A Mother’s Playful Interjections

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Jada Samudra. I’m calling from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Hi, Jada. Welcome to the program.

Thank you.

What can we help you with, Jada?

Well, I think it was last month or the month before, I remember you had some things about how people mispronounce words, and it got me thinking about my mother’s funny playfulness with words.

And I started remembering a whole bunch of different things she used to do that I don’t know if she originated or they have an older history.

I know one thing that I’m pretty sure she coined was the thought plickens.

The thought plickens?

The thought plickens, right.

When we’d be watching a program or a movie or reading a mystery, or sometimes if we would come home with some elaborate explanation for why we were late coming home from school or something, she’d say, aha, the thought-plickens.

I like that. I’ve never heard that spoonerism.

That’s a great one.

That’s funny. I used to say the thick-plottens.

Did you?

Yes, yes.

How about that?

She had a number of interjections when we would start a sentence, we kids, would start a sentence with sort of one of those little words that, you know, people start sentences with before they actually start saying what they’re talking about.

And she would have these interjections.

So, for example, if you started a sentence with, well, she would add, well, well, three holes in the ground.

Or if you started a sentence with so, she would interject buttons on your underwear.

Or if you started a sentence with C, she would interject said the blind man as he picked up a hammer and saw.

So I’ve been wondering all along if my mother made up these or if there was a time in, I don’t know, kind of a cultural history where it became a mode to kind of make up these interjections, kind of like see you later alligator kind of thing.

I don’t know.

Maybe.

Let me ask you a question.

Did your mother say these things as a way of kind of nudging you not to use things like starting a sentence with well or so? Is that what she was doing?

I don’t remember it that way.

It’s quite possible.

But she was also just very playful with language.

So I don’t remember it as kind of like a pedagogical tool.

Right, it wasn’t that she was a pedant or anything, or that she wasn’t necessarily irritated.

It was just you said something, it triggered this automatic response, and she just spit out the thing that she always says, right?

Yeah, and of course then we would get irritated.

Well, that was my next question.

That was my question too.

Yeah, did you find that annoying after a while, that she kept saying the same thing year after year?

Well, I don’t even know how often she did it.

She did it often enough that, you know, I’m trying to think back, because this is quite a while ago, because I’m, you know, in my 50s.

So I’ve been trying to think how often she did this, but somehow it got into my language.

That’s what my question is.

And actually I’ve taught it to my husband, who’s Indonesian, so it’s really great, you know, so he’ll say that.

Oh, my goodness.

So do you, does either of you get in a word edgewise?

I mean, I would think that you would have these sort of start and stop conversations.

Well, I think it’s a good thing that there’s nothing that she interjected for like, right?

Oh, yeah.

Now all the kids say like, but I don’t think we grew up saying like.

Oh, yeah.

Let’s not think of one of those.

I’ve heard a variation of the blind man as he picked up his hammer.

I’ve heard a variation of that.

But there was another one that you didn’t say, which I’ve heard, which is when someone says hey, you say hey is for horses.

Oh, yes.

I know that one.

Straw is cheaper, grass is free, marry a farmer and you have all three.

That one, no.

And I asked about the reason, I asked if she cared about, if she was saying this is a way to remind you not to begin your sentences that way.

Because for a lot of people, that’s what these are.

They’re kind of devices to remind somebody else that they’re speaking in a way that is hyper casual or overly slangy or just somehow not correct.

Jade, I should just say answer one of your other questions.

These aren’t, as far as I can tell, unique to your mother.

I’m looking in a variety of reference works while we’re talking here.

I’m finding the thought plickens goes back to at least 1912.

Oh, you’re kidding.

No, a lot older than that.

Oh, you’re kidding.

Most of these have a long history, and that doesn’t take anything away from your mother’s using them.

I mean, that’s how we learn language.

We get all of our language from somebody else, and so there’s no reason that these couldn’t be borrowed perfectly from anyone else, as is wholesale.

Jada, I want to thank you for giving us so much of your time today.

This was really interesting, and I’m sure we’ll get a lot of email and calls about it.

Okay, thank you very much.

All right.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

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Let us know about the expressions in your life that somebody uses over and over, whether you find them amusing or annoying.

Over and over and over.

If you’ve got some that you made yourself, send them along to words@waywordradio.org or give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.