Randomanea

[Laurence Horn]

On Jan 13, 2014, at 10:17 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:

> Wasn't Mrs. King's name "Coretta"?
>
> Fred Shapiro

It was, but then she had it changed (without realizing it) to Rosetta Stone King.  I was actually thinking that any stone that sounds like someone's first name would take this pattern, so while it's the BLARNEY Stone, it would be the Barney STONE.  And it would be the Robert STONE, discovered in Vietnam.  But then I wasn't sure what my intuitions were; I'm not even sure whether I call those menhirs STANDING stones or standing STONES.  I give up.

LH
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Wilson Gray [hwgray at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 9:27 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Randomanea
>
> On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 8:42 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> As I observed many years ago, "Rosetta STONE" may be influenced to some
>> degree by "Rosetta KING."
>>
>
> But, MLK's wife is "Rosetta *Scott* King." Besides, there's no reason to
> assume that voice-over guys need to be influenced by anything more than the
> assumption that "Rosetta Stone" is what it looks like: someone's name.
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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