Monday, December 31, 2007

Eye dialect trouble

I'm avoiding as much 'year in review' junk as humanly possible this year and looking forward to a less hectic 2008, but I still picked up the local free weekly Isthmus "So long 2007" issue. The little editorial/intro has this headline:
Buh-bye
Don't you hang for a nanosecond there before getting the right reading, namely (I hope) [bəbai]? This pronunciation seems to be associated with flight attendants, especially (from a SNL skit?). I was surprised to see Urban Dictionary with this definition:
normally used as a dismissive for a person's comments or an idea that is unwelcome or unpleasant. sometimes used after a look of disbelief.
It's not faring well — it's drawing mostly thumbs down on the reactions deal that UD has. But maybe this is how it's being used here?

Speaking of end of the year stuff, The Onion had the best ever title for a year in review issue: 2007. What the hell just happened? On a related, and more forwardlooking philosophical note, here's the Onion's Libra horoscope this week:
Your belief that God does not play dice with the universe will be tested by the discovery of a 10,000-mile-long craps table on Jupiter.
Happy new year, everybody.

2 comments:

Ben Zimmer said...

I believe the SNL sketch that popularized "buh-bye" was "Total Bastard Airlines" from the 93-94 season (transcript, video).

Mr. Verb said...

Yes! Hard to believe it was that long ago ... . Thanks.