eggcorn? Baskinet (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 3:08 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 5:55 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>>
>> "Baskinet" sounds like something Popeye the Sailor Man would have said
>> -- didn't he stick odd "k" sounds into the middle of words?
>
> Yes, he did, as a matter of fact. Of course, now that the subject has
> been broached, I can't think of any examples. <sigh!>

Plenty of examples on the IMDb quotes page for Popeye:
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0026978/quotes

>From "Popeye the Sailor: Olive Drab and the Seven Sweapeas" (1960):
"Oncek upon a time, there lived a beautiful princekess named Olive Drab."
"And so, Princekess Olive Drab and Princek Popeye lived happkily ever after."

>From the movie adaptation "Popeye" with Robin Williams (1980):
"Another thing I got is a sensk of humiligration. Now, maybe you swabs
can pool your intelligensk and sees that I'm axking you for an
apologeky."

As with "baskinet," Popeye tends to insert /k/ after medial or final
/s/ (princekess, sensk, viska versa, Misskissippi, getsk, muskels). He
also typically replaces medial or final /t/ with /k/ (room for renk,
house of ill repukes, infink, elephink, monsker, invisibiliky,
appetike). Surely someone has done a phonological study of the Popeye
idiolect!


--Ben Zimmer

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