-iz(z)- infix

[Prof. R. Sussex]

David Crystal (Encyclopedia of Language) has some good summary notes
on various deformed and secret languages (Pig Latin and the like).
The name for this -iz- phenomenon is tmesis (Greek: "cutting"), and
it is common in Australia, where the place name Tumbarumba can come
out as Tumba-bloody-rumba; there is a poem by Nino Culotta, alias
John O'Grady, which has a line
        Down in Tumba-bloody-rumba shooting kanga-bloody-roos.
But that's inserting a word or expletive at an internal boundary; I'd
be curious to see more examples of -iz- in US English.

Roly Sussex

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Roly Sussex
Professor of Applied Language Studies
Department of French, German, Russian, Spanish and Applied Linguistics
School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies
The University of Queensland
Brisbane
Queensland 4072
AUSTRALIA

Office: Greenwood 434 (Building 32)
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Email:  sussex at uq.edu.au
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