kizolk
Indecisive 
Posts: 5,711
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Post by kizolk on Nov 23, 2024 9:22:55 GMT
By the way, French has a pleasant word that exhibits this /i/ = tiny phenomenon: "riquiqui", colloquial word for "tiny".
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Post by Etaoin Shrdlu on Nov 23, 2024 9:43:08 GMT
In the USMC and probably elsewhere in the American military, there is a drill command, 'right oblique march'. The I in 'oblique' is pronounced as in 'mike', although the normal pronounciation of it would be as EE in 'meek', for obvious reasons: you can't shout a vowel that forces you to contract your mouth. The reason I know this fairly obscure fact is that I once heard a radio presenter telling an anecdote about the reaction he had got as a new recruit when he politely corrected the sergeant's pronunciation of the word.
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Post by Etaoin Shrdlu on Nov 23, 2024 9:54:42 GMT
Just to clarify: that was intended as following on from the vowel as indicating smallness. Though it works on its own.
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kizolk
Indecisive
Posts: 5,711
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Post by kizolk on Nov 23, 2024 17:42:54 GMT
That's an interesting observation but I wouldn't go as far as to say you can't shout that vowel. Possibly uncomfortable, and its quality might get slightly altered, but when you want to shout, you don't leave aside words with close or tense vowels.
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Post by Etaoin Shrdlu on Nov 23, 2024 18:16:42 GMT
You do if you're a drill sergeant.
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Post by Pacifica on Nov 23, 2024 19:33:32 GMT
Well, kind of. It made me think of "mucous spit". In any case, it does have a nice ring to it. And I've just checked it: Wiktionary tells me "spate" is "possibly" related to "spit". It made me think of "spit" as well. It evoked the image of a river spitting out an insane amount of water. "Mucous" didn't occur to me. |
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Post by terentiusfaber on Nov 23, 2024 20:35:14 GMT
"Spate" is another name for a flood. There was a great flood in Scotland in 1829 called the "Muckle Spate" (which means, well, "Great Flood"). I like that phrase. It sounds very apt. Journalists use it to describe multiple incidences of whatever e.g. a spate of burglaries in the area, a spate of scam callers. Someone really needs to write 'a spate of spite' in a sentence sometime. |
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Post by Pacifica on Nov 23, 2024 20:38:18 GMT
I had come across the figurative use before, but was unaware of the literal one.
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Post by Pacifica on Nov 24, 2024 5:38:49 GMT
Just learned the term "circumfix".
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Post by Pacifica on Nov 25, 2024 7:29:02 GMT
Plume is cognate with fly, flee, flea, fowl and flock.
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Post by Etaoin Shrdlu on Nov 25, 2024 23:58:35 GMT
Has anyone else come across the principauté souveraine de Bidache? Those who have been following the most recent game may see which rabbit hole I've been going down.
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Post by Pacifica on Nov 26, 2024 0:05:35 GMT
I don't think I've ever heard of the principauté souveraine de Bidache.
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Post by Pacifica on Nov 26, 2024 0:14:26 GMT
Just looked it up. Interesting.
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kizolk
Indecisive
Posts: 5,711
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Post by kizolk on Nov 26, 2024 5:12:36 GMT
I didn't know about it either. I took a quick look at the list of "notable members" of the Gramont family; Antoine Geneviève Héraclius Agénor takes the cake in terms of ridiculous yet somewhat cool names.
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Post by Pacifica on Nov 26, 2024 5:15:43 GMT
It's definitely cool.
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