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Why do we ask, "Cat got your tongue?" I haven't seen a cat get anybody's tongue. Sure, we all know about cats who try to drink milk out of babies' mouths--never saw one horrors!, but have heard about it in old wives' tales.
But cats getting people's tongues? That just doesn't make any sense to me.
Don't let the cat get your tongue on this one. I would really appreciate some edification here.
DubDub
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Max: I enjoyed the cat site. But I doubt very much if some oriental brutality had anything to do with my mildly punitive aunt mocking my hesitancy to admit wrong doing.
And while we're at it, I have never except in jest heard "aunt" pronounced like the appellation of a member of the family Formicidae.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Max:
About the suggestion on the link you provided: So, the miscreants lost their hands or tongues, and these were fed to the mideastern king's cats as "their daily food."
Heckuva lot of miscreants in those days to provide all that food on a daily basis for the king's kittens, huh?
Dub
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Carpal Tunnel
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re: ant vs aunt
It's a regionalism, I suspect. I'm from New York and there isn't any detectable difference there between the insect and the sister of my father (not aurally, anyway) - both are pronounced like the a in "hand." On the other hand my wife is from Boston and the distinction is quite clear when she speaks (I won't even try to illustrate!). Your California aunt is probably somewhere in between, at least linguistically speaking.
On an analogous note, I'm told that in New York City during the Depression, when a municipal job was prized as one of few available source of income and teachers' positions therefore at a premium, how you pronounced "oral" and "aural" could qualify or disqualify you from consideration...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear wofahulicodoc: I was born and raised in Massachusetts. Man spricht wie der Schnabel gewachsen ist.
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Wof writes: I'm from New York and there isn't any detectable difference there between the insect and the sister of my father ...
And where does this sister of your father reside? In a little thin rectangular box filled with earth? Hmmmmm?
DubDub
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Come, come, sir, I did say "aurally," didn't I? As it happens, she too started in NYC (as did her sisters, all of whom qualify as my aunt), but anyway we're supposed to be talking about her title, not her pronunciation :-)
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old hand
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old hand
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 And where does this sister of your father reside, Hmmmmmm? Uh, Wordwind, in case I forget, remind me to never cross you. Your friend, Milum.
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