Re: Why don't we spell cat with a K?

From: Marco Cimarosti (marco.cimarosti_at_europe.com)
Date: 06/21/04 

Date: 21 Jun 2004 06:20:07 -0700

Keith Edgerley wrote:
> <Kat(h)i> ['kati] is a pretty common
> > Upper German pet form of <Katherina>, but the spelling
> > <Kathy> is evidently influenced by the English pet form.
>
> This is weird.
>
> It's true that when I first met Kathy, I assumed her name was spelt Kathi.
> But it's not.
>
> Why on earth should a Swiss German peasant girl - her parents' are farmers
> in a really out of the way village - use an English spelling of her
> abbreviated first name.

Why on earth shouldn't she? A Swiss German peasant girls is supposed
to speak, in this order: 1. Swiss German (the local spoken language),
2. standard German (the local literary language), 3. *English* (the
main foreign language used in her country), and finally 4. French
and/or Italian (the other official languages of her country).

I would expect her to choose her nickname from one of these languages.
Did you expect her to choose it from Swahili or Estonian? :-)

English seems a very likely choice, especially for a young person,
because it sounds so "trendy" and "cosmopolite".

And that's not only for people's names: how many shops or pubs in
Switzerland (or any other non-English-speaking European country, for
that matter) bear an English name?

> Talk about ethnocentric!

*You* seem a bit ethnocentric in assuming that a Swiss German girl
must necessarily choose a Swiss German nickname.

> I know "-i" is used: example "Köbi" (= "Jim") I have only ever seen that
> way, but Willy, for instance seems to be written that way just as often as
> Willi. Even for people born 100 years ago.

Doesn't "y" normally sound like "ü" in German?

And do you prononce "Willy" as "Wilü"? If you don't, that's a clear
hint to a spelling borrowed from some language wher "y" normally
sounds like "i" (likely, English or French).

Ciao.
Marco

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