# Hello my baby, hello my \*blank\*, hello my ragtime gal

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-my-baby-hello-my-blank-hello-my-ragtime-gal/950543>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** cartoons-animation\
**Created:** [September 12, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-my-baby-hello-my-blank-hello-my-ragtime-gal/950543 "2021-09-12T13:49:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2021, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-my-baby-hello-my-blank-hello-my-ragtime-gal/950543/81 "2021-09-18T23:08:07Z")

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Weird, because I think of it as you do, and to me it sounds like a slightly stronger stress on the first syllable in the video to me. Honestly, the stresses sound pretty equal to me (were I scanning it for poetry, I’d scan it as a spondee), but I know in another thread we’ve interpreted stresses a little differently.

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**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-my-baby-hello-my-blank-hello-my-ragtime-gal/950543/82 "2021-09-18T23:13:17Z")

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It’s not exactly that the stress is more on the second syllable in that video, but it’s more on it than it _usually_ is. He stretches out the second syllables of baby and honey a lot, though that’s not uncommon for songs of that era. So the stress seems bigger than it really is.

Which was what was going on with the people who hear Sandi Toksvig say “conDOM” when she’s not - being used to hearing a schwa in that second syllable, their ears sort of over-emphasised hearing it said as a different vowel.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-my-baby-hello-my-blank-hello-my-ragtime-gal/950543/83 "2021-09-18T23:25:29Z")

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Yeah, all that makes sense, and I agree.

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**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2021, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-my-baby-hello-my-blank-hello-my-ragtime-gal/950543/84 "2021-09-18T23:57:55Z")

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Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp!

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