Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Dilly dallying is often – intentionally or not – a way of delaying something. From time to time, we’ve found examples of reshapings that seem particular to the English of a certain region, and “dilly delaying†seems to be a very good example of the phenomenon: nearly all of the examples I saw (and there are many dozens of them) are from South Asian media sites. Journalists in India, Pakistan, and Nepal seem to passing this one from hand to hand. In most cases, “dilly delay” seems to have become more or less an emphatic synonym for “delay.” Perhaps you need to be a non-native speaker of English to find this natural – for me, the shift in stress from the first syllable of “dally†to the second syllable of “delay†is rather jarring. Examples:
“This shows how serious and sincere we are compared to the dilly-delaying tactics used by the government.”
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Sate … /NWELayout
Therefore the Rajas deliberately kept on dilly-delaying their arrival at the Mugal court.
http://www.sikhspectrum.com/072008/sikh_rajput.htm
After much dilly-delaying Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology (NIIFT) has finally completed an architectural plan for its new campus.
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/ni … us/317660/
University and college teachers will demonstrate and stage a dharna in front of vice-chancellor, Kurukshetra University, office here on Monday in protest against the continuous dilly-delaying tactics of the state government in the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission Recommendations for university and college teachers in the state, which have caused a great resentment in the teaching community in the state.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090418/region.htm
[Wikipedia offers this definition for “dharnaâ€: “A dharna [...] is a fast undertaken at the door of an offender, especially a debtor, in India as a means of obtaining compliance with a demand for justice, such as payment of a debt.â€]
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I agree, the sound leap is a long one. Perhaps the eggcorn got its start as an eyecorn. Subcultures in which English is a second language are not always aware of the deep rules that connect the written and spoken language. Speakers in these cultures are more likely to accept a level of tension between what they see and what they hear that would trouble those who speak English as a mother tongue.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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One of the things that makes some Englishes, Indian subcontinent Englishes in particular, different is different cadences, syllable timings and concomitantly less-clear stress patterns. (When we Americans, at least, hear “stress†we’re hearing vowel lengthening on “stressed†syllables vs. shortening and reduction of phonetic distinctiveness on “non-stressed†syllables. This besides or sometimes even instead of an amplitude difference.) I’m no expert on Indian English, but I can easily hear in my mind a person pronouncing “dilly-dally†and “delay†so that the stress patterns of the final syllable pairs would not sound very different to my ear at least.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Delhiesque.
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