BBC excerpt

[Benjamin Barrett]

I, too, missed that. I agree it looks odd now that you mention it.

I think I assumed the "child" part came from "the Christ child" for el
nino and the "girl" part was just indicating the feminine ending.
Perhaps carelessness on the part of the writer.

Wikipedia says that la nina means "the little girl." Is that because
"nina" refers only to girls of a young age? BB

On Apr 4, 2008, at 7:09 PM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

> Sure. I do not find anything very remarkable about the existence of
> the
> term "la niña", nor about the sloppy omission of its diacritical mark.
>
> Is "child girl" a good English translation of "niña"? Is "child
> girl" a
> usual expression in any sense in English? Maybe in some dialect? Is
> it a
> typo ... supposed to read "child (girl)" or "child/girl" or so, maybe?
> Is the BBC writer unfamiliar with English?
>
> This expression is what looks remarkable to me.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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