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mumble-the-peg

Games
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Mumble-the-peg is a variant name for mumblety-peg, the knife-throwing game with a punitive retrieval.

Detailed Definition
Mumble-the-peg appears in poetry as the same raw contest of aim and consequence. In verse it represents the folk tradition of testing skill with iron. Poets invoke the peg and the mumble to illustrate themes of the grounded blade, the loser's task, and the continuity of rural games in the language of American and English poetry.
Example
Example in poetry:
Mumble-the-peg’s thrown knife and punitive retrieval appear in poems of rough skill and consequence; Folk verse of the countryside uses the game for the test that ends in the teeth; “He missed the peg and the mumble was required of him” illustrates the price of failure; Educational examples present the sport as a trial of both aim and endurance; Poets invoke the term when the penalty must be as physical as the play.
Additional Notes
Mumble-the-peg, the variant name, preserves a folk vocabulary of the knife that must stick and the penalty that follows failure. The term’s oral flavor allows poets to evoke an earlier, more physical culture of play. Instructors may compare the two names for differences in rhythm and regional tone. Related knife games include the various forms of mumblety-peg. The image is effective when the price of a miss must be paid with the teeth.
Also Known As
mumblety-peg mumbley-peg mumbly-peg mumbledy-peg
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