"N Cook" wrote in message
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Arfa Daily wrote in message
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"Franc Zabkar" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:20:48 -0500, msg put
finger to keyboard and composed:

Greetings:

Just wondering when the confusing usages of diminutive names
crept into English (by the English), such as 'tranny' for
I presume transistor or perhaps transformer?, 'addy' for
I presume address, 'proggy' for I presume program ,etc.
In the U.S., the only usage of 'tranny' that I've ever heard
referred to the gearbox between the clutch and the driveshaft or
in more recent times it is a reference to transgendered people
Sometimes these terms make for genuine confusion as do
the multitude of country specific acronyms often seen in
postings. The shorthand for transistor in circles hereabouts
is simply 'Q' as in "we need to order that list of Q's, R's,
C's and D's."

I wonder how far aflung in the British Empire those usages
have spread?

As to other usages, it is quite disconcerting to see posts from
India which substitute the word 'doubt' for 'question', which
is so common now that one wonders if there isn't some etymological
issue at play there, as in "I have a doubt about these MOSFETS: what
is their rated Vgs?"

Anyone else with similar observations to add?

Regards,

Michael

How did "arse" become "ass"?

Why do Americans pronounce "solder" as "sodder"?

What happened to the "h" in "human" and "herb"?

Why do Aussies say Bazza/Gazza/Shazza when they mean
Barry/Garry/Sharon?

What is the point of Cockney rhyming slang?

Why do Kiwis say "sex" when they mean "six"?

Why do Chinese English speakers (for example in Singapore) say
"spoiled" when they mean "damaged" or "faulty"?

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

Cockney rhyming slang has a long tradition in the east end of London
dating
back to when Sir Robert Peel's first police constables were put on the
street. They were known as 'peelers' or 'bobbies', both for Robert Peel's
name. The rhyming slang grew up, so the story goes, so that east end
'villains' could talk freely in the presence of these constables, using
rhyming slang 'code', that only those in their 'group' would understand,
and
not the policemen. These days, it's a 'verbal badge' worn by anyone from
that end of London right through into Essex, not just true Cockneys, born
within the sound of Bow bells (the church of St Mary le Bow) - although
even
that is these days open to some degree of interpretation.

Many of the more well known rhyming slang phrases are used by people from
all areas of the country now like "that's a really pony amp" - (Pony and
trap - crap) or "Fred's on the dog for ya !" - (dog and bone - phone) or
"Go
take a butcher's at that !" - (butcher's hook - look)

Arfa



My favourite is titfer for a hat, via "tit for tat"
Who was Ruby Murray anyway ?

And contrary to the diminutive argument
"apples and pears" , "dog and bone" etc are all longer than the original



Well, that's not strictly true in *proper* Cockney rhyming slang, where the
actual rhyming word is left off, this being the part of it that makes it
supposedly a 'coded' language derivative only for understanding by the
initiated. So "apples and pears" only gets spoken as "apples" , "dog and
bone" as "dog", "Ruby Murray" as "Ruby". Interestingly, there was a curry
shop in my town called "The Ruby". A year or two back it changed hands, and
became a take away fish and chip shop. It still bears the name "The Ruby",
so that's a good example of how Cockney rhyming slang has spread out across
the country (I'm about 70 miles from London) and been *******ised into
something else, that is actually not understood by the people who have taken
it on.

Indeed, in some areas of the country, there are newly created examples of
rhyming slang that are 'in the vein of', but don't actually *quite* follow
the rules of proper Cockney rhyming slang, presumably because they have been
thought up by the ever-thicker youth of this country, who don't understand
the 'rules' of this language variation. Such 'new' attempts may well be as
long or even longer than the original plain-language word or phrase that
they are replacing.These are also the examples where the 'rhyming' word is
not very good, or the whole phrase is spoken so that even their
dumber-than-them mates can still understand what they are saying ...

Do you really not know who Ruby Murray was ?

Arfa