This is the best comic I have ever seen about tmesis in the English language and also nearly identical to the example we were given in Latin III, except that instead of ridiculous the host word was unbelievable. It's an actual morphological rule; I believe in English it has to do with syllabic stress (in Latin, it's more strictly the splitting—τμῆσις—of a compound word). No one should have been surprised that it led to a brief fad of students saying unbelievfuckingable just to be difficult. Dr. Fiveash also spoke fondly of the emphatic possibilities of reduplication: unbe . . . believable, which I have never actually used in conversation no matter my level of incredulity, but I appreciate having been told in my junior year of high school that I could.
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- 1: Now let's listen to a conversation between two English actors on the subject of Warships Week
- 2: How am I supposed to know what's real?
- 3: And we'll find you a leader that you can elect
- 4: The ocean is faithful and the Devil's a liar
- 5: I'm aggrieved the hours I've lost I could have spent with my love
- 6: Melting outward like a movie burning on the screen
- 7: We've found where the divide is thin and chosen the other side
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- Style: Classic for Refried Tablet by and
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