[Ads-l] DPR--candidate for "most euphemistic"?

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Fri Jun 12 15:46:17 UTC 2015


On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 11:13 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
>> On Jun 12, 2015, at 10:25 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>> Hey, what's with the mandatory apostrophe in "D'oh" anyway? Glottal
>> stop or hypercorrection?
>
> I've always assumed the former.
>
>> Or something more...occult?

Here's an interview with Dan Castellaneta (voice actor for Homer
Simpson) describing his inspiration from James Finlayson in the
"Laurel & Hardy" movies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGiJOHDJEss

If, in fact, "D'oh" originated because Finlayson was tempted to say
"damn" and cut himself short, then that might it explain a glottalized
production of [d?o:]. But Castellaneta's Homeric style of "d'oh"
doesn't sound glottalized to me (well, the glottal stop would be after
the [o], not before it).

--bgz

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list