"um-weird"

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:28 PM -0400 9/12/09, Alison Murie wrote:
>THis particular interpretation of  um- is news to me.  I use "Um." or
>"Um," facetiously, usually to imply something like "it goes without
>saying," or "as you know."  If this has led to misreading of some of
>my posts, put it down to ignorance on my part.
>AM
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

Well, umfriend (presumably originating as a euphemism for 'lover' in
contexts like "Grandma, this is Chris, my, um, friend") is indeed
lexicalized with initial stress; unfortunately, the entry at
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=umfriend doesn't
provide phonetics.  Despite Jon's welcome nomination of
"umliterature" in the aforementioned 2005 post, I fear we'll have to
massage "umliterature" (still unlisted in the urbandic) a bit harder.

LH

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org