Date: Thu, 13 Apr 1995 09:39:29 EDT

From: Larry Horn LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU

Subject: Re: Peggy



Leo Horishny wonders about my derivation (supported by other posters, I think)

of

Margaret--[trunc.]-- Meg-- Peg--[dimin.]-- Peggy



As in



Mary-- Molly-- Polly



-----------------------------

He writes:

Ok, I can buy that, but having only a very rudimentary background in

linguistics, all you have

explained to me is the HOW of my question. I'm being picky, but I'm

interested too in the WHY!

What is the cause of the P stop having been chosen for this evolution versus a

D or a B? I'm

looking for the story behind how this change happened. I know it's there

somewhere, and that's what

I'm interested in finding out. ;-) Whence did this change occur? What

ethnic pool did this happen

in? Was there a specific person that prompted this change indirectly? I

guess I'm looking for the

SOCIO-linguistic response to my query! G



I can't speak to the sociolinguistics, but the phonetics seems straightforward

enough: the marked bilabial nasal [m] shifts to the unmarked bilabial oral

stop [p] (rather than shifting position as well as manner to yield [d] or [b]).

Richard -- Dick would fit the same pattern, but Robert -- Bob doesn't (why

THAT hypocoristic rather than, say, Dob?)



P.S.--

After all, I'm Larry, but my kids always found it easier to say 'Daddy'

:)