ginnell

[Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM]

On another list I subscribe to, most of whose members are in the UK, discussion
arose on the word "twitten", referring among other things to a passage
connecting adjoining houses. In subsequent discussion someone mentioned the
potential synonym "back passage", which however had to be avoid because of, um,
anatomical connotations. The following is my reply to a reply to that. I've
deleted identifying information, since I haven't requested permission to repost.

>>>>
#Hmm.   I see your point :-)   Well, there is a less innuendish (if you see
#what I mean) term you could use - 'ginnell'.   That's the Yorkshire (or at
#least, Leeds) term (I checked with me dad, and he confirms it).

And how does himself pronounce it? Stress on the inn or the ell? Hard g or
soft?

Hmm, sez he to himself, a good time to pull out the _Compact OED_ [with
magnifying glass] that we bought for the daughter what's over in Spain
right now so we had to clean out her stuff from where she was, and put
that piece right here... and it seems they have the word only as a variant
of a Scottish word meaning what here we call "tickling" fish. WOT!?? Not
in the OED?! Bigosh, I'm gonna forward this to my scholarly society
mailing lists!

-- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoepist, and
   Philological Busybody
   a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel
<<<<

Have I actually hit on an English regionalism here that's not in the OED, or was
I just overlooking late at night something that would be totally obvious if I
were awake?

-- Mark A. Mandel