squirmish

[Jonathan Lighter]

The difference, if it matters, is that SP's placement and emphasis of the
word makes it less likely that "squirmish" was completely inadvertent.
Though a mainly phonological explanation would be difficult to refudiate.

It is said by some that "squirmish" is a brilliant contribution to
language that further displays SP's brilliance.

JL

On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 10:17 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: squirmish
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jun 2, 2011, at 5:36 AM, Amy West wrote:
>
> >
> > There was a Language Log posting about it that suggested a possible
> > phonological explanation for the mispronunciation.
>
> ML, 3/29/11: Palin perseverates:
>  http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3058
>
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