[Ads-l] Children's speech sprinkled into serious adult discourse: Gulfie

[Ben Zimmer]

Even without appealing to the Arabic suffix "-i" (aka the "nisba"), there
are plenty of non-infantile regional nicknames ending in "-ie" to serve as
models in English: "Aussie," "Brummie," "Geordie," "Newfie," "Okie," etc.


On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 5:35 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> In this case, "Gulfi" and "Gulfie" may be inextricably entwined in the
> orthographic unconscious.
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 12:41 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > > On Jun 29, 2017, at 12:32 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at SIUE.EDU> wrote:
> > >
> > > I would also consider the context, which includes "Saudis", "Emiratis",
> > and "Qataris". Could the Arabic suffix be playing a (subconscious?) role?
> > >
> > > Jim Parish
> >
> > So then rather than “Gulfie”, as in the transcript Jerry provided, or
> > “Gulf-y” with the adjectival -y suffix as I argued for, it should really
> be
> > “Gulfi”.  Maybe so.
> >
> > Maybe the Pentagon consultant wishes he (or she) wasn’t involved in
> > Saudi-Qatari Gulfi squabbles but instead enjoying some wine and pasta on
> > the Amalfi coast.
> >
> > LH
> > >
> > >
> > > On 6/29/2017 11:08 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
> > >> An example of children's speech appearing for effect in an entirely
> > serious conversation is "Gulfie" (i.e., the Arabian Gulf); small children
> > often add the -ee sound to nouns to indicate something diminutive and/or
> > endearing, e.g. piggy.  A Pentagon consultant, upset at the effort of the
> > Saudis to isolate and blockade U.S. ally Qatar, said: 'This isn't just
> some
> > kind of Gulfie dust-up, where we can go out and hold everyone's hands...
> > .The Saudis have handed the Iranians a gift and we're on the outside
> > looking in.'
> > >>
> > >>      The quote appears in the next-to-last paragraph of the following
> > article:          http://www.theamericanconservative.com/
> > articles/tillerson-and-mattis-cleaning-up-kushners-middle-east-mess/
> > >>
> > >> 'The full paragraph says:
> > >>
> > >> 'The Saudis and Emiratis have told us repeatedly that they want to
> > weaken Iran, but they've actually empowered them," a senior Pentagon
> > consultant who works on the Middle East told me. The Saudi actions, this
> > official went on to explain, have backfired. Instead of intimidating the
> > Qataris, the Saudis have "thrown them into the arms of the Iranians." The
> > result is an uneasy, but emerging Turkish-Qatari-Iranian alliance backed
> by
> > Russia. "This isn't just some kind of Gulfie dust-up, where we can go out
> > and hold everyone's hands," this Pentagon consultant says. "The Saudis
> have
> > handed the Iranians a gift and we're on the outside looking in."'
> > >>
> > >> G. Cohen
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
>

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