Date:  Wed, 14 Jun 1995 10:31:36 -0400

From:  "M. Lynne Murphy" <104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA>

Subject: Kmart



in response to larry horn's response:



> Well, in response to Lynne's query about misreadable non-hyphenated names and

> descriptions: I'm not sure whether the constraint she mentions--

>

> >but...i (and those in my great sphere of influence) use bday and cmas

> >(christmas)--the former is quite wide spread among those who mark the

> >joyous season of lynneukah (otherwise known as the 8 days of lynne's

> >bday). (only 110 shopping days left! shop now and avoid the rush.)

> >

> >these are better than "krations" because, in english, you'd have to

> >syllabify the "b" before "day" and the "c" before "mas", but the

> >"kr-" works as an initial cluster. (the k rations e.g., is kind of

> >cheating, though because it's not hyphenated in the first place.)

>

> is operative for me, although it clearly is for others with their own

> significant spheres of influence. Some time ago I realized that the chain of

> stores I've always thought of as K Mart (space, no hyphen) is officially, at

> least in these parts, rendered with capital K but no space: "Check out your

> neighborhood Kmart store for bargains during this special Lynneukah shopping

> season!"  For me, this is a severe violation, since I can only pronounce

> their store [kmart], with at most a schwa to epenthesize mid-initial-cluster

> (as in "c'mon" or the down-underian "G'day!"). No wonder they're heading for

> bankruptcy. B'bye, Kmart!



it seems to mean something that the letter that is pronounced as a

letter is capitalized--we saw that in the original post about Email,

though i do think this is also written as email. (it's hard to tell

w/ people like me who are anti-shift-key. i read that this is the e-

mail equivalent of mumbling.) actually, i have provided evidence of

this elsewhere on e-mail, spelling my name lynnE, in order to be

pronounced "lynnie"--a spelling i don't like because it undermines

the 'e' on the end of the my name (which people tend to leave off, to

my distress). when i write my name by hand, i use a macron instead,

but since that's not possible here, the capital E works.



Kmart, incidentally, also has the metaorthographic aid of color: the

"k" is red, the "mart" blue in their logo.



but this still doesn't explain bday, which, i swear, i'm not the only

person to use.



narcissistically yours,

lynnE



---------------------------------------------------------------------

M. Lynne Murphy              104lyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]muse.arts.wits.ac.za

Department of Linguistics            phone: 27(11)716-2340

University of the Witwatersrand          fax: 27(11)716-8030

Johannesburg 2050

SOUTH AFRICA