"Eeyore" noun attr.

[Jonathan Lighter]

Even a city-slicker like me knows that mules go "haw-hee."

  When sounds are reversed in this way, we pointyheads call the phenomenon "metathesis."

  Mule-based metathesis has not been reported previously, however.

  JL
"hpst at earthlink.net" <hpst at EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "hpst at earthlink.net"
Subject: Re: "Eeyore" noun attr.
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I may not be an expert on what Eeyore sounds like but as anyone who has
read anything I have uploaded to this list knows I am an expert on making
an ass of myself.

For those of you who may think that a donkey goes hee haw I have another
think coming for you.

You city fellas have probably never spent much time except figuratively
with jackasses like myself but let me tell you that they are perhaps the
horniest beasts you will ever run across in you life. In other words no
matter how tall it is they will mount it which partially accounts for the
large numbers of mules we used to have in spite of the fact that mules are
sterile.

The offspring of a horse and a jenny is called a hinny and is neither as
large as the horse nor as strong and therefore undesirable.

The sound a jackass makes is nothing like hee haw but rather something
which sounds like hawhee, hawhee, hawhee ... while exhaling on the haw and
inhaling on the hee.

I would be able to reproduce it for you in person but I am damned if I know
to describe it in print.

Anyone who snorts like that when they speak shouldn't at least in polite
company unless they are unable to avoid it because they are burping at the
same time and can't avoid doing it in which case they might be described as
making a sound like Eeyore might make.

Page Stephens

> [Original Message]
> From: Bill Lemay
> To:
> Date: 6/23/2006 3:36:25 PM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "Eeyore" noun attr.
>
> Two hits for "eeyorish voice"
>
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
-----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
> > Subject: "Eeyore" noun attr.
> >
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---
> >
> > "Chan's story is moving nonetheless, and with her unseeing eyes and
> > dark Eeyore voice, she's a presence you don't want to let go of."
> >
> > Boston Globe, Movie Review, "A fragmented look at lives of longing"
> > (review of "Be With Me"), June 23, 2006, D12/6.
> >
> > Google hits for "eeyore voice" -"eeyore's voice" -"(voice)" -- are
zero.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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



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