h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well in Irish Gaelic, bolg, pronounced bullogg, means an extended stomach, so full as a bullogg would make a lot of sense. It may be related. The letter B and M are very close together in Gaelic.

You know I didn't think that I would get an answer so quickly...

And if it were anyone but Gnomon I'd be warning you not to be too hasty in accepting the answer as fact. There are others, and I include myself among them, whose answers should never be taken at face value and still others that cannot be trusted as 100% true all of the time.

Accepting exceptions is the rule here. It is however hoped that most answers here will at least provide material for further independent searches. Gnomon's suggestion of 'bolg' produced several (27,000) interesting google results.

~jwf~

Yes it does help if you have a correct spelling to search for something, otherwise you are bogged down with far too many possibilities to sift thro...

I hadn't done a search yet...

My suggestion is only a suggestion, although a likely one.

I realise that, and appreciate your response and it does seem highly feasable..

>>..does help if you have a correct spelling to search..<<

Yes.
That's why 'bolg' has so many interesting results. A lot of people can't spell 'blog'.

My apologies to anyone who may have opened that Gay Hitchhikers site which google continues to rank as the number 2 choice for 'bolg'.



~jwf~

>> ...in Irish Gaelic, bolg, pronounced bullogg, means an extended stomach.. <<


The never-ending battle of the bulge.


Actually, examples like this expansion of 'bolg' to 'bullogg' is something we haven't discussed here before.

There must be several words still alive and well in English that have their origins in the earlier northern dialects. The various Gaelic, Celtic, Brit, Saxon and other 'vulgar' tongues spoken by the aboriginal savages of northern Europe were recorded in what must have been a phonetic approximation by post-Roman monks using the Latin alphabet. Like 'bolg'.

But where an ancient word survives, the modern versions have been modified from the earliest record by having extra vowels stuffed in between the clatter of consonants. Hence 'bullogg'.

I'll bet there are lots of old words that have been softened and 'romanised' by filling in some vague vowel sound between the clipped, crisp staccato of the harder consonant sounds.

Can anyone offer other examples?

I ask because my ear is very aware that there is still a tendency among speakers of English to expand words. There seems to be some sunconscious need to put a vowel sound (legato) between every pair of consonants. Take 'warm' for example, which I swear many people pronounce as 'warrem'. If this trend continues all our words will be growing more syllables. 'Cat' will become 'cahat'. 'Dog' will become 'dawugg'. 'Horse' will have to be 'horace' of 'courus'.

Hey I'm all for growth and expansion when it makes sense. But most of this vowel-wallowing sounds like stuffing and padding to me. I'm sure it's just for comfort but it does take the crisp edge off some things. Anyway, just something to think about... Let us know if you think of one, especially if you agree that many are just unnecessary vowel-wallowing.

And yeah, sure, argue against my assumption if you wanna. This is a case where I'd really love to be proven wrong.


~jwf~

Another example is the tendency, particularly amongst Scots/Irish/Geordies, to pronoounce "film" as "fillum".

>> .."film" as "fillum". <<


Yes! That's it. Exactly.
It is a creeping (something-the word eludes me) that is invading our speech. If you listen carefully to other speakers you'll hear it more and more in all sorts of ways and places.

It's kinda like the old proverbial 'uhm' that we are taught to omit when pausing to consider our next word in a sentence. It's as if we hope that we can s-uh-lip dis-uh-guised 'uhms' in-uh-to the middle of words as faux syllabulless.

Your example is an excellent one because it demonstrates a kind of faux sophistication in people who use it because 'fillum' sounds more posh than 'film'. Hopefully other researchers will be spotting other examples they hear around and report them to us.

It may seem a pointless exercise to anyone who simply thinks it's a symptom of lazy diction, but I honestly suspect there is an ongoing and progressive tendency for (our) language to 'swell'.


~jwf~

I'm going to stand up on behalf of Geordies (well Co. Durham to be precise) and the word "fillum". A friend of mine from that area simply can't say that word as "film" however much she screws up her face in concentration whilst trying

She also has difficulty in making dish "curry" and the girl's name "Kerry" sound dissimilar, but that's a whole other story...

On a semi-related note, I was tutoring a very sweet student from Honduras once, and he had a heck of a time saying any word that started with 'sp.' It always had to be 'esp...' (as in the obvious example, spanish vs. espanol). It seemed to be part phonetic ear-training and part his language not allowing 'sp' to begin a word. Seems kind of the other way around with the 'filim' thing.

wow Jwf.......not something I'd considered in that way afore!

This effect was particularly noticeable in the old rural Irish accent, which is dying out. Percy French, the great Irish song writer of the 19th Century wrote:

She's list'nin' for the whistlin'
She's waiting by the door
For that arrum to be warrum
Round her waist once more

The words 'arm' and 'warm' have to be two syllables each to fit the tune. I've also heard alarum for alarm, but I think this is actually the original term cf. Shakespeare.

I myself always say 'fillum' rather than 'film', not because of any pretensions, but just because that's the way I've always heard it said.

Does a Geordie find it easier to pronounce it with another word following, Greydesk? I can imagine that to say: "This film is cr*p" and divide it up into "This Fill Miss Cr*p".

One could revert to the H2G2 "British" English word : "Movie" (It has always annoyed me, that one -

Awkward, of course, if you're buying one for your camera or there is one swimming on top of your cuppa

Sorry - was distracted by the phone. Here are the endings to those two first paragraphs:

... is easier to cope with

... )

Yes, I was just about to say that I pronounce film as "movie", to avoid the inevitable laughing and pointing that ensues...

My daughter (same Norn Irn accent as meslef) was complaining only t'other day about being teased at school for that very reason. Poor babby.

Oh, you're glasses are empty. Would you like me to film up, for you?

Depends what's going in'em

Cosmopolitan?

Cosmopolitan can be arranged. It won't have a fillum on top.

Come on over to my place, say in about 8 hour's time?