I remember a Readers Digest story in which a woman tells about her nephew who was fascinated by a book about jungle animals. "Look! Here's a frickin' elephant!"
"Excuse me, what did you say?" she replied, in anger and embarrassment.
"See - it says right here," he said as he pointed to the picture in the book, captioned AFRICAN Elephant.
Her comment: Hooked on Phonics - ain't it great!
Regarding the "desire paths" (a new term for me), you may get a different answer at MIT in Cambridge, MA. On a tour there in the early 90s, we were following a circular sidewalk around an open courtyard when the tour guide pointed out the worn path through the grass that ran straight across the middle. We were told it was an example of a "nerd path", since any good nerd knows the shortest distance between two points (in a plane, at least) is a straight line.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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