Morphology

[tonyran]

This has been worrying me for some time so any insights would do wonders for my peace of mind.

There are sloops, sloops and Bermudian sloops. (All the same beast?) Where is Bermudia? - a bit further on from Bermuda, perhaps. And why are they sometimes called Bermudan sloops? Is this just example of phonetic ebb and flow or is there more to it than meets the ear? Explanations invited! (please)

 

[Ships_Cat]

I believe that it is correctly a Bermuda Sloop after the shallow draft boats developed in Bermuda during the 17th Century. Stand to be corrected on that though, but is what I was told. In fact Bermuda is currently building a replica wooden sloop for its youth.

The people of Bermuda are always Bermudian and never Bermudan (as a Bermudian client politely pointed out to me the first and only time I slipped up on that /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif).

John

 

[Benbow]

There is an interesting language point here that may be relevant to Ships_Cat's answer. As I understand it, Americans will never say Californian wine, always California wine. Brits will always say Californian.

I heard this from Alistair Cooke, never having noticed myself, and I am not clear how far it extends. Do Americans say Australia wine? Does that explain why Brits have Bermud(i)an rigs while Ameicans have Bermuda rigs?

 

[benjenbav]

Persons originating from Barbados are Bajans which I understand is a corruption of Barbadian, pronounced Barbajan which has stuck over time.

Interesting process of linguistic evolution currently under way: At the start of this century the BBC preferred "the year two thousand". Listen out for "twenty oh five" now. I suspect Americans would prefer "twenty-five" which would sound alien to most Brits.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Geography

I have it on good authority from a Torontoanian, that Bermudia is an island south and east of Canadia.

Personally, I think it all comes from Bolloxania.

 

[Gunfleet]

Canada

is one of those few countries of masculine gender in Romance languages. Weird, le Canada.

 

[Das_Boot]

Re: Canada

You have all got it wrong. Bermudian sloop comes from bermudian shorts which were neither short nor long hence the ship class Bermudan Sloop meaning neither here nor there.

 

[benjenbav]

Re: Canada

and Hawaiian shirts originate from Newcastle "Haway man, that's what I call a shirt"

 

[Das_Boot]

Re: Canada

Up here in the summer you can see a combination Hawayman shirt with bermudan shorts. Very fetching. Called a bermudan rig when refering to mobo crew.