Date:  Mon, 1 May 1995 13:09:05 -0400

From:  Wayne Glowka <wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MAIL.GAC.PEACHNET.EDU>

Subject: Business/[bIdnIs]



In HEL this morning, I was trying to show how Old Icelandic "mathr" could

be derived from something like Proto-Germanic "mannaz." I should have

known better, but when I explained that the changes were no more bizarre

than those illustrated in the standard pronunciation of "business" and in

the Southern [bIdnIs], there was some vocal objection from some local

students. There were two different words involved in this case: [bIznIs]

is a "real" word that refers to a commercial enterprise ("he owns a

business"); [bIdnIs] refers to whatever it is that someone is doing that is

no one else's affair ("it's none of your [bIdnIs]"). One of the students,

who uses [bIdnIs], wanted to know if it was a real word. Time was up

before I could say much about "pidgin" as a related term.





Wayne Glowka

Professor of English

Director of Research and Graduate Student Services

Georgia College

Milledgeville, GA 31061

912-453-4222

wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]mail.gac.peachnet.edu