mm...

I remember a post awhile back wherein I commented on people's disappearing tendency to say "goodbye" on the phone.

At the time I thought it was a universal tendency. Now I think it was just a Michigan one. Everyone in Pennsylvania says some variant of "goodbye."

They're weird variants, though, Western Pennsylvania dialect being what it is (that is, unique: The Pittsburgh Dialect is its own animal, distinct from its more widespread neighbors). It's never "goodbye," or even "'bye"; it's a warped version of "bye-bye," that sounds, in gutteral Pennsylvania throats, like "BUH-bye."

Maybe it's not unique to Western PA. But almost everyone here says it. In their voicemail greetings, in phone conversations, in face-to-face conversations. "BUH-bye."

I don't. A few others don't. But I don't say merely "'bye," either. Instead I precede it with a brief deepening hum in my throat: "Mmmbye."

Possibly it evolved from "Mm-hm. 'Bye." Or, if my scant knowledge of linguistics serves me, the "b" sound is the voiced "m" sound, so perhaps it's a trick of moving from unvoiced into voiced.

Whatever. I've tried saying "BUH-bye." It feels odd. So I stick with "Mmmbye."

On a less technically inquisitive, but equally silly note, this morning I put jumbo paperclips on the fingertips and thumb of my right hand and practiced typing and writing with claws. I had to stop after about fifteen minutes when my fingertips turned cold and purple, but the feat wasn't as difficult as I had supposed. It looked vaguely like the exoskeleton of a Terminator. Or it looked, less vaguely, bizarre. As one of the office guys handed me a fax to send out, he glanced at my hand and his eyes kind of got stuck. He's really nice, so he didn't say anything, but his brow creased a little and I could see him thinking, Whaaa?

I pretended I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, just as he did. And then when he walked away I grinned and clicked my claws together. Why should animals have all the fun?