[Ads-l] DPR--candidate for "most euphemistic"?

[Jonathan Lighter]

As I suspected: it's just for visual effect.

JL

On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 11:46 AM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: DPR--candidate for "most euphemistic"?
>
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>
> On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 11:13 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >
> >> On Jun 12, 2015, at 10:25 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>
> >> Hey, what's with the mandatory apostrophe in "D'oh" anyway? Glottal
> >> stop or hypercorrection?
> >
> > I've always assumed the former.
> >
> >> Or something more...occult?
>
> Here's an interview with Dan Castellaneta (voice actor for Homer
> Simpson) describing his inspiration from James Finlayson in the
> "Laurel & Hardy" movies:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGiJOHDJEss
>
> If, in fact, "D'oh" originated because Finlayson was tempted to say
> "damn" and cut himself short, then that might it explain a glottalized
> production of [d?o:]. But Castellaneta's Homeric style of "d'oh"
> doesn't sound glottalized to me (well, the glottal stop would be after
> the [o], not before it).
>
> --bgz
>
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