mmmkay? and its kin

[Dennis R. Preston]

arnold,

My bad. It's the counselor (Mr. Markey?), not Mr. Garrison (the
teacher with the hand puppets), as my viewing of Cartman unwillingly
giving up a kidney for Stan revealed last night.

dInIs

>>arnold,
>
>>I can't remember the South Park teacher's name (he with a friend
>>named Mr. Hat I believe, although in the episode I saw last night he
>>was unfaithful to Mr. Hat with Mr. Stick), but he tags nearly half
>>of his uterances with "mmmmmkay." The effect is striking and is
>>clearly a part of his "characterization."
>
>
>dInIs
>
>
>
>
>>from Genre magazine, August 2004, p.30, article on digital cameras:
>>
>>-------------
>>Finally, cameras that use rechargeable batteries will lkely save you
>>money in the long run, mmmkay?
>>-------------
>>
>>i'm familiar with "ok?" (or even "ok!") produced with an initial
>>prenasalized velar stop.  does this have a labial component for some
>>speakers?  a *prolonged* one?  can it be used as an agreement marker as
>>well as a question marker?
>>
>>there are a few "nkay?" web hits on google, no relevant ones for
>>"ngkay?", but large numbers for "mkay?", "mmkay?", "mmmkay?", and some
>>even for "mmmmkay?", "mmmmmkay?", "mmmmmmkay?", and "mmmmmmmkay?"
>>(though once you get past three m's, google asks if you meant
>>"mmmkay?").
>>
>>let me know if anyone's studied the phonetics and/or pragmatics here,
>>mmmkay?
>>
>>arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)