In the TV show “Hawthorne”, they refer to the highway as “The 64”. The show takes place in Richmond, Virginia. Prefacing the highway number with the definite article is unique to southern California.
Doc Brown is the only scientist who pronounces gigawatt with a “j”.
Yeah, close that can of worms right back up, before we start talking about how Perry Mason pronounces “Los Angle-less” or “Nevahda”, or how Jon Stewart pronounces “gif”.
As noted above, I’ve noticed several examples of characters on the east coast saying “THE [highway name]”. The only thing worse is Arizona, where we are a unique blend of CA and the rest of the country. In LA it’s “the 10”, anywhere else it’s “I-10”, but in AZ it’s “the I-10”. That grates every time I hear it. Even more when they say “the I-number” and it isn’t an interstate highway!
There was a character I think in FBI, who noted that she “was from Wisconsin”. Not without your accent you’re not, sister! She said it like it is spelled. For a native it would be an obvious “Wes Khan sin.”
Disagree. This Jewish person has always heard it with equal stress on both syllables.
That’s funny, I always assumed it was Terra Hote and Terra Hut would never cross my mind. If I had to guess another pronunciation it would be Terra Howt, to rhyme with Pout.
I read (I think it was in Mr. Nice by Howard Marks) that it’s nicknamed the “Terror Hut”. So I guess that could be involved?
There was an instance of a character in Deadwood angrily calling Al Swearengen a “cocksucker” (although not to his face) as well as other things after having been wronged by him. In the DVD extras, it was explained that the insult was not yet in use at that time, the actor had been improvising, but it sounded so powerful that they decided to leave it.
Easily explained: Raymond Burr was Canadian.
And that has jarred loose a memory from way back. As a 50’s kid I’d often watch Art Linkletter’s House Party (TV) with my mother. Even to idiot kid me it always sounded odd to hear him pronounce Los Angeles as “loss ANN guhleeze.” And he LIVED there.
Art was Canadian too. Born 17 July 1912 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
Burr was born 21 May 1917 in New Westminster, British Columbia.
I find this hard to believe. Did they cite a source for this?
In the mini-series they made of Stephen King’s 11/22/63 one of the minor characters who is supposed to be a Maine native pronounces Bangor as “Banger.” Although that is apparently how all the other Bangors in the US are pronounced for God only knows what reason, in Maine it’s pronounced “Bangore.”
Etymology Online says it dates from the 1890s with the literal meaning “one who does fellatio”, and from the 1920s as “contemptible person.” The Historical Dictionary of American Slang has the first citation of the non-literal epithet from 1918.
Nope. There is a well known Bangor on Hood Canal – where the deadliest submarines dock – which is most definitely not pronounced “banger”. At least, not by the locals.
I assume the 1890s cite is from a printed source. But I can well imagine that the word was in use for a while before it was put in print, which is of course the whole problem with this sort of research. It’s impossible to know how people sounded in private conversation.
My understanding is that cursing at the time was much more dependent on blasphemy than obscenity. The writers used words like motherfucker and cocksucker because they were much more shocking to modern sensibilities. They may have existed at the time but they weren’t used at the frequency shown in the show.
“Cocksucker” was used over 300 times in Deadwood. Here they all are (obviously NSFW, so spoilered).
Regarding it being improvised, Ian McShane had this to say:
As noted above.
Yes that’s certainly true, and it’s obvious that the writer of the 1918 quote did not coin the use of the word as an epithet. But there are limits to what is reasonable. Deadwood is set in 1876 (I believe; I haven’t seen the show). Can you imagine a word being used in speech since 1976 or earlier, and then not appearing in print until 2018, 42 years later?
Given how vulgar the word is, yes, I can imagine a large gap between its use in oral conversation and its appearance in print.