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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2017-11-13 03:58:23

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

"flecked" for "inflected"

“Can I help you?” booms an Afrikaans-flecked voice, who doesn’t seem too concerned with customer service.
article

Thanks to his New Orleans upbringing, Domino’s signature songs fused Dixieland rhythms, his charming, Creole-flecked voice, and his rolling-river piano style.
obit

Complex polyphonies, Arabic scales, improvised keys and a dark multi flecked voice.
description of a musician

“What about my accent?” Antonio Banderas asks in his incredibly recognizable thick and rumbling Spanish-flecked voice.
interview

There was another dramatic sigh and then that perfect, accent-flecked voice continued.
story

Delegates to the United Auto Workers’ convention listened politely to the paternal, burr-flecked voice.
article

I think it’s a dandy eggcorn and I don’t think it’s been seen here before.

Last edited by Dixon Wragg (2017-11-13 04:42:02)

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#2 2017-11-13 07:48:21

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2713
Website

Re: "flecked" for "inflected"

Not the meaning of “inflected” that I am most used to. I’m somewhat gratified that the first dictionary I checked agreed with me: to inflect is to change the grammatical form without changing the root or central meaning (e.g. go from “inflect” to “inflects”); or it is to modulate the tone or pitch of the voice. I suppose the notion ”pronounce with a particular accent” would come from the second of these, and that is the meaning in most of the examples above.
.
With that meaning, it works for me pretty well, especially when the flecking is viewed as marring, changing away from some norm of perfection (i.e. from the way I pronounce things.) It also seems to suggest only partial or sporadic marring: it’s just flecked, not really filthy.
.
Nice one.


*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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#3 2017-11-13 08:13:54

yanogator
Eggcornista
From: Ohio
Registered: 2007-06-07
Posts: 237

Re: "flecked" for "inflected"

At first, I thought this was a misinterpretation, but I searched “Spanish inflected” and found that it is indeed used, so I now agree that ”-inflected” is probably the intended term here.

Good find


“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin

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#4 2017-11-14 02:27:37

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

Re: "flecked" for "inflected"

DavidTuggy wrote:

Not the meaning of “inflected” that I am most used to…I suppose the notion ”pronounce with a particular accent” would come from the second of these, and that is the meaning in most of the examples above.
With that meaning, it works for me pretty well, especially when the flecking is viewed as marring, changing away from some norm of perfection (i.e. from the way I pronounce things.) It also seems to suggest only partial or sporadic marring: it’s just flecked, not really filthy.

Actually, David, the “accented” examples I presented were not typical of the hits I got when googling “flecked voice”. I selected the ones referring to accents because that was the only context in which I’d remembered hearing the term “inflected” being used. In fact, most of the hits I got were not accent-related, but rather just descriptive, such as:

...her pungent, chicory-flecked voice was more settled now, less blazing and more calmly confident.
opera article

A dewy Irishman with a falsetto-flecked voice and a past haunted with songs played on acoustic guitars…
album review

Like this bald-headed fellow in his forties now, gravel-flecked voice and unassuming blue sweatshirt, manly but companionable.
column

Her songwriting is in full, fierce flower on this album, as is her vibrato-flecked voice.
concert come-on

Sacramento singer/songwriter Tessa Evans gives her own inimitable rendition as she sings with delicate control, her sultry, breathy, rasp flecked voice at times vulnerable, at times playful…
bio

That consistency comes with a now raspy but still soul-flecked voice offering up originals such as the local classic “Bottle Rockets” (a Fourth of July staple) and a wide array of familiar rock and soul nuggets.
concert calendar

Should we assume from what you said that you’re not as thrilled with these non-accent-related examples?

Last edited by Dixon Wragg (2017-11-14 02:28:27)

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#5 2017-11-14 07:38:00

yanogator
Eggcornista
From: Ohio
Registered: 2007-06-07
Posts: 237

Re: "flecked" for "inflected"

These new examples are probably second-generation, used by people who know “language-flecked” , but not “language-inflected”. In that context, these are sensible constructions.


“I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin

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#6 2017-11-14 08:12:37

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2713
Website

Re: "flecked" for "inflected"

Should we assume from what you said that you’re not as thrilled with these non-accent-related examples?

I’m quite adequately thrilled with them, too, but it is a different kind of thrill. They don’t strike me as probable eggcorns, but more as a new (and striking, or at least flicking) development of the word fleck . (I love watching lexical items evolve in unexpected ways. Chesterton: “The chief pleasure is surprise.”)
.
Given this lexical development the eggcornish motivation for the accent-related cases, however, diminishes. There is apparently a separate possible rationale for them that I had been ignorant of. As you said, Bruce, “In that context, these are sensible constructions.”

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2017-11-14 23:49:46)


*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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