"a warning singsong"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I don't think so. I don't recall that as being nearly as rhythmical and
up-and-down as what I'm thinking of.

But even so, it would still have been in the early '50s.

Has anybody heard the "warning singsong suprasegmental" from speakers born
before, say, the 1920s?

I get the feeling that it was invented by pioneering rug-rats and carried
over into "grownup" life.

JL
On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 10:50 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "a warning singsong"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Was Desi Arnaz's "Lucy! You have some esplainin' to do!" a singsong?
>
> DanG
>
> On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 10:45 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      "a warning singsong"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I mean that universally recognized singsong suprasegmental that people
> use
> > to suggest that you'd better stop what you're doing instantly. It can
> also
> > be used with "I told you so!" for extra obnoxiousness.  That would be a
> > "triumphant singsong"; GB gives a 1906 hit - out of only nine exx. - but
> > that one seems insufficiently sarcastic  (if that's the right word.)
> >
> > A "warning singsong (tone)" is about the best way I can describe the
> > principal phenomenon.  GB's earliest relevant hit (and there are very
> few)
> > is from 1951, pretty recently from Hengest's standpoint.
> >
> > My mother used to use it on occasion, but I can't recall if she started
> in
> > my earliest childhood or later.  My feeling is that it was later, when
> > everybody was using it, including me. But I can't picture my grandparents
> > using it.
> >
> > Questions:
> >
> > 1. Is this feature common in other languages?
> >
> > 2. What's the earliest evidence for its existence in English?  Did young
> > Will Shakespeare employ it?  (For that matter, did he go, "Nyah nyah nyah
> > nyaah nyah"? I fear that history is mute on that question.)
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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> >
>
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