Happy New Year!

[conuly]

Question. Why do we say "Happy NEW Year"? Why don't we say "Happy New YEAR"? The first sounds like "happy holiday", the second like "happy year", doesn't it?

Comments

Britishism

[farraige.livejournal.com]

Happy New YEAR, definitely.

(from my viewpoint, GenAm does a few funny things wrt stress patterns -- compare ROBINhood (second syllable reduced to a schwa at best but frequently to a syllabic n altogether) to RP Robin Hood (no lax vowel reduction, the two lexemes remain quite distinct)

Re: Britishism

[conuly]

Hm. Interesting. Hadn't thought of that at all (though, of course you're being silly, you're the ones who are weird :P)

Re: Britishism

[farraige.livejournal.com]

I hope for your sake you're saying this in jest.

Re: Britishism

[conuly]

That's what the :P is for.

Re: Britishism

[farraige.livejournal.com]

:P is for poking your tongue out. It doesn't spell "I'm being frivolous" or whatever -- to me, it means you're taking the mickey out of the person whose opinion you're replying to.

Re: Britishism

[conuly]

Really? Most people I know seem to use it to mean they're being silly... y'know, I'll just make another poll later.

Re: Britishism

[farraige.livejournal.com]

this just might have something to do with autism, or whatever.

Re: Britishism

[mhari.livejournal.com]

It never reads that way to me. That's what I use ;) for, and :P carries more the connotation of "nyah nyah".