Funly

[Baker, John]

        You're right, I was too quick to accept this example.  Actually,
there seem to be several other examples of adjectival "funly," but I'll
let that one suffice.  Here's an adverbial use, from Google Groups on
12/4/1996:

        <<There was a third-block long line waiting to get in.
I don't know how long we were in that line, but it was not at all un-
pleasant surrounded by all those good-looking, funly-dressed, tat-
too'd, punctured, and friendly young people.>>


        For good measure, here's a Google Groups example from 5/26/1998:

        <<hes 12 years old, and a powerful adult babysitter threatens
him with
various blackmail, etc, and hes stuck. Just cuz she didnt (assuming she
diddnt) hold him down absolutely, doesnt mean its not rape or he
consented, and as such he didnt even consent to sex, and so he couldnt
consent to a baby. He may not have been funly experimenting. Your
response reeks of sexism. if hed been a girl, and a MAN did this youd be

furious. >>


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Mark A. Mandel
Sent: Sunday, June 18, 2006 1:07 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Funly

John Baker writes:
>>>
        [...]
        That example, though, had an emoticon, which may indicate the
writer's intentional use of a neologism.  This Google Groups example
from 11/13/1994, referring to the lyrics of the band Spin Doctors, is
unambiguous:

        <<Good points DE - a thing I read oncve that troubled me was an
article about the SD's once where John Popper was part of the interview,
and he was talking about the bands' friendly relations and how Chris was
the greatest lyricist and John has the harp as his thing that no one can
touch.
Well, although the article was about Chris and his band, so it was
Popper's job to promote them - I would place John Popper above Chris
Barron as a lyricist any day. Now SD songs are fun, and funly - and
Chris writes some neat shit, but John is a poet. And I wondered why John
didn't say he was the lyricist - why? humility. A trait seldom found in
the rock and roll world.>>

<<<



It may be unambiguous as not being an obvious neologism, but I can't
read

  Now SD songs are fun, and funly

as an adverbial use. Maybe the blogger was thinking of adjectives like
"manly" and "studly".



-- Mark A. Mandel
   Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania

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