eggcorn: "profound" (profane) words

[Stephen Goranson]

Quoting Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>:

> One phonaesthetic argument put forward some time ago (forgot the
> reference) is that ethnic slurs and obscenities are full of velars,
> voiceless velars in particular. Plenty of exceptions (which, as many
> have pointed out, only prove the rule), but not enough to challenge
> the generalization it seems to  me. Anybody remember this? I'd like
> to retrieve the reference?

Perhaps it's R. W. Wescott, Labio-Velarity and Derogation in English: A
Study in
Phonosemic Correlation, American Speech 1971, 123-37.

Stephen

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