Re: Pronunciation of the name Antoinette

On 23 Jun 2006 14:21:10 -0700, "Mike Lyle" <mike_lyle_uk@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Salvatore Volatile wrote:
Steve Hayes wrote:
On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 11:44:22 +0100, Nick Spalding <spalding@xxxxxx> wrote:

I had a cousin Antoinette but only her mother called her that, to everyone
else she was Ann.

I had a friend Antoinette but only her mother called her that. Everyone else
called (AmE=named) her Toni.

"Called" in AmE. She was *named* Antoinette.

Surely this (call vs. name) was *once* a recognized distinction in BrE+;
what happened?

Well, if anything at all happened, it was before 1250. OED1 has "to
name" from 1000, and "to call" with the same meaning from 1250. There's
no hint that there was anything wrong with "call", and indeed that word
is used in the definition of "name". KJV, of course, has the expression
"call his name X", so they thought it was at least sort-of all right,
too. Your distinction is a slightly useful one, but it doesn't ever
seem to have had any currency in British English, properly so
called...so named...so styled...so designated...so, oh, to Hell with
it!

I suspect that in BrE "name" is more formal. For example in the baptism
service of the CofE, the priest asks the godparents to "Name this child", and
if it was "Call this child" I'm sure it would sound as odd to British ears as
it does to mine.

SV, however, seems to think that it would not sound at all odd to Brits, and
in that I believe he is mistaken.




--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
.

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