Bad Taste Breakthrough! PLUS New Phoneme! (UNCLASSIFIED)

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Thu Jul 22 19:58:01 UTC 2010 

Not exactly

/ s /  (not "S") is a phoneme, but that's irrelevant to the discussion.  / S
/ (pronounced "sh" but typed / S / because email won't easily allow for the
proper symbol) is the phoneme you have in mind.

So / S / is a phoneme.

_Shit_, however, is a morpheme.  The point is that it consists of three
significant contrastive sounds, phonemes.  These are / S / , / I / , and / t
/.  Four letters but three phonemes.

"eeeeeeee" till now has been a sound outside the system of English phonemes.
In other words, it doesn't appear in "English" except as a nonlinguistic
sound imitative of an electronic beep, a high-frequency pulse, a little
birdie, or maybe a mosquito in the time it has left before you whack it.

CBS has decided to write "S#*!" when it means / SIt /.  People are offended
because when they see "S#*!" they know what pronunciation to use and that
pronunciation, they used to tell kids, is naughty.

Knowing that some people (all born, it would seem, before 1910 ) are still
offended by the morpheme and pronunciation /SIt/, CBS has decided not to
utter that word when referring to "S#*!"  Instead, they push a button that
emits an electronic beep.

Not all of us carry such buttons.  So in discussing the show in the human
voice, that word must somehow be uttered.  It might be uttered as /SIt/, but
that isn't the "official" name of the show because the word "shit" does not
appear in it because it would be naughty.

So to be quite correct, one must say "eeeeeeee."  And that's what the
announcer does say, with the help of his electronic button.

Thus the correct pronuncuation of the first word in the show's title is
"eeeeeee."
It's become a phoneme because now it's embedded like a retrovirus in the
English system of word-making sounds and is no longer just a sound effect.
Like the word "a," it is a single phoneme that by historical accident is
also a word and (unimportantly here) a morpheme.

If the word written "A--" in the title of that other show is *also* meant to
be pronounced as "eeeeeee," the new phoneme becomes extra bizarre.  Not only
would it then have been the first to be adapted from an electronic sound, it
would have become a word/morpheme that is synonymous with both "shit" and
"ass," as they are customarily spelled.  It could then easily become
synonymous in speech with all naughty words.

Stranger things have happened. John McCain's VP choice, for example.

A speech sound that carries a perceived meaning,  rather than exists simply
as a part of the language's system of speech sounds, is traditionally called
a morpheme.  So "eeeeeeee" would thus be both a phoneme and a morpheme (like
/ ^ /,  which allows one to pronounce the word "a.").  But unlike the word
"a," it would have numerous meanings linked by the unusual feature [+thought
naughty by unhip old people].

But perhaps the show will flop and Cap'n Kirk will go back to his great
Priceline commercials. ("You win *this* time...good twin!!!!" [Cue sound
effect of vanishing in smoke.])

Or perhaps we're making too much of this.

JL

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 3:03 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: Bad Taste Breakthrough! PLUS New Phoneme! (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> So let me make sure I understand.
>
> "S" (or possibly "S#"?) is a phoneme.
>
> "S#*!" as pronounced by CBS announcers is a phoneme; as pronounced by an
> average 9 year old, it is a lexeme.
>
> "S#*! My Old Man Says" is "led by larger-than-life star William Shatner"
> (per CBS) and is bound to be the new comedy laff riot of the season.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> > Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
>  > Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 11:09 AM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Bad Taste Breakthrough! PLUS New Phoneme! (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> ---------------
> > --------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Bad Taste Breakthrough! PLUS New Phoneme!
> > (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --------
> >
> > By my count, even "bip" contains three significant contrastive sounds,
> > Three
> > phonemes.
> >
> > A vocal imitation of an electronic "beep" (more like "eeeee" actually,
> > but
> > audibly distinct in pitch from / I / or even / I:: /)  contains just
> > one.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 11:40 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
> > Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> > > Subject:      Re: Bad Taste Breakthrough! PLUS New Phoneme!
> > (UNCLASSIFIED)
> > >
> > >
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ----------
> > >
> > > Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> > > Caveats: NONE
> > >
> > > So if Rowan and Martin had said, "You bet your sweet bip" then it
> > would
> > > be okay for William Shatner to talk S#*!.  As it is, Shatner is a
> > > trailblazer and edgy.
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> > > > Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
> > > > Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 10:30 AM
> > > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > >  > Subject: Re: Bad Taste Breakthrough! PLUS New Phoneme!
> > (UNCLASSIFIED)
> > > >
> > > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > ---------------
> > > > --------
> > > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > > > Subject:      Re: Bad Taste Breakthrough! PLUS New Phoneme!
> > > > (UNCLASSIFIED)
> > > >
> > >
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --
> > > > --------
> > > >
> > > > "Bippy" has too many sounds to be a phoneme. It's a lexeme, and
> > > they've
> > > > always been a dime a dozen.
> > > >
> > > > JL
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 10:36 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
> > > > Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > > > -----------------------
> > > > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > > > Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> > > > > Subject:      Re: Bad Taste Breakthrough! PLUS New Phoneme!
> > > > (UNCLASSIFIED)
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > >
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > ----------
> > > > >
> > > > > Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> > > > > Caveats: NONE
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]
> > On
> > > > > > Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
> > > > > > Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 7:27 AM
> > > > > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > > > > > Subject: Re: Bad Taste Breakthrough! PLUS New Phoneme!
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Pronounced the same as _S#*!_ ?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > No kidding, if people do start saying (*Beep!*) to euphemize
> > > > certain
> > > > > > monosyllables, it will have become a phoneme of English.
> > > > >
> > > > > As did "bippy" -- "you bet your sweet bippy", from Laugh-In,
> late
> > > > 1960s.
> > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > A very bizarre one, but a phoneme nonetheless.
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> > > > > Caveats: NONE
> > > > >
> > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle
> the
> > > > truth."
> > > >
> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > > Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> > > Caveats: NONE
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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