today's CNN miscellany

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Mon Apr 23 01:04:34 UTC 2012


On Sun, Apr 22, 2012 at 5:56 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> "baby/babies"

Like unto, one "heathen Chinee"/several "heathen Chinese."

Since, in BE, -ese is normally [is] and not [iz] and I would say
"Chinese heathen"/"Chinese heathens," in any case, it was dekkids
before I realized that that antique slur had a logical origin and was
not simply something randomly made up to be annoying, like "Democrat
Party."

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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