Blowing a raspberry, also known as giving a

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

cheer, is to make a noise similar to

flatulence Flatulence is the expulsion of gas from the Gastrointestinal tract, intestines via the anus, commonly referred to as farting. "Flatus" is the medical word for gas generated in the stomach or bowels. A proportion of intestinal gas may be swal ...

that may signify derision. It is made by placing the

tongue The tongue is a Muscle, muscular organ (anatomy), organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for chewing and swallowing as part of the digestive system, digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper s ...

between the lips and blowing. A raspberry when used with the tongue is not used in any human language as a building block of words, apart from jocular exceptions such as the name of the comic-book character Joe Btfsplk. However, the vaguely similar bilabial trill (essentially blowing a raspberry with one's lips) is a regular consonant sound in a few dozen languages scattered around the world. Spike Jones and His City Slickers used a "birdaphone" to create this sound on their recording of " Der Fuehrer's Face", repeatedly lambasting

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

with: "We'll Heil! (Bronx cheer) Heil! (Bronx cheer) Right in Der Fuehrer's Face!" In the terminology of

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

, the raspberry has been described as a

voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...

linguolabial trill, transcribed in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...

, and as a buccal interdental trill, transcribed in the Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Name

The nomenclature varies by country. In most anglophone countries, it is known as a ''raspberry'', which is attested from at least 1890, and which in the United States had been shortened to '' razz'' by 1919. The term originates in

rhyming slang Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language. It is especially prevalent among Cockneys in England, and was first used in the early 19th century in the East End of London; hence its alternative name, Cockney rhymin ...

, where "raspberry tart" means " fart". In the United States it has also been called a ''Bronx cheer'' since at least the early 1920s.

References

Flatulence Onomatopoeia Gestures Articles containing video clips Sounds by type Metaphors referring to food and drink {{#related:Rhyming slang

Name

See also

References