LL-L "Sociolinguistics" 2008.02.11 (02) [E]

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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: LL-L "Sociolinguistics" 2008.02.11 (01) [E]

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Sociolinguistics
>
> True, Paul. Casual Australian English may use more diminutive forms
> than other English dialects. But other casual, rarely written
> varieties of English tend to have more diminutive forms than standard
> forms also. Casual American English uses words like "breckie" for
> "breakfast" as well.
>
> I've long been wondering if there's a common ancestor, namely Scottish
> English, which has strong Scots substrata. Clearly, Scots abounds with
> "-ie" diminutives. Think, for instance, of completely ordinary mannie
> and wifie!
>
> I wonder if Scottish and thus ultimately Scots influences on the
> Englishes of the "New" World tend to be underestimated.

And Scots for "break" is "brek", so breakfast is "brekfast".

On the other hand the Welsh for breakfast is "brecwast", so that must
have been borrowed from some sort of English. Probably just a necessary
phonetic adjustment, though.

I'd say, just off-hand, that Scots diminutives tend not to be used for
abbreviation, just for making a thing sound familiar. They're more
likely to be applied to words that are already short. So for example,
such things as "possie" for "position" and "cossie" for "(swimming)
costume" seem unlikely in Scots. Hence all the Scots diminutives formed
from one-syllable words like mannie, wifie, lambie, doaggie, coggie,
feetie, and so on.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

•

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