buttockses (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

When joke pronunciations have been around long enough or are
introduced in such a way as to persuade enough unlearned hearers that
the joking pronunciation is correct, it tends to become treated as
correct. Consider the pronunciation [b^ taks / b^ tOks] replacing
[b^t at ks].

-Wilson

On 2/11/08, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: buttockses (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> Gary Oldman played a white pimp (named Drexl Spivey) who was doing his
> best to live a black lifestyle (dreadlocks, AAVE, referred to whites and
> blacks as though he were black) in the movie "True Romance" (written by
> Quentin Tarentino).  He referred to "breasteses" at least once in the
> film, and in what was probably a serious way.  I can only take it to
> mean that Tarentino thought this was a legit AAVE usage.
>
> Other quotes from Drexl (from IMDB, and what purports to be an online
> script):
> "They got everything here from a diddled-eyed joe to damned if I know. "
> "Now I know I'm pretty, but I ain't as pretty as a couple of titties. "
> "Damn skippy."
> "Next time you bogart your way into a nigger's crib, an' get all his
> face, make sure you do it on white boy day."
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society
> > [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray
> > Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 4:17 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: buttockses
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: buttockses
> > --------------------------------------------------------------
> > -----------------
> >
> > Wasn't "breasteses" popularized as a joking, pswaydo-BE
> > pronunciation by the old Fox TV show, _In Living Color_? My
> > impression of the various sketches in which this
> > pronunciation was used is that the point was that, since
> > black men prefer women with back, a black guy talking about
> > breasts wouldn't even know how to pronounce the word.
> > (Forgive the syntax of the proceeding.)
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> > On Feb 10, 2008 4:00 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
> > <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> > > Subject:      Re: buttockses
> > >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > ---------
> > >
> > > On Feb 10, 2008 3:03 PM, Laurence Horn
> > <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > At 10:26 AM -0800 2/10/08, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
> > > > >from yesterday's "wait wait ... don't tell me" on NPR,
> > two uses of
> > > > >"buttockses" in reference to israeli soldiers who entertained
> > > > >themselves by mooning palestinians.  each soldier exposed his
> > > > >buttocks; as a group, they exposed their buttockses (parallel to
> > > > >"asses", "backsides", "butts", etc.).  so, a double
> > plural, where
> > > > >the standard form would just be plural, regardless of how many
> > > > >people are involved.
> > > >
> > > > The reanalysis of "buttocks" as a singular is also
> > supported by the
> > > > spelling "buttox" (57,000 raw hits) and the occasional plural
> > > > "buttoxes" (635, or twice as many as "buttockses").
> > Maybe someone
> > > > is now imagining that "buttox" is an ablaut variant of "botox"...
> > >
> > > Cf. "bollox"/"bollix"...
> > >
> > > And while we're on double plurals for body parts, what about
> > > "breasteses" (and variants thereof)?
> > >
> > >
> > > --Ben Zimmer
> > >
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
> > complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > -----
> >                                               -Sam'l Clemens
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org