Now, kids, I'm not any linguistics expert, but I can tell you a little something. The word
barbaric has two distinct free morphemes which both have somewhat negative connotations. They are
bar (a place where people get drunk; historically a place where men get drunk and shoot each other) and
bar, but pronounced as
bear (a large animal capable of eating you). What a grotesque combination. That's why I prefer to use the word
savage. Ah, listen to how that word just flows off the tongue, how it lacks that
nasty unique English rhotic phoneme.
. Unlike the semantic result of
barbaric, that of
savage is left as the listener's discretion; I give
savage an even harsher connotation than
barbaric. Then there's yawp, which I have no protest against.
Now, ask yourselves, would you rather insult someone by calling them a barbarian or a savage? (If you want you can answer in the poll to the left.)
But savage yawp just sounds awkward (that extra syllable in barbaric really makes a difference), so we can stick with barbaric yawp.
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