META: On the origins of cumong

Submitted by vbnautilus on

It is the offseason, a time for self-reflection, a time to spend our energy focusing on the things in life that are more important than football. If you're like me, there are a series of burning questions that begin to bubble up into your consciousness this time of year demanding to be dealt with. One of the recurring questions that has been simmering in my mind all season, and I write this piece assuming that I am not alone in this, has been: Why does Brian always say "Cumong, man?"

Whenever I would see this in print, I would wonder: is this how Brian pronounces "come on"? If so, why? Is this a thing people say? It seems to have caught on to the point where other people on the board use it as well. What is the origin of this spelling? Has the Michigan accent evolved since I left? I decided to do some research. I present to you what I have learned about the etymology of "cumong".

First, is this phrase mgoblog-specific? The evidence supports the notion that the term is indeed highly associated with this blog. There is actually an entry in the Urban Dictionary, which defines the term as "A word Alabama Crimson Tide fans use to exhort their team before a key play or belt out with a fist pump in celebration." The example given is CUMONG Tide, run the dad gum ball. Git this! However, as I will cover later, this entry was most likely added by an mgoblogger. Outside of that, there seems to be little to no usage of this word on the English-speaking web, with the exception of mgoblog, where its usage is frequent.

How do we characterize this phenomenon linguistically? The word is an apparently intentional misspelling of "come on". It is a kind of metaplasmus, but more specifically it appears to be a version of sensational spelling, in which a word is deliberately misspelled for effect. Examples of sensational spelling include "Froot Loops" and "Led Zeppelin".

Phonologically, this spelling portrays a shift in place of articulation of the final consonant of "come on," moving it from an alveolar nasal to a velar nasal. In other words, the contact between the tongue and the roof of the mouth simply moves further back when producing this variation.

Historically, on this site the first usage came on November 14th, 2012 in this post describing the Michigan-Northwestern football game. In that post, Brian writes:

Git R Done, for values of R that equal racism. If you don't follow me on twitter you missed the saga of the Larry The Cable Guy clan in my immediate vicinity, a group of redneck yahoos that said a lot of things like "LEZ GO CUMONG" and "GIT EM CUMONG," which was annoying when they did that really loudly after a four yard run--now my hopes are all up and it's second and six--but mostly harmless.

I tracked down that original series of tweets. I present to you the first time the phrase "cumong" was used in mgoblog history:

they cloned larry the cable guy and put four of them behind me

— mgoblog (@mgoblog) November 10, 2012

send help

— mgoblog (@mgoblog) November 10, 2012

LEZ GO CUMONG

— mgoblog (@mgoblog) November 10, 2012


Note that the Urban Dictionary entry, which is the only known instance of this phrase on the web outside of mgoblog, was added on November 15th, 2012, one day after Brian made his post highliting the term. This timing strongly suggests that it is not an independent phenomenon. After the initial Nov 15th post, it appeared again over the next couple of days, first in the defensive UFR as a figure caption and then in the offensive UFR. The phrase picked up steam in 2013 and by October of 2014 became an actual tag on the site.

EDIT: By popular demand, a chart! This is number of unique google results by month on the mgoblog site for the word cumong. Notice that there was a sizable jump in its popularity this football season:

In light of the information that spelling of this phrase was intended to portray the dialect of several "redneck yahoo" fans, we can re-evaluate its literary significance. It seems now that the phrase is in fact a kind of eye dialect, a misspelling often used to convey the ignorance of the speaker, even though the spelling may correspond to how the word is generally pronounced. This is the same device Dickens used to convey the way his uneducated characters spoke, and was a common feature in Mark Twain's writing. (That said, I can find no academic work that confirms the substitution of the nasal alveolar with the velar consonant in dialects from the American South).

I asked Brian to comment on this, and he confirmed that the phrase indeed originated from the a group of Larry the Cable Guys sitting around him during that game. I hope you've enjoyed this foray in to mgoblog history and culture, and that I have helped to shed some light on a question that was on all of our minds.

Comments

slblue

January 30th, 2015 at 9:37 PM ^

Post and comments. Just wanted to say this is why I love this blog.
Smart funny people making enjoyable things to read with virtually no societal value.

Everyone Murders

January 31st, 2015 at 8:16 AM ^

Cumong Man provides an evolutionary link between Australopithecus and Neanderthal Man. Has a very thick skull, can use some tools, capable of speech, but is unable to think through an argument.

Potentially related to Piltdown Man.

docwhoblocked

January 31st, 2015 at 12:20 PM ^

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding,  subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.





Here are the winners:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.



2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.



3. Intaxicaton: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realise it was your money to start with.



4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.



5. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.



6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.



7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high



8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.



9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.



10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)



11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.



12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.



13. Glibido: All talk and no action.



14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.



15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.



16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.



17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.





The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.



And the winners are:   



1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.



2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.



3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.



4. esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.



5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.



6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.



7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.



8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.



9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.



10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.



11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.



12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.



13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.



14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.



15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.



16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

03 Blue 07

January 31st, 2015 at 1:08 PM ^

I always thought Brian was saying"Come On Man" like the guys say it on ESPN's NFL Countdown when they have that segment. I may have been completely wrong, it turns out. I guess the "cumong man" is like a work of art, then: open to interpretation.