Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site alice.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!alice!td From: td@alice.UUCP (Tom Duff) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: a newt and an adder Message-ID: <3891@alice.UUCP> Date: Mon, 24-Jun-85 13:01:00 EDT Article-I.D.: alice.3891 Posted: Mon Jun 24 13:01:00 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 25-Jun-85 07:50:01 EDT References: <348@spar.UUCP> Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill Lines: 7 > An instance where the ancient dative inflexional -n was transferred from > the definite article to the beginning of the following word is `nonce', in > the expression: > > for the nonce <= for then ones,once In fact, the process of shifting the N back and forth between noun and article is referred to by linguists as `noncing' after this example.