"Democrat party"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Mark wondered indirectly "if the /f^ks/ bozos (et ceteri) pronounce it /,dEm@'kraet/."

  They do not.

  Xtra News Balonus: To quote myself from three years back: "Mancow ... has been routinely referring to Democrats as 'Dummycraps' for several months at least.

"This morning on _Fox & Friends_ he also condemned 'lie-berals.'"

  (Mancow, though, is a righty radio humorist, not a journalist. He used to appear several times a week on Fox News, but I don't recall that any lefty humorist ever appeared to provide balance for viewers' funnybones.  As for *_centrist humorists_, can such things exist?

  JL

Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Mark Mandel
Subject: Re: "Democrat party"
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On Sun, Jun 1, 2008 at 12:52 PM, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>
> There's a considerable difference between "Democrat Party" and
> "Republic Party." "Democrat" has a final stressed syllable and
> "Republic" doesn't.

Beg pardon? /'dEm at kraet/ has primary stress on the first syllable,
only secondary or tertiary on the last -- using "tertiary" as the
lowest level that a tense vowel like /ae/ can have. Not a stressed
syllable.

Now, if the /f^ks/ bozos (et ceteri) pronounce it /,dEm@'kraet/, I
have to agree with your conclusion.

> The syllable "crat" conforms to the phonotactics
> of English taboo vocabulary: short vowel and final voiceless consonant
> usually a stop, which turns "Democrat" into an epithet in a way that
> can't be done with "Republic." Among Republican political consultants
> it's been a routine form of name-calling for decades.
>
> Herb

--
Mark Mandel

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