Yags: the story thus far

[Richard Hogg]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
OK for Oz perhaps, but how do you handle "Gazza" the name of the
tearful footballer, Paul Gascoigne?

Richard

On 2 Feb 2001, at 7:30, John Bowden wrote:

> ----------------------------Original
> message---------------------------- I was interested in Larry Trask's
> notes on Lazza as a version of his name. The process is very
> productive in Australian English: some of us here have actually
> assigned problems based on this naming practice to introductory
> linguistics students.
>
> Here's the (as far as I can tell) completely productive rule:
>
> You take a name that has stress on the first syllable and in which the
> second syllable starts with /r/.  Chop off everything after the first
> syllable and replace it with -zza.  Thus:
>
> Larry -> Lazza
> Barry -> Bazza
> Marian -> Mazza
> Warren -> Wazza
> Caroline -> Cazza, etc...
>
> Not sure why so many English names that fulfill the criteria have
> digraph /ae/ as the stressed vowel, but there you are.
>
> John
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Larry Trask <larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk>
> To: <HISTLING at VM.SC.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 4:00 AM
> Subject: Re: Yags: the story thus far
>
>
> > ----------------------------Original
> > message---------------------------- Kevin Tuite writes:
> >
> > >  Also from Britain is a type of "-a/e+s/z name slang especially
> > >  prevalent in the '80s", by which Charles becomes "Chas" and Nigel
> > >  is
> "Nezz"
> > >  (mentioned by Jasmin Harvey).
> >
> > Indeed, though such formations are far from dead.  My name is
> > 'Larry', and I am often addressed as 'Laz' or 'Lazza' by my British
> > friends. My British wife addresses her best friend, Marian, as 'Maz'
> > or 'Mazza'. The British politician Michael Heseltine is commonly
> > referred to as 'Hezza' in the satirical magazine Private Eye --
> > though I doubt that his friends call him this.
> >
> > I think this may be Australian, too, since I've encountered
> > Australian 'Bazza' for 'Barry', at least in print.
> >
> > Of course, my friends and I, like the editors of Private Eye, are
> > not young people -- though I doubt most of us would think of
> > ourselves as '80s people.  I'm more of a '50s person, I think --
> > especially in my deeply fossilized American English, which is only
> > occasionally updated by new Americanisms passed on to me by my wife,
> > who watches Frasier and ER.
> >
> > When I was a kid, absolutely everybody pronounced the /hw/ in words
> > like 'white' and 'why', and so I learned to do this too.  Years
> > later, my mother noticed that my younger brothers were omitting the
> > /h/ in these words, and she condemned this new style as "sloppy".
> > But now I've been joined at Sussex by a younger American colleague,
> > and she tells me that she considers the use of /hw/ to be
> > "pretentious".
> >
> > I think I could cope with a slightly more stately pace of linguistic
> > change.
> >
> >
> > Larry Trask
> > COGS
> > University of Sussex
> > Brighton BN1 9QH
> > UK
> >
> > larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk
> >
> > Tel: 01273-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
> > Fax: 01273-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)
> >


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Richard Hogg
1 Ollerbarrow Road
Hale, Altrincham
Cheshire WA15 9PW            Tel:   +44 (0)161 941 1931
Great Britain                email: r.m.hogg at man.ac.uk
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