Tmesis - Other Tmesis in English

Other Tmesis in English

One context in which tmesis appears in English involves words using the possessive suffix 's, when it is applied to a noun phrase rather than to a single-word noun. For example, the man's is the possessive form of the man, which can also be expressed periphrastically as of the man. But if this noun phrase is lengthened to include the adjectival prepositional phrase in the car to modify man, the resulting construction is the man in the car's, as in the man in the car's hat (not the man's in the car hat or the man's hat in the car). This type of construction often appears in informal English, although it can be re-expressed in the more formal and periphrastic form the hat of the man in the car.

Another kind of tmesis involves the insertion of a word or phrase into another word, for added emphasis and often for humorous effect. The insertion may occur between the parts of a compound word, or between syllable boundaries (dystmesis), but always preceding a stressed syllable (e.g. one would never say, "Ab-bloody-solutely", preferring "Abso-bloody-lutely"). It is also sometimes referred to as tumbarumba, possibly due to the popularity of tmesis in Australian English dialect (Tumbarumba, New South Wales being an Australian town), or possibly due to the poem "Tumba Bloody Rumba" by John O'Grady, which includes several tmeses including "Tumba-bloody-rumba", "e-bloody-nough", and "kanga-bloody-roos".