Redundancy--(in defense of "South Yugoslavia")

[Wilson Gray]

On Nov 13, 2004, at 3:25 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Redundancy--(in defense of "South Yugoslavia")
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>    I'd like to speak out in defense of "South Yugoslavia." Sure,
> "Yug-" in Slavic means "South," but once the country Yugoslavia arose,
> one could be in the north, south, east, or west of that country.
>
>     But here's another (non-onomastic) item on redundancy. A much
> beloved professor of geology at my campus (Tom Beveridge; now
> deceased) used to travel around the state (Missouri) studying not only
> geology but also collecting anything else of interest that he came
> across.. He was particularly fond of collecting interesting signs.
> One, in a restaurant, was an advertisement to hire a "female
> waitress." Another of his favorite reodundancies was "an ink pen."

I think that, in this case,  Prof. Beveridge misheard "ink pin," once
used by speakers of certain dialects, including those of Outstate
Missouri, to prevent confusion with "straight pin," "bowling pin,"
"clothes pin," "safety pin," etc. With the introduction of the
ballpoint "pin," "ink pin" has fallen out of use.

How sayest thou, dInIs?

-Wilson Gray

> I forget the rest. But (and here I'm just wondering out loud) how do
> these examples jibe with the supposed Law of Least Effort in language?
>
>         Gerald Cohen
>         University of Missouri-Rolla
>
>> ----------
>> From:         American Name Society on behalf of Marc Picard
>> Reply To:     American Name Society
>> Sent:         Saturday, November 13, 2004
>> To:   ANS-L at LISTSERV.BINGHAMTON.EDU
>> Subject:      Re: Redundancy
>>
>> On 04-11-13, at 10:08 am, Christopher K. Starr wrote:
>>
>> Dear Friends:
>>       Perhaps one of the real linguists out there (my credentials say
>> I'm an entomologist) would care to confirm or refute my idle
>> suspicion that the place name East Timor is redundant, as in
>> (imaginary examples, as far as I know) South Yugoslavia, North
>> Beijing or East Tokyo.
>>
>>
>