Re: Fruitful typos (was: Vulgar Latin)
| From: | Thomas R. Wier <artabanos@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, January 20, 2000, 23:00 |
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Paul Bennett wrote:
> FWIW, I often catch myself saying "Canadia" [*] (stress pattern the same as
> 'Canadian', ie /k@'neIdi"j@/) instead of "Canada" (/'k&n@d@/). Oddly, I'm
> almost universally understood (by Brits) when I do so.
>
> [*] I'm guessing the pattern is after hibernia, ruritania and arcadia,
> unless anyone has a better idea?
Yeah, that's a good theory. I think a lot of people still conceive of "Canada",
"America", and other such Latin-derived words as having endings, for purposes
of derivation at least. So, the stem for "Canada" is "Canad-", "America"
"Americ-",
etc. With that reanalysis of the morpheme boundary, it then becomes only logical
to use "-ian" as a suffix to make the proper noun into an adjective.
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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704 AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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