"guttural" = of the gutter

[Wilson Gray]

And, of course, German, i.e. the language of National Socialism, has
been stereotypically described as a "guttural" language for at least
as long as I've been able to read words of more than one syllable.
I've also seen Yellow-Peril Chinese described as "guttural," as
opposed to the more-usual "sing-song." At that point, it became clear
that "guttural" as used by non-specialists is meant as an insult, i.e.
the language sounds more like grunting than like real speech.

-Wilson

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 4:06 PM, Mark Mandel<thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: "guttural" = of the gutter
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 3:42 PM, Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at att.net> wrote:
>>
>> Â =46rom Heidi Beirich of SPLC Hate Watch, writing on AlterNet, =20
>> concerning a Misissippi pol's membership CCC:
>>
>> "Those actions are not surprising, given the guttural nature of the =20
>> CCC=92s racism and anti-Semitism."
>> AM=
>
> Almost a mirror image of "gutteral sounds".
>
> m a m
>
> PS: I *hate* MIMEification. ("=46rom...")
>
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--
-Wilson
–––
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.
-----
-Mark Twain

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