"Democrat party"

[Herb Stahlke]

I should have specified the level of stress, but I've never been able
to tell the difference reliably between secondary and tertiary.  I
didn't intend to suggest that the word had a primary stressed ultima.

Herb

On Sun, Jun 1, 2008 at 7:11 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Democrat party"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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:
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> Poster: Mark Mandel
> Subject: Re: "Democrat party"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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