Affrication Diminutive Marker (Re: butterfly)

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 3 Nov 2003, Rory M Larson wrote:
> I've never really understood the c^he part of it though.  I gather that
> it is the positional thE, used to indicate a point in time, transposed
> into grandmother speech?

That's my analysis of it, anyway - the inanimate upright positional
article-cum-temporal conjunction.  It's that which induces me to see egaN
here as 'to be like'.