Tenny Runners (tennis shoes) (1965)

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Sun Sep 24 16:49:14 UTC 2006


On Sep 24, 2006, at 9:13 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:

> "Ozzie" is becoming more popular, but in the U.S. "Aussie" has
> always been normal and virtually unanimous.
>
>   I think it's only recently that the "Ozzie" pronunciation has
> started to supplement "awssy" in the U.S.

oh dear, i see that my last posting got mangled because the angle
brackets i used to enclose spellings got interpreted as html code, so
their contents were suppressed:

the system, as i understand it, is that the
colloquial name of the place is spelled (not ) but the
colloquial name of a person from Oz is spelled (not
), pronounced like the name Ozzie (as in Nelson or Guillen).

let me try again, this time using the pipe | to surround spellings:

the system, as i understand it, is that the
colloquial name of the place is spelled | Oz | (not | Aus |) but the
colloquial name of a person from Oz is spelled | Aussie | (not
| Ozzie | ), pronounced like the name Ozzie (as in Nelson or
Guillen).

this is my understanding of the system currently used in australia.
i was aware
of the U.S. "awssy" pronunciation and also aware that the "Ozzie"
pronunciation has been gaining ground here.

now, jon, are you telling me that the *spelling* | Ozzie | is
becoming more popular?
if so, is it becoming more popular in the u.s., in australia, or both?

arnold

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