terms of endearment

[Jonathan Lighter]

CNN's experts, standing right next to the speakers, can't say for sure what
Z muttered.

I certainly couldn't tell from what I heard, which was mediated further by
the at least one more set of CNN devices plus my own TV.

It could have been "fucking coons" or "goons" (which occurred to me too),
or something else I haven't thought of. Furthermore, I've only heard the 2
seconds in question without any context.  Anybody who's done transcriptions
knows that once something gets fuzzy, it can be difficult or impossible to
know what was actually said.

Furthermore, in those cases one tends to hear what one expects to hear.

Specialists need to examine both the entire tape and Z's ordinary speech
before concluding anything about what he said.

Said, not did,

JL



On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 1:00 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      terms of endearment
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Groan!
>
> http://goo.gl/gQ8s1
> > After reviewing a 911 call George Zimmerman made before gunning down
> > Trayvon Martin, many believe they hear the shooter calling the
> > 17-year-old a “fucking coon.”
> > But a friend of Zimmerman’s family told ABC on Sunday that people were
> > jumping to the wrong conclusion.
> > “I spoke with my teenage daughter yesterday, and the word in question,
> > it’s the difference between a ‘C’ and a ‘G’ from what I understand,”
> > attorney Craig Sonner explained.
> > “And ‘goon’ is apparently a term of endearment in the high schools
> > these days,” he added. “I don’t know of anyone younger than 40 who
> > uses ‘coon’ as a racial epithet.”
>
> video on the page
>
> VS-)
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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