Tenny Runners (tennis shoes) (1965)

[Jonathan Lighter]

I believe the spelling "Ozzie" is becoming more popular in the U.S. in pop magazines, though naturally I can't prove it.  All I can say for certain is that I never used to see it but began to do so about fifteen years ago.

  HDAS II isn't handy, but I believe there's a 1942 cite there from Berrey & Van Den Bark.  That's the only one I saw for many years.

  JL


"Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
Subject: Re: Tenny Runners (tennis shoes) (1965)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sep 24, 2006, at 9:13 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:

> "Ozzie" is becoming more popular, but in the U.S. "Aussie" has
> always been normal and virtually unanimous.
>
> I think it's only recently that the "Ozzie" pronunciation has
> started to supplement "awssy" in the U.S.

oh dear, i see that my last posting got mangled because the angle
brackets i used to enclose spellings got interpreted as html code, so
their contents were suppressed:

the system, as i understand it, is that the
colloquial name of the place is spelled (not ) but the
colloquial name of a person from Oz is spelled (not
), pronounced like the name Ozzie (as in Nelson or Guillen).

let me try again, this time using the pipe | to surround spellings:

the system, as i understand it, is that the
colloquial name of the place is spelled | Oz | (not | Aus |) but the
colloquial name of a person from Oz is spelled | Aussie | (not
| Ozzie | ), pronounced like the name Ozzie (as in Nelson or
Guillen).

this is my understanding of the system currently used in australia.
i was aware
of the U.S. "awssy" pronunciation and also aware that the "Ozzie"
pronunciation has been gaining ground here.

now, jon, are you telling me that the *spelling* | Ozzie | is
becoming more popular?
if so, is it becoming more popular in the u.s., in australia, or both?

arnold

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


 __________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org