Phonological properties of shm-reduplication
* Words beginning with a single consonant typically replace that consonant with shm- (table shmable).
* Words beginning with a consonant cluster are more variable: some speakers replace only the first consonant if possible (breakfast shmreakfast), others replace the entire cluster (breakfast shmeakfast).
* Vowel-initial words append the shm- directly to the beginning of the reduplicant (apple shmapple).
* Some speakers target the stressed syllable rather than the first syllable (incredible inshmedible); a subset of these do not copy base material preceding the stressed syllable (incredible shmedible; cf. Spitzer 1952).
* Shm-reduplication is generally avoided or altered with words that already begin with shm-; for instance, schmuck does not yield the expected *schmuck schmuck, but rather total avoidance or mutation of the shm- (giving forms like schmuck shluck, schmuck fluck, and so on).
* Many speakers use sm- instead of shm- with words that contain a sh (Ashmont Smashmont, not *shmashmont).
"— There’s a senior thesis for a linguistics student in here somewhere: test control words, CC-initial words and words with CC-initial stressed syllables, V-initial words with varying stress, sh-initial words and words with sh-onset and sh-coda syllables, schmuck, and other words of varying stress.
