"gook" (rhymes with "book")

[Dennis R. Preston]

larry,

You have now heard /guk/ for the last syllable of "gobbledy...".
Well, you didn't really hear it, but you can imagine my dulcet tones.

It has no connection with the xenoslur, but it may be connected (my
introspector is broke today) with my guck, which I can pronounce
either /g^k/ (contamination from 'yuck(y)'?) or /gUk/ (but definitely
not /guk/.

dInIs

>At 11:51 AM -0500 3/17/05, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>If "gook" as applied to Filipinos or other foreigners derives from
>>"goo-goo", we'd expect the pronunciation /guk/ (rhymes with "duke"), and
>>this is indeed what all the dictionaries give.  But other derogatory
>>senses of "gook" have apparently been pronounced /gUk/ (rhymes with
>>"book").  Here's a versified example from 1917:
>>
>
>I've only heard /guk/ for the xenoslur, and I've only heard /gUk/ for
>the last syllable of "gobbledygook", and...
>
>>The /gUk/ pronunciation perhaps aligns these usages with "gook" as a
>>variant of "guck" = 'thick messy substance' -- AHD and MWCD give /gUk/ as
>>the primary pronunciation of this sense of "gook", with /guk/ as a
>>secondary pronunciation.
>>
>... for the mass noun above, the (I assume non-exact) synonym of guck
>and gunk (Who's gonna clean up this gook/guck/gunk on the counter?)
>
>larry


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
        Asian and African Languages
Wells Hall A-740
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office: (517) 353-0740
Fax: (517) 432-2736