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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2010-06-06 23:14:52

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

"uvulation" for ululation

Medical science is slowly coming to grips with the uvula. Removing it in an attempt to treat sleep apnea can result in severe throat dryness. So it is now hypothesized to be there to baste the throat. It is also drawn into service to create guttural sounds in Semitic, Caucasian, and Turkic languages, as well as in German, French and a few Celtic tongues. Click consonants are produced by uvular gymnastics in certain African languages.

Jazz singer Anita O’Day maintained that the accidental excision of her uvula—an inadvertent uvulopalatopharyngoplasty—during a childhood tonsillectomy left her incapable of vibrato. Wikipedia demurs, claiming that vibrato is produced in the vocal chords.

Many webizens concur with Ms. O’Day in assigning a role to the uvula in warbling cries, where it plays the role of a kind of soft-tissue speedbag modulating the flow of air during the erupting yodel. For them, exultation or lamentation are not expressed as ululation, but uvulation.

An angry pharmacist
YIYIYYYIYIYYYYIYIYYYIYIYI (wild Middle East uvulation).

Political discourse
Maybe you can get your terrot cards or conjur some pagan spell to help you understand. Weep with the forest for a while and maybe the uvulation will bring you clarity.

Huntin’ Wendigo
Around 1:30 on Sunday morning I woke up to “water the flora” and there were a series of unidentified uvulating type screams coming from the North that could very well have been a couple miles away. They lasted about 15 seconds then there was a gap for about 30 seconds before they started up again. There were a total of three hwls. I have heard bobcat, coyote and mountain lions and this was none of those. At first I thought it was a person but the uvulation and the length makes me think probably not.

Collaborative fiction snippet
“Uooolalalalala! For Cordoba and Zenata Desh!”
Halud Hasan’s youthful uvulation and cry emerged from the scuffle

Belly dancer birthday
Happy Birthday Zingara! Uvulation!!!!! And happy birthday!

American Idol
I saw a couple of clips from the second season, heard all the flat-notes and inappropriate uvulation, and held a funeral for music.

Online fiction.
A triumphant uvulation from above let her know that some kind of beast was overtop of the entrance

Trip log
We were soon on the ground and once again the plane erupted in cheers and much uvulation.

I’m personally familiar with uvulation. It’s the cry I make upon the discovery of a new eggcorn.

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#2 2010-06-07 03:02:18

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

Re: "uvulation" for ululation

One of the most entertaining posts in a while. The range of topics coherently addressed here is amazing. That’s one of the things I love about eggcorn-hunting—it brings a pretty darn weird set of concerns into conjunction with each other.

Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty gets hundreds of ughits, but uvulopalatopharyngoplastic just 24. And just two ughits for uvulopalatopharyngoplastics (and, as one would expect in accordance with Forster’s Law, they’re identical). Uvulopalatopharyngoplastification is—or was—a googlenope. Google asked me whether I was searching for “uvulopalatopharyngoplasty fiction.” I wasn’t, but I am now.

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#3 2010-06-07 09:51:47

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: "uvulation" for ululation

Write him a story about it, kem!


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#4 2010-06-07 19:21:46

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: "uvulation" for ululation

In this case, UPPP fact is stranger than fiction.

Doctor: Forceps!
Nurse: Forceps
Doctor: Scalpel!
Nurse: Scalpel
Doctor: Suture!
Nurse: Suture
Doctor: Forceps!
Nurse: Forceps
Doctor: Scalpel!
Nurse: Scalpel
Doctor: Suture!
Nurse: Suture
Doctor: Forceps!
Nurse: Forceps
Doctor: Scalpel!
Nurse: Scalpel
Doctor: Suture!
Nurse: Suture

That’s done it, now let me see, 1, 2, 3 tonsils … hold on, let me count those again…1, 2, 3 … dang!

Nurse, please add an uvulopalatopharyngoplasty to my bill.

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#5 2010-06-07 23:46:26

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2853

Re: "uvulation" for ululation

Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty! An obfuscating iatrogenic tergiversation.

How could I beat David’s screenplay?

Last edited by kem (2010-06-07 23:48:20)


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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