Jagwire

[Mark Mandel]

Re trisyllabic "jag-you-are":

posted here Sun, 17 Apr 2005 03:11:03 EDT
by "[log in to unmask]" (but all the circumstantial evidence points to the
diligent Barry Popik)
subject: Precious Nonsense (1895) ("Hen Reward Beecher" poem)

An old lady in Nicaragua
> Had her back hair bit off by a jaguar,
> She said to him, "Ha!"
> He said to her, "Bah!"
> What a vile, artificial old hag you are!
>

Clearly arrhotic, BTW. (The double <r> carries on Greek spelling: initial
rho was doubled when word formation put it after a vowel, probably (I guess)
because it was trilled.) Can't tell if the close-quote on the fourth line,
instead of the fifth where it logically should be, is in the original.

Mark

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