No mo' "ho ho ho"

Fri Nov 16 13:56:42 UTC 2007

On Nov 15, 2007, at 6:44 PM, Jon Lighter wrote:

> Wilson, volume II of HDAS covers H through O.  The very first
> comment a colleague made to me was, "And that spells 'ho'!"
>
>  So, yes.  Any time one encounters an H and an O in that sequence,
> he or she is expected to think "ho."
>
>  Whether this has helped or hindered sales of H-O Oats, H-O scale
> trains, and chocolatey Ho-Hos, I can't say.

not to mention those pirates chanting "yo ho ho".  and "Westward Ho"
and the like.  and a bunch of other interjection uses of "ho".

has anyone looked at the phonetics here?  AAVE "ho'" is an r-less
pronunciation and so is likely to have the extra length of r-less
variants in these varieties.  that is AAVE "ho'" is likely to be
longer than the "ho" of "ho-ho-ho" or "Ho-Hos".  (of course, non-AAVE
speakers mostly won't detect this.)

arnold

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