Yags: the story thus far

[nigel vincent]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I don't knowm the answer to Richard's question but I would note that Sharon
also falls under John Bowden's rule. Hence the fact that at the time when
Gascoigne's girlfriend was called Sharon and was in the news for displaying
her underwear, one newspaper ran the inimitable headline: "Gazza's Shazza
hazza new brazza"!
Nigel

 >----------------------------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)
>> >
>
>
>*********************************************************
>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
>**********************************************************


Nigel Vincent                  Tel: +44-(0)161-275 3194
Department of Linguistics      Fax: +44-(0)161-275 3187
University of Manchester       e-mail: nigel.vincent at man.ac.uk
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