Re: CHAT: thingummy (was Re: concepts of Babel text)

At 10:04 am -0400 4/5/01, Muke Tever wrote:
>>===== Original Message From Constructed Languages List
><CONLANG@...> =====
>>On Fri, May 04, 2001 at 01:30:06AM +0100, Dan Jones wrote:
>>> Easily solved: Schleicher's "sheep and horses" fable!!! No cultural
>>> thingummy-wotsits and it's got a lot of linguistic significance. Perfect
>>
>>How does one pronounce <thingummy>? I've only ever seen it once before, in
>>one of the Chronicles of Narnia, and obviously never heard it spoken.
>
>I would say /'TiNgVmi/, but OED has /'TIN@mI/
..and so it is on the Brit side of the pond.

>and also has 'thingum' and
>'thingumbob' and 'thingumajig' as relatives, all with /N/ not /Ng/...
Absolutely spot - we always have /N/, not /Ng/ and all with initial stress
on 'thing'.  I've heard all those words (and other variants) in this neck
of the woods.

But in this day & age when words are cut short 'cause life moves so fast,
"thingy" /'TINi/ is probably the more common form.

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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