City Names

[Dennis R. Preston]

Mike,

I think there is an older "distinctiveness" rule at work on "busses" versus
"buses." "Buss" used tpo mean "kiss" (N and V); therefore, "busses" are
kisses (in an undoubtedly obsolete word). "Buses" is kept distinct by this
iconic rather than phoneme-grapheme correspondence spelling device.

dInIs

 >Allynherna at AOL.COM wrote:
>>
>> This may have been discussed on our list or on the ANS list...but...has
>> anyone compiled a list of cities that have "clipped" names in local usage?
>> 1.  Flagstaff=Flag
>> 2.  Rapid City=Rapid
>> 3.  Vancouver=Van
>> etc.
>
>I suppose you might add "Guate" for Guatemala City.  The usage is
>reinforced by destination signs on interurban buses -- which use the
>abbreviation and the largest type available for readability/recognition
>in a nation with a high rate of functional illiteracy.
>
>And before the sun pulls away from the shore and our boat sinks slowly
>in the west, let me complete the Guatemala tour with a visit to
>Quetzaltenango.  Its name appears on bus signs as "Xela", to the utter
>confusion of foreigners who don't know that the ancient name for the
>region around Quetzaltenango was "Xelaju".
>
>-- mike salovesh            <salovesh at niu.edu>                PEACE !!!
>
>P.S.:  I don't care what recent standardization in orthography has
>produced -- "buses" strikes me as a misspelled "busses".


Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736