Dittlers and dits
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Mar 28 13:48:33 UTC 2008
At 7:18 AM -0400 3/28/08, Dennis Preston wrote:
>By the time you get to "tiddly," you are creeping up on US
>"diddley-(squat, shit)" = "worthless, meaningless, next to nothing,"
>perhaps from a size association. (That ain't worth diddley. I don't
>give a diddley.), but DARE does not show any regional distribution
>for it, although it shows "doodley-(squat, shit)" as chiefly South
>and South Midland.
with a lovely early cite from Zora Neale Hurston
(1934), "She ain't never had nothin' -- not eben
doodly-squat..."
[Along with Hurston and many other writers, I
prefer my squatitives with -ly rather than -ley
terminals.]
>When I say "doodley" here in Michigan (Your
>dissertation ain't worth doodley"), my local students always correct
>me to "diddley." (Course, it don't make their dissertations worth no
>more.)
>
>dInIs
Just think, by next year this time you'll be
supervising dissertations worth doodly instead of
diddly! Who says plus ça change?
LH
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster: Lynne Murphy <m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK>
>>Subject: Re: Dittlers and dits
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>This looks like it could be related to Scots (and perhaps more general
>>northern) English _tiddler_, which means a small fish--presumably one you'd
>>throw back if you caught it (maybe it says this in DARE, but my copy's at
>>the office, and I'm not). From this comes the BrE dialectal adjective
>>_tiddly_ meaning small, which I found is applied a lot to premature babies,
>>as is _diddy_, which is northern BrE, and again looks like your word...
>>
>>These words were mentioned on my blog here:
>>http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2008/01/baby-talk-introducing-grover.html
>>
>>Are they're related or is there some sound symbolism at work here? I've
>>heard "/I/ = 'small'", but not "alveolar stop = 'small'". Or are they all
>>coincidental baby-talkish variations on _little_?
>>
>>Lynne
>>
>>--On Thursday, March 27, 2008 11:53 am -0400 "Baker, John"
>><JMB at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
>>
>>> Not known to me from growing up and raising chickens in Adair
>>> County, Kentucky, two counties northwest of Wayne County.
>>>
>>>
>>> John Baker
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>>> Of Grant Barrett
>>> Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 11:24 AM
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>> Subject: Dittlers and dits
>>>
>>> The fellow below submitted the following to the American Dialect Society
>>> web site a while back. I sent him an email asking if he'd like to be on
>>> my radio show. He said yes and his second email follows the first below.
>>>
>>> I found one other use of it so far, in Urban Dictionary of all places:
>>>
>>> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dittler
>>>
>>> Otherwise, I've found no use of it elsewhere in the usual databases and
>>> web sites. Does anyone have anything on this? I've forwarded it to Joan
>>> Hall at DARE for the record.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Grant
>>>
>>> Begin forwarded message:
>>>
>>>> From: "J. Fred Calkins" <jfredcalkins at earthlink.net>
>>>> Date: November 25, 2007 13:21:05 EST
>>>> To: <woty at americandialect.org>
>>>> Subject: A regional word
>>>>
>>>> When I moved into south eastern KY I discovered a dialectal word which
>>>
>>>> has caused me great curiosity. Perhaps the American Dialect Society
>>>> can shed some light on the origins and extent of this particular word.
>>>
>>>> 'dit' or 'dittler' is the preferred word to refer to baby chickens or
>>>> other dry land domestic fowl. If referencing other than chicken the
>>>> tendency is to put a prefix on the word (turkey-dit). I have
>>>> determined this word to be normal in Bell, Harlan, and Letcher
>>>> counties. It is understood in Wayne, McCreary, Whitley, Knox, Clay and
>>>
>>>> Leslie counties. It seems to be Normal in the western tip of Virginia
>>>> but fades when we get across the line into TN. I am curious how far
>>>> east it goes. Since the words are so entrenched in this segment of
>>>> Appalachian culture I am suspecting some Old World connections.
>>>> Alternatively it may come from the American Indians. If you can shed
>>>> any light on these terms I would be very grateful. Even though I grew
>>>> up calling baby chickens 'chicks' (in central Michigan) I have found
>>>> this an easy term to add to my vocabulary. I did not even blink when
>> >> someone asked about my children with the phrase 'How are your dits?'
>>>> Perhaps you have some research or chronicling of this useful word.
>>>> Fred
>>>
>>>
>>>> From: "J. Fred Calkins" <jfredcalkins at earthlink.net>
>>>> Date: December 27, 2007 06:25:28 EST
>>>> To: Grant Barrett <gbarrett at worldnewyork.org>
>>>> Subject: Re: A regional word
>>>>
>>>> Grant, you don't offer me a bit of insight to this interesting word
>>>> yet offer me an opportunity to discuss it on air. I am what we call in
>>>
>>>> the mountains a preacher, I take any opportunity to talk I get. I do
>>>> try to keep to the subject but need to warn you that gospel idioms
>>>> thoroughly infect both my thoughts and words. It was, after all,
>>>> during my pastoral visitation rounds that I learned this word.
>>>> Another point of information you need to be aware of - the most common
>>>
>>>> chickens in this area are game. The abhorrence of some toward that
>>>> 'sport' is indicted by the laws against fighting chickens (there are
>>>> no laws against raising them). I serve a district of Seventh-day
>>>> Adventist churches, most of which are along the southern half of I-75
>>>> in Kentucky.
>>>>
>>>> Have a great day, Fred
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>>
>>Dr M Lynne Murphy
>>Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
>>Arts B135
>>University of Sussex
>>Brighton BN1 9QN
>>
>>phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
>>http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>Morrill Hall 15-C
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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