mmmkay? and its kin

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jul 4, 2004, at 4:05 AM, Lois Nathan wrote:

>     I know a user of 'mmkay'.  I believe it has a labial component,
> and it is
> used as  by him as an agreement marker.  I'd give it a double "m" in
> length.
>     Just out of curiosity, this guy is from the south or near south.
> Where
> are the people from who use this form?

as i explained in my first posting on this, i first became aware of it
*in print* (though now i realize i must have heard it on South Park,
without catching its significance).  the web hits have a vaguely
southern tilt, but that's hard to judge.  the quotation from Genre
probably isn't of southern origin, but Genre's writing is
self-consciously hip, and the "mmmkay?" almost surely comes from South
Park.

i was hoping that someone both phonetically and socilinguistically
adept would have looked at this...

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)