Klarinet Archive - Posting 001072.txt from 1999/12

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Zoology
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 21:03:25 -0500

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The following is from the Microsoft Bookshelf packaged with Office 97 =
Professional Edition. The word opossum is of North American Indian =
origin and the formal or full version of the word is opossum here in the =
US. Now if other countries have adopted our short form for the formal =
version and vice versa, it just goes to show what a weird and wonderful =
language English is.

pos=B7sum (p=F2s=B9em) noun

Chiefly Southern U.S.

An opossum.

[Short for opossum.]

Regional Note: Since English is a language that stresses some syllables =
and not others, weakly stressed syllables, especially those preceding =
strong stresses, are dropped at times. This process, called aphesis when =
it occurs at the beginning of a word, is more common in regional =
American dialects than in the more conservative Standard English, which =
tends to retain in pronunciation anything reflected in spelling. =
Although many American dialects feature aphesis, it is most famous in =
the dialects of the South, where it yields pronunciations such as count =
of for (on) account of, tater for potato, possum for opossum, and =
skeeter for mosquito.

o=B7pos=B7sum (e-p=F2s=B9em, p=F2s=B9em) noun

plural opossum or o=B7pos=B7sums

1. Any of various nocturnal, usually arboreal marsupials of the family =
Didelphidae, especially Didelphis marsupialis of the Western Hemisphere, =
having a thick coat of hair, a long snout, and a long prehensile tail. =
See Regional Note at possum.

2. Any of several similar marsupials of Australia belonging to the =
family Phalangeridae.

[Virginia Algonquian.]

Word History: The word opossum takes us back to the earliest days of the =
United States. The settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, was founded in =
1607 by the London Company, chartered for the planting of colonies. Even =
though the first years were difficult, promotional literature was =
glowing. In one such piece, A True Declaration of the Estate of the =
Colonie in Virginia, published in 1610, we find this passage: "There are =
. . . Apossouns, in shape like to pigges." This is the first recorded =
use of opossum, although in a spelling that differs from the one later =
settled on to reproduce the sound of the Virginia Algonquian word from =
which our word came. The word opossum and its shortened form possum, =
first recorded in 1613 in more promotional literature, remind us of a =
time when the New World was still very new, settlers were few, and the =
inhabitants for whom the New World was not new were plentiful.

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