antedating "donkey"

[Jonathan Lighter]

It's  / 'd^Nki / for me. Always. My grandparents too.

JL

On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 3:51 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: antedating "donkey"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Feb 17, 2013, at 2:56 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 8:47 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Dunkey
> >
> > Assuming [d^NkI], it matches the BE pronunciation of "donkey," as
> > opposed to, e.g. BE "hunky" [hONkI].
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
>
> I pronounce it that way too (well, actually, [d^Nki]), rhyming with
> "monkey", and get teased for it (e.g. by my children).  I think in my case
> it may simply have arisen as a spelling pronunciation, caused precisely by
> the fact that it *is* spelled like the more familiar (to me) "monkey".  I
> certainly didn't realize it was a diminutive of "Duncan"--but that will be
> useful to bring up next time I'm teased about it.
>
> LH
>
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