random taboo avoidance (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

On 11/29/2011 8:59 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok<aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: random taboo avoidance (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I got the disk out again and followed up on a few pointers. It actually
> sounds like "broomshed artist", or, even closer, "br at nsh@darchist", but
> the CC text does say "bullshit". Apparently, I misremembered "barn" or
> misinterpreted it. The thing that's striking is that there is a
> "fucking" in the sentence before, so if the avoidance is in the script,
> it's an odd one. If it's "bullshit", then it's also odd but for a
> different reason.
>
> To make things more interesting, I uploaded a 2+ minute MPEG clip to
> GoogleDocs. It's at
> https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5mMQMC2BhS7YzM3MjcyNmUtYzdlNS00MjkzLTk3MTAtZmFmYTFkNzAxNzE0
>
> Shortened:
> http://goo.gl/AxuaZ
>
> You should be able to play it or download it. The word is at about 2:02,
> but scroll back another 10 seconds to get the exchange.
--

Good show!

I think "bullshit" is what is intended, I think it should be "bullshit",
and I hear "bullshit" although the first vowel seems odd -- less rounded
than I would expect, something like the "high/close schwa" or whatever
it's called -- like /bIlSIt/. (Some of the savants can correct me if
necessary.) Maybe the dialect in question is prone to unrounded /U/?

-- Doug Wilson

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