revised place name rules (orphaned)

San Diego: S.D. San Dee

Juvenile Hall: Juvy/Juvee

Recreation Intramural Athletic Complex: RIMAC (i pronounce it 'ree-mack')

Middle Earth Lounge MEL

Student Activity Center The SAC

UC Los Angeles UCLA (spelled out or pronounced 'uck-la')

UC Berkeley Cal

California Cali

Southern California SoCal

Northern California NorCal

San Luis Obispo SLO (pronounced like 'slow')

Palm Springs area (from Yucca Valley, which is higher in elevation and also north of Palm Springs) down below

San Gabriel Valley or San Fernando Valley area The Valley

Dana Point Killer Dana D.P.

Jack in the Box: Gag in the Bag, Jack in the Crack

Las Vegas: Lost Wages

JC Penney: Jacques-Penn? (with a French accent)

Wal-Mart: Wally-world

Sierra Summit: Sierra Scummit

Caf? Ventanas: Coffee Windows (negative) Caf? V Ventanas Craptanas (negative)

Tapioca Express: TapEx

Black's Beach: Black's

Cane's Bar and Grill: Cane's

The Onyx Room: Onyx

La Jolla Shores: Shores

Tijuana: T.J.

Pacific Beach: P.B.

Santa Monica Beach and Venice Beach: Muscle Beach

Arrowhead Pond: The Pond

Garden Grove: Garbage Grove

Conveying sentiment about place: play with prosody

1. Translate the name to another language that conveys the speaker's regard for the place (e.g., Jacques-Penn?, and Coffee Windows).
2. If mimicking the prosodic structure, change a few sounds of the original (e.g., Gag in the Bag, Jack in the Crack, Lost Wages, Sierra Scummit).
3. Keep the first syllable of the placename and add a couple syllables, with the stressed syllables copying the first syllable's first sound (e.g., Wally-world).
4. Keep the first syllable of each word (e.g., TapEx).
5. Keep one word (e.g., Black's, Cane's, Onyx, Shores).[1]
6. Create an acronym[2]. If it produces a pronouncable sequence, spelling out the acronym is optional.

1. first syllable of one or more morphemes
2. the first two syllables of the place name

[1] This is actually taken from the Hypocoristics Database (rules 6 and 7), but I said keep one word because it may turn out that a middle word can be kept for SoCal English. [return to text] [2] Taken from the Hypocoristics Database (rule 10). [return to text] [3] Taken from the Hypocoristics Database (rule 9). [return to text]

[all posts in /ling/]  [permanent link]