Baseball or Base Ball

[Herb Stahlke]

I wonder if, like TV, base ball started out with nuclear stress and
the loss of the space corresponded to a shift to compound stress.  I
still say ['ti'vi] but I hear ['tivi] pretty commonly.

Herb

On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 5:19 PM, Geoffrey Nunberg
<nunberg at ischool.berkeley.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg at ISCHOOL.BERKELEY.EDU>
> Subject:      Baseball or Base Ball
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From the Trenton Evening Times,  November 13, 1915 quoted in John Thorne's excellent "Our Game" blog at http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2012/08/16/is-it-baseball-or-base-ball/:
>
>> In the early days of the game “base ball” was universal. After a time, as the game increased in popularity, many publications adopted the hyphenated form, and it became “base-ball.” At a still later period along in the ’80s, as nearly as can be discovered—the newspapers began to drop the hyphen, and “base ball” came into use.
>>
>> With all regard for those publications which adhere to the old form, the writer can see no valid reason for its continuation, common useage [sic] has set the stamp of approval upon the simple  form of ”baseball” unhyphenated, one and indivisible.
>>
>>
>
> But shouldn't there have been an intermediate stage of hyphenation, as well?
>
> Also nice on 19th c baseball lg is this post: http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2012/08/15/base-ball-language/
>
> Geoff
>
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