Archive for the ‘Interjections’ Category

Follow-up: BOOIESUZYKQHHHH

June 2, 2019

From the annals of Cartoonland spelling bees, in my 5/31 posting “Ultimate spelling bee”, this Bob Eckstein cartoon:


(#1) The contestant offers BOOIESUZYKQHHHH as the spelling for the given pronunciation /búwisúzikyú/ (or something very close to that)

In creating this cartoon (hastily — if you’re doing a bunch of cartoons a day, you don’t have a lot of time for reflection), Eckstein pulled some pronounceable nonsense out of his head as the contest word. The result is an expression with recognizable parts, two of which, /súzi + kyú/ form a familiar name — Susie Q — while the other, /búwi/, might be heard as any of several names, but in Eckstein’s mind was just two nonsense syllables that bubbled up in the heat of the moment.

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Posted in Interjections, Language and food, Linguistics in the comics, Music, Names | 2 Comments »

The town that time forgot

March 15, 2018

Today’s Zippy, touring the center of historic Dingburg:

A great compendium of Zippy preoccupations: Hostess cupcakes and Little Debbie snack cakes, bowling, Poindexter barbats, topknots, beatniks, and much more. Somehow frozen in a past between 1885 and 1945, so that it’s historical, fantastical, and absurd, all at once.

And then there’s the conversational language: beep, honk, and urp.

Posted in Interjections, Linguistics in the comics | 3 Comments »

All the /do/s

August 10, 2017

(#1) Homer Simpson ejaculates

From the American tv show Psych, S2 E12 “The Old and the Restless” (2008):

Shawn Spencer: Can you check for a John Doe, please?
[Desk clerk nods, turns to her computer]
Shawn Spencer: Actually, can you check all the Does? Tae Kwon, Cookie, Play, Do-Si…

An extended play on the syllable /do/ in English.

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Posted in Dance, Interjections, Language and food, Language play, Movies and tv | 5 Comments »

The art of interjection

November 13, 2015

In yesterday’s national edition of the NYT, a Jason Bromwich story with the arresting head:

Oy or Yo? Sculpture With Something to Say Lands at Brooklyn Bridge

(#1)

The rude interjection is a staple of New York life. Now, the landscape of the city will itself heckle residents and tourists, with a brash new sculpture in Brooklyn Bridge Park that yells “YO” if you are looking at it from Manhattan or “OY” if you are gazing out from Brooklyn.

The sculpture, “OY/YO,” is the first of this size from the artist Deborah Kass, who describes herself as a “total, absolute, 100 percent provincial New Yorker.” It was commissioned by a Brooklyn developer, Two Trees Management Company, and was placed in the park on Monday.

(more…)

Posted in Art, Interjections | Leave a Comment »