The English Oracle

What does Agatha Christie’s line, ‘Speak through one’s nose full of b's and d's’ mean?

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Chapters
00:00 What Does Agatha Christie’S Line, ‘Speak Through One’S Nose Full Of B'S And D'S’ Mean?
01:20 Accepted Answer Score 15
02:03 Thank you

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ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 15


When one has a cold, with a stopped-up nose, the letters m and n (and v and others) are not nasalized and so come out as b or d or other sounds. Nasalized, non-stopped phonemes can get dropped entirely, like the l in the following sentence.

I hab a co'd so I ca't talk. [I have a cold so I can't talk.]

In the following sentence, the n becomes a d and the m sounds turn into b sounds:

Whed are you beeting be for breakfast? [When are you meeting me for breakfast.]

And so on.