"blergh" (and "argh")

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:41 AM -0400 6/18/10, Mark Mandel wrote:
>Garson notes that in _Treasure Island_
>>Long John Silver does say "Ah" many times. [...]
>>
>>  Maybe some pirate speech is rooted in early movies or plays. How much
>>  of the evolution of pirate diction and manner is based on actors
>>  observing previous performances?
>
>And on scripts or stories written by R-less speakers, who might have used
>"ar" where Stevenson (a Scot) used "ah"? Compare Kipling's pronunciations of
>names in The Jungle Books, including such Yankee-bafflers as
>
>* TABAQUI (1 p. 4) the Jackal, is pronounced Tabarky. I think I made up this
>name myself (accent on bar).
>* BALOO (p. 20) is Hindustani for `Bear'. Pronounced Bar-loo (accent on
>Bar).
>* KAA (1 p. 43) is pronounced Kar. A made-up name, from the queer
>open-mouthed hiss of a big snake.
>- http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_junglebook_names.htm

And then there's always A. A. Milne's Eeyore the donkey.

LH

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