Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 11:01:00 +0100
From: Colin Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > . . . a tossup whether a reader chancing upon `Debian' for the
first time will favor `De-' or `-ian'. Hence ehb vs eeb.
> > It's a toss-up for americans. No-one from the UK would ever say
> > 'Deebian'
> Don't I wish. Here in England, my boss always says "Deebian", largely I
> think to annoy me. :)
Geologists often attach -ian to place names, as in Devonian time,
Mississippian limestones, Cambrian orogeny. Sometimes the convention
produces awkward offspring, as in the Desmoinesian series of strata
(think Iowa, not France).
Long ago a fine auld Scot named Ian Campbell (then state geologist of
California) remarked to me that -ian was overworked, but observed
that the practice did help discourage Statesiders from pronouncing his
given name as `I-an'.
Wendell Cochran
West Seattle
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