mm-hmm /hmm-mm: antedatings?

[Jonathan Lighter]

1940 Christopher Morley, Dalton Trumbo, Donald Ogden Stewrt _Kitty Foyle_
(film): "Don't you love me?" "mm-HMM!" "Won't you marry me?" "HMM-mm!"

"Mm-hmmm!" has prolonged stress on each syllable, "hmm-mm!" has exclamatory
stress on the first syllable, none on the second.

JL

--
"There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
Platypus"

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