LL-L 'Names' 2006.08.15 (02) [E]

Tue Aug 15 15:25:30 UTC 2006

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L O W L A N D S - L * 15 August 2006 * Volume 02
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From: 'Global Moose Translations' [globalmoose at t-online.de]
Subject: LL-L 'Names' 2006.08.14 (02) [E]

Ron wrote:
>I believe the most common name derivation in Australia is simply using the
first
>syllable where this works (e.g., Peter -> Pete, Charlene -> Char, Joanne ->
Jo,
>Ashley -> Ash, Devon -> Dev, Jennifer ~ Jenna -> Jen, Jasmine -> Jaz). For
extra
>effect (affection?), besides the usual -y or -ie, -o may be added to
certain
>names (e.g., Peto).

They do this a lot in the Netherlands, too: Hanneke -> Han, Cornelia -> Cor,
etc.

Would somebody please explain about "Welcome home China"?

Gabriele Kahn

----------

From: Paul Finlow-Bates [wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk]
Subject: LL-L 'Names' 2006.08.14 (02) [E]

    From: 'Hugo Zweep' [Zweep at bigpond.com]
    Subject: LL-L 'Names' 2006.08.14 (01) [E]

    Heather
    Strine does like to make z words, but I notice that an a is commonly added
    to give, for example, Bazza and Gazza.

    Is this z business Autralian in origin? I don't recall hearing this much
    before the 1960s. The idea seems, to me, to have been popularised by the
    Bazza McKenzie film, narrating the awful, gaffe filled adventures of the
    naive eponymous Bazza.

    Hugo Zweep

    ----------

    From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
    Subject: Names

    I don't recall hearing it much beyond the said Bazza, and I always thought of
    that as some sort of imported anomaly or relic, like the occasional "Chuck" for
    "Charles" in North America.

    Regards,
    Reinhard/Ron

The "z" thing was certainly common in Leicester in the 60s when I was a teenager.
 That was well before the "Aussie Invasion", the only major movement then was in
the other direction.  I had arrived from New Zealand in '64, and hadn't heard
that "z" use before.

It could apply to almost all medial "r" positions; names as "Gaz" for Gary, but
also "soz" for sorry.

Paul Finlow-Bates

----------

From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Names

This shortening to the first syllable of first names is as old as the hills, of
course, at least in English.  It's just that it's more established with some
names, such as William -> Will ~ Bill, Robert -> Bob, Barbara -> Barb (-> Babs),
Albert -> Al.  I believe that cases like Alison -> Al and Joanne -> Jo are just
newer.

And then there are the diminutive or endearment forms with -y and -ie.  While Bob
is derived from Robert and may become Bobby, I don't think that Roberta usually
becomes Bob, but it does become Bobbie.

The extension -o in Australian applies to certain men's names for sure, such as
Jacko.  But can it be applied to women's names?  I don't think it can.  My
closest and oldest Australian friend, a woman who has always been female, has the
name Peter (not the usual Peta), and her friends do call her Peto on occasion.  I
believe that this is because the name is usually a men's name and the -o
extension therefore sounds right.

And then there is doubling of shortened names in English.  Off the cuff I can
think of Jojo ~ Jo-Jo from Jo from Joanne, and Beebee, usually from Beatrice. 
Does it apply to men's names as well?  I guess it does sometimes, such as
John-John for the son of John F. Kennedy, but John is not a (newly) shortened
form, just an old contraction.

Maybe we ought to say that names are shortened to the syllable with main stress.
 In German this created Hans from Johannes (John), with the intermediate Northern
form Hannes.  Fritz from Friedrich would also be due to this, except that the
stressed syllable happens to be the first.  *Will from Wilhelm does not seem to
be an option, but Willi is.

In Low Saxon you occasionally get extension with _-er_ ([3`] ~ [a]), such as Karl
-> Kaller (["kal3`]).  I assume this is related to English -a as in Bazza and
Swedish _-e_ as in Kalle (<- Karl).  Again, I suspect this is reserved for men's
names.

And the "monosyllabicization" seems to go beyond Germanic.  It's common in
Russian, for instance, as in Vladislav -> Vlad (though not the stressed
syllable!), but these usually undergo endearment extension, often with stress
shift, such as IvÃ¡n -> VÃ¡nja, JÃºrij -> JÃºra, NadÃ©Å¾a -> NÃ¡dja, RodiÃ³n -> RÃ³dja.

An Iranian friend of mine has the name MÃ¢ziÃ¢r and is usually called MÃ¢z or MÃ¢zi
(usually the latter) both in English and Farsi (often pronounced like "mozzy," as
the Australian nickname for "mosquito").  Farsi speakers feel that this is not
necessarily a case of Anglicization, that it works in Farsi as well.

The odd thing is that in so many cases names are first shortened and then
extended.  Obviously, these are two separate processes, the latter being the
endearment process.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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