A raspberry, or razz, also known as a Bronx cheer, is a mouth noise similar to a fart that is used to signify derision. It is also used as a voice exercise for singers and actors, where it may be called a raspberry trill or tongue trill. It is made by placing the tongue between the lips and blowing, so that the tongue trills against the lower lip.

Name

The nomenclature varies by country. In most Anglophone countries, it is known as a raspberry, which is attested from , and which in the UnitedStates had been shortened to razz by1919. The term originates in rhyming slang, where "raspberrytart" means "fart". In the UnitedStates it has also been called a Bronx cheer since at least the early1920s.

In Italian it is known by the Neapolitan word ; in Spanish as or .

Production

The sound is made by placing the tongue between the lips and blowing, so that the tongue trills against the lower lip. When it is used as a catcall in public arenas, the sound is sometimes blown into the palm or back of the hand to amplify its volume. In Russia it is commonly accompanied by rolling theeyes.

In the terminology of phonetics, the raspberry has been described as a (pulmonic) labiolingual trill, transcribed or (depending on voicing) in the ; and as a buccal interdental trill, transcribed in the (the suggests that may also be used alone as an abbreviation if a speaker frequently uses the sound).

Usage

Blowing a raspberry is common to many countries around the world, including European and European-settled countries and Iran. In Anglophone countries, it is associated with catcalling opposing sports teams, and with children. It is not used in any human language as a building block of words, apart from jocular exceptions. However, the vaguely similar voiced bilabial trill and its voiceless counterpart (essentially blowing a raspberry with only one's lips, i.e. without usage of the tongue) is a regular consonant sound in a fewdozen languages scattered around the world.

In popular culture

The last name of the character is a representation of this sound.

Spike Jones and His City Slickers used a "birdaphone" to create this sound on their recording of "DerFuehrer's Face", repeatedly lambasting Adolf Hitler with: "We'll Heil! [] Heil! [] Right in DerFuehrer's Face!"

The song "" (the actual title is a glyph) on the 1999album uses a voiced linguolabial trill to replace in a number of German words (e.g. for deBratkartoffelnno).

The sound is also used in the title track of the Monty Python's Flying Circus rendition of The Liberty Bell March.

See also

• Golden Raspberry Awards, which are named after the term

Notes

References