-ump words

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David Myer
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-ump words

Postby David Myer » Thu Jun 15, 2017 9:10 pm

Why do so many -ump words relate to raised protuberances?

bump
hump
lump
dump
rump
jump?
clump
mumps
Trump?

And even inverted lumps:
sump
slump
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Slava
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Re: -ump words

Postby Slava » Wed Nov 01, 2017 7:30 pm

Interesting observation, and good question. Can it really be just one great big coincidence?
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LukeJavan8
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Re: -ump words

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat Nov 04, 2017 11:34 am

Yes, most interesting.
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Dr. Goodword
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Re: -ump words

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Nov 06, 2017 7:59 am

This is probably the result of a psychological (not linguistic) process known as phonesthesia, the association of certain sounds with a lexical class. Phonesthesia is usually associated with consonants, like glow, glisten, gleam, glitter, but less often it can refer to vocalic sounds.
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