Phonetics Lessons with Homer Simpson

Having previously posted about words that the television show The Simpsons has contributed to our lexicon I was thrilled to see a link on Fritinancy to an article about the Simpsons greatest language contribution. What I found most interesting in the article is the following:

"In the French version of the show Homer actually says 'T'oh!', instead of "D"oh!". This is because the French actor who dubs Homer"s voice misread the word the first time he played the role and has never got round to correcting himself."

I guess the actor must have been losing his voice that day.

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In phonetics /t/ is the voiceless counterpart of /d/.

Click here for more about voicing.

Simpsons, Meet the Simpsons

I grew up watching The Flintstones; however, as I do not watch much TV these days I was surprised to find out that the expression "meh" came from The Simpsons. This discovery was made when I commented about my sons' frequent use of the word "meh" on an Engine Room post about neologisms. When I made the comment I had no idea where the word came from; I was simply stating my dislike for the expression. Thank you for filling me in J.D.

By the way, my teenage sons also tell me they are "hungy" all the time and it drives me crazy because I think they are speaking in baby talk. Little did I know, the word "hungy" is also a Simpson's coinage.

I now know that there are numerous Simpson's Dictionaries and word lists all over the Internet (too many to give credit to) and I certainly don't want to take away from any of them, but in honor of my sons' summer vacation I thought I would share some of my favorites.

Adultivity: The state or condition of being an adult.

Banjologist: An expert in banjo based musical styles.

Beginualize: A portmanteau of "actualize" and "begin."

Car Hole: A garage.

Craptacular: A portmanteau of "crappy" and "spectacular."

Deceleratrix: The service brakes on a car.

Embiggen: To make something better. The opposite of belittle.
Introubulate: The act of getting someone into trouble.

Jerkass: A portmanteau of "jerk" and "jackass."

Knowitallism: A word that describes Lisa Simpson’s personality.

Learning juice: Beer.

Malparkage: The state or condition of being illegally parked.

Poindextrose: The chemical which is emitted by geeks, dorks, and four-eyes.

Pointy kitty: A rat.
Telepanhandling: A portmanteau of "telemarketing" and "panhandling."

and last but not least, my personal favorite

Word hole: A mouth.

For the boys:
Meh: An expression of adolescent indifference.
Hungy: Homer’s pronunciation of the word “hungry,” shortened because of hunger strike fatigue (not baby talk, to my surprise).

Here is a link to one of the more thorough Simpson's word lists I came across at wikiSimpsons.