Shm-reduplication

Shm-reduplication

Shm-reduplication is a form of reduplication in which the original word or its first syllable (the base) is repeated with the copy (the reduplicant) beginning with shm-, IPA IPA| [ʃm] . The construction is generally used to indicate irony, derision or scepticism with respect to comments about the discussed object::He's just a baby!:Baby-shmaby. He's already 5 years old!

A classic example of shm-reduplication is "Latin schmatin", a slang phrase for binomial nomenclature.

Phonological properties

* Words beginning with a single consonant typically replace that consonant with shm- (table shmable).
* Words beginning with a consonant cluster are more variable: some speakers replace only the first consonant if possible (breakfast shmreakfast), others replace the entire cluster (breakfast shmeakfast).
* Vowel-initial words append the shm- directly to the beginning of the reduplicant (apple shmapple).
* Some speakers target the stressed syllable rather than the first syllable (incredible inshmedible); a subset of these do not copy base material preceding the stressed syllable (incredible shmedible; cf. Spitzer 1952).
* Shm-reduplication is generally avoided or altered with words that already begin with shm-; for instance, schmuck does not yield the expected *schmuck schmuck, but rather total avoidance or mutation of the shm- (giving forms like schmuck shluck, schmuck fluck, and so on).
* Many speakers use sm- instead of shm- with words that contain a sh (Ashmont Smashmont, not *shmashmont). Further phonological details revealed by Bert Vaux and Andrew Nevins' online survey of shm-reduplication can be found here [http://php-dev.imt.uwm.edu/prjs/markj/projects/fll_surveys/shm/] .

Origins and sociolinguistic distribution

The construction appears to have originated in Yiddish and was subsequently transferred to English, especially urban northeastern American English, by Yiddish speaking Jews. It is now known and used by many non-Jewish English speakers. The construction also transferred into modern Hebrew usage, as in David Ben Gurion's famous dismissal of the UN - "Oum Shmoum" ("U.N. Shmu-N") - during a March 29 1955 government meeting.

Bibliography

* Feinsilver, Lillian. 1961. On Yiddish Shm-. American Speech 36: 302-3.
* Nevins, Andrew; and Vaux, Bert. 2003. Metalinguistic, shmetalinguistic: The phonology of shm-reduplication. Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistics Society annual meeting, April 2003.
* Southern, Mark. 2005. Contagious Couplings: Transmission of Expressives in Yiddish Echo Phrases. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group.
* Spitzer, Leo. 1952. Confusion shmooshun. Journal of English and Germanic Philology 51: 226-33.

See also

* Joe Shmoe
* Reduplication
* Redundancy
* Pig Latin
* Spoonerisms


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Reduplication — in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) is repeated exactly or with a slight change. Reduplication is used in inflections to convey a grammatical function, such as plurality, intensification,… …   Wikipedia

  • SHM — is a three letter acronym, which can stand for: *Simple harmonic motion, a concept in physics. *Shared memory, in computer science. *shm reduplication, an example of reduplication in linguistics *the IATA airport code of Nanki Shirahama Airport… …   Wikipedia

  • Reduplication in the Russian language — The reduplication in the Russian language serves for various kinds of the intensification of the meaning. Reduplication is also observable in borrowed words, such as ru. пинг понг (IPA| [piŋ poŋ] ; ping pong) and ru. зигзаг (IPA| [zɪgˈzak] ; zig… …   Wikipedia

  • Shm-Reduplikation — Die Shm Reduplikation auch Schm Reduplikation ist eine Form der Reduplikation in der englischen Sprache, bei der das ursprüngliche Wort wiederholt wird, orthographisch beginnend mit einem davorgesetzten shm (Aussprache: schm [ʃm]), was manchmal… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Joe Shmoe — Joe Schmoe (also spelled Joe Shmoe and Joe Schmo) is one of the most commonly used fictional names in American English. It is used to identify the typical, everyday person who does not have any special status, frequently in contrast to some group …   Wikipedia

  • Inherently funny word — The belief that certain words are inherently funny, for reasons ranging from onomatopoeia to phonosemantics to sexual innuendo, is widespread among people who work in humor.Fact|date=September 2008 Cultural variation The concept of inherent humor …   Wikipedia

  • Pleonasm — is the use of more words (or even word parts) than necessary to express an idea clearly. A closely related concept is rhetorical tautology, in which essentially the same thing is said more than once in different words (e.g black darkness , cold… …   Wikipedia

  • Jewish humour — is the long tradition of humour in Judaism dating back to the Torah and the Midrash, but generally refers to the more recent stream of verbal, self deprecating and often anecdotal humour originating in Eastern Europe and which took root in the… …   Wikipedia

  • Doppelmoppel — Die Reduplikation ist ein morphologischer Prozess, bei dem Laute, Silben, Wörter oder Wortteile wiederholt werden, indem man einen bestimmten Teil bzw. eine Lautkette des Basiswortes kopiert, dieses Reduplikat wieder mit der Basis verbindet und… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Reduplikation (Sprache) — Die Reduplikation ist ein morphologischer Prozess, bei dem Laute, Silben, Wörter oder Wortteile wiederholt werden, indem man einen bestimmten Teil bzw. eine Lautkette des Basiswortes kopiert, dieses Reduplikat wieder mit der Basis verbindet und… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”