Tee-nine-see

[Charles Doyle]

I too grew up (in Texas) knowing the form "tee-nine-see," probably having learned it from my Arkansawyer parents. However, I can't imagine dInIs's accent on the first syllable! Correct speakers always accent the second syllable, and have [s] for the consonant initiating the final syllable.

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 06:46:31 -0400
>From: "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
>Subject: Re: Tee-nine-see
>
>I grew up in the Louisville area, 1940's and 50's and used TEE-nine-see (stress on first not second syllable, and 'see' not 'shee' in the last). Wilson, you just got to stop thinking that everything you said when you was little is Black. Lots of us white guys out here say the same stuff. If you want to be shocked by white guys, save it for Imus.
>
>The palatalization is interesting in your form. (I take the 'see' form to be more widely distributed.) Is it the influence of the following high front vowel? I'm having trouble thinking of comparatively weakly stressed /-Vnsi##/ strings. (I can think of /-VnsiC/ forms like "linseed".) "Unseat, "unseemly," etc... are all in stressed syllables and seem to me very unlikely to go to /sh/ so perhaps it's the sequence plus the lenition of the weaker stress that promotes the palatalization in your form.
>
>Finally, if this is formed from "teensy," as it almost certainly is (itself already surely a development tiny -> teeny -> teensy), are there other examples of a "diminutivizing infix" of this sort? (Of course, it could be an augmentative augmenting the notion "small.")
>
>This will teach me to get up early on Saturday.
>
>dInIs

>>Subject:      Re: Query for Charlie-nim
>>-----------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>>Are y'all familiar with the term that's pronounced something like "tee-NINE-shee"? It means "very small" and is used instead of "itty-bitty" or "teeny-tiny." When I was in the Army, I heard this used by Texans of all races, creeds, and colors from all over the state. I learned it from my mother and my grandmother - I hated any story that  began, "Whin yew wuh jes' a tee-nine-shee baby ..." Until my Army days, I was under the impression that this word was peculiar to the women in my family. You can imagine my shock when I first heard it fall tripppingly from the tongue of a white farm boy from Mundy, Texas. Later, I heard it used by GI's from Weslaco, Dallas, Odessa, Midland, Tyler, Galveston, etc., etc. But that was fifty years ago.
>>>
>>>So, I was wondering whether any y'all were familiar with this term? Is it peculiar to Texas or is it also used elsewhere?
>>>
>>>-Wilson

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