![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a random question
Jun. 9th, 2009 11:13 pmA question for, I think, the British and Australian and New Zealander readers in the room.
Nicknames in -az: you guys have these, right, and we in the US and Canada tend not to. I read an anecdote once about David Thewlis and Gary Oldman talking on the set of Goblet of Fire about subsequent installments in the Harry Potter saga, for instance, and how Oldman was all psyched to be part of this thing and Thewlis said "Er, Gaz, you know how someone dies in the next book?" Likewise, one of Bridget Jones's best friends is called Shazzer, right, or Shaz for a different kind of short.
So okay. It is my impression that an -az nickname usually, or possibly even always, comes from a name with -ar in the relevant syllable. When David Thewlis said "Gaz", right, he was speaking to Gary Oldman. Shazzer's name is actually Sharon. And so on. So I'd assume that someone called Baz was likely to be named Barry (Baz Luhrmann seems not to be, but how you get "Baz" from "Mark" involves a few more steps if you ask me - I can do it, if I'm allowed fortition, and without leaving behind the -ar concept, but anyway -- I'm going to get out of this paragraph, hang on).
So I'd assume that someone called Baz was likely to be named Barry, Chaz is likely (obviously) to be named Charles, Daz is likely to be named Darren ... Jaz is likely to be named Gerald or some other Ger- or Jer- name? (I can change the vowel without abandoning the theory -- vowel harmony is way easier than fortition [g]) I swear I knew a girl named Sarah who called herself Saz sometimes. Taz is likely to be named Terrance or similar?
IN SHORT, is this a productive process, and is it reliable? And would it, therefore, be strange and wrong to have a friend named Daniel and call him Daz?
It may in fact be that this thing has been well documented for years, but I've never noticed it. Please don't ask me why it is such things occur to me and will not let me be. :-P
Nicknames in -az: you guys have these, right, and we in the US and Canada tend not to. I read an anecdote once about David Thewlis and Gary Oldman talking on the set of Goblet of Fire about subsequent installments in the Harry Potter saga, for instance, and how Oldman was all psyched to be part of this thing and Thewlis said "Er, Gaz, you know how someone dies in the next book?" Likewise, one of Bridget Jones's best friends is called Shazzer, right, or Shaz for a different kind of short.
So okay. It is my impression that an -az nickname usually, or possibly even always, comes from a name with -ar in the relevant syllable. When David Thewlis said "Gaz", right, he was speaking to Gary Oldman. Shazzer's name is actually Sharon. And so on. So I'd assume that someone called Baz was likely to be named Barry (Baz Luhrmann seems not to be, but how you get "Baz" from "Mark" involves a few more steps if you ask me - I can do it, if I'm allowed fortition, and without leaving behind the -ar concept, but anyway -- I'm going to get out of this paragraph, hang on).
So I'd assume that someone called Baz was likely to be named Barry, Chaz is likely (obviously) to be named Charles, Daz is likely to be named Darren ... Jaz is likely to be named Gerald or some other Ger- or Jer- name? (I can change the vowel without abandoning the theory -- vowel harmony is way easier than fortition [g]) I swear I knew a girl named Sarah who called herself Saz sometimes. Taz is likely to be named Terrance or similar?
IN SHORT, is this a productive process, and is it reliable? And would it, therefore, be strange and wrong to have a friend named Daniel and call him Daz?
It may in fact be that this thing has been well documented for years, but I've never noticed it. Please don't ask me why it is such things occur to me and will not let me be. :-P
