This morning’s query from Benita Bendon Campbell:
Have you “done” Flanders and Swann’s “I’m a gnu”? (León Hernández Alvarez’s I have a new brought it to mind.)
(that is, L’s report in my 10/20 posting “I have a ##”)
But of course. Among my gnu postings there’s my 3/14/12 “The news for gnus”, where I wrote:
Today’s Rhymes With Orange:
I can’t think of gnus without being reminded of Flanders and Swann’s delightful Gnu Song — which you can hear here, along with photos of real-life gnus. The lyrics: [in full in the 2012 posting]
An elaborate play on silent letters in English spelling: “restoring” the G of GNU and GNASH, the K of KNOW, and the W of WHO, with the initial /g/ of /gǝnú/ spilling over onto /n/-initial nicest, nature, neither, not, even know, and, most marvelously, the climactic (a)nother. (Plus “Cockney” initial /h/ in elk and ain’t.)
October 22, 2024 at 6:15 am |
I’ve long suspected that it was the Flanders and Swann song (not actually anybody’s swan song!) that was responsible for what I perceive as a growing tendency of English-speakers to pronounce the “g” of gnu.
October 23, 2024 at 4:39 pm |
I’m reminded of the car dealership in Cincinnati run by a fellow named Tom Kneer who pronounced his surname with an audible initial K. The tag line in their commercials was “Tom Kneer is a good man to know”, with both K’s pronounced.