Shennies and Shenandoahs...

[Tuckahoe]

I probably shouldn't let things like this bother me, and first world problems and all that, but to see folks use Shenandoah as a plural has become my equivalent of nails on a chalk board for me.

There is the --

Town of Shenandoah in Page County and the County of Shenandoah
The Shenandoah River, and the North Fork and the South Fork
Shenandoah Valley, and Shenandoah Mountian
And Shenandoah National Park

But there are no Shennies and no Shenandoahs. We do not use a plural -- it is just simply Shenandoah.

And I'll get off my soap box now and go back to the corner...

[Deer Hunter]

I'm with ya on this. Heard "the Shennies" just last week.

[Alleghanian Orogeny]

Right there with ya. I cringe each and every time I see "Shennies" in print. I'm not the grammar and spelling police. I just hate to see a place name which is so beautiful abbreviated in any way and for that abbreviation to work itself into popular use.

AO

[garlic08]

Same thing with "the Sierras" when referring to the Sierra Nevada range. It's a single region, not a plural. At least it's not diminutive, like "Shennies."

Move over on that soapbox.

[la.lindsey]

Can't the valley, mountain, river, park, and town make it plural?

English is a fluid language.

Some would argue the use of "ya" for "you" cheapens our beautiful grammar. Others would say the over use of sentence final ellipses in place of periods (or an exclamation point, etc) compromises our punctuation system. And yet you all seem to have no issue with those usages.


/English major and part time troll


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[TheCheek]

I was thinking the same thing while reading it. "But you listed out just some of the many Shenandoahs." What about all of the businesses that also took the name?

PS Also part time troll.

[Gambit McCrae]

Unleash the Trolling!

Ok, So since we are all caught up on real world problems like if Larry is going to open a bar in D-Town, and no kids are getting snatched by alligators in Disney, and bars arnt getting shot up, lets talk about THE SHANNIES> I use terms like THE SHANNIES, I use an A instead of an E because I already know that The Shennies is not a freakin word, so why not spell it how it sounds. Because its fun. It is fun to say SHANNIES, the same way as when I hiked the Smokey Mountain National Park, I didn't want to say "Smokey Mountain National Park" every time I explained something, so I say it all formal the FIRST TIME, and from then on in the convo ya know what I call it?!!! the FREAKIN SHMOKIES, yes, with a SH, WHY? Because I like it, it is fun. I WOULD have whipped out my smart phone to look up the official nomenclature for the parks but I didn't wanna offend anyone!

[la.lindsey]

Gambit raises a good point: GSMNP is clearly only ONE great smokey mountain, yet we've accepted the plural "smokies." Isn't it time to accept The Shennies as well?

(Sorry, Gambit, not ok with Shannies, although I do see your point. My regional dialect makes no distinction between "pen" and "pin" so "Shennies" and "Shannies" is probably similar enough as well, and "Shennies" retains original spelling.)


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[chknfngrs]

silly stupid thread #543 for 5,000, Aleksh.

[Gambit McCrae]

Gambit raises a good point: GSMNP is clearly only ONE great smokey mountain, yet we've accepted the plural "smokies." Isn't it time to accept The Shennies as well?

(Sorry, Gambit, not ok with Shannies, although I do see your point. My regional dialect makes no distinction between "pen" and "pin" so "Shennies" and "Shannies" is probably similar enough as well, and "Shennies" retains original spelling.)


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How dare you use your iphone to communicate with others.

[tdoczi]

though technically you are correct, i have to say i cringe more when someone needs to point something like this out for the 10,000th time than i do when someone says it "wrong."

in a more abstract sense, names of places are simply what people call a thing. over time, what once was called one thing may become called something else. in 100 years maybe they will be known as the plural form you so vehemently dislike. maybe that will become their "correct" name. to that i ask you- so what?

[la.lindsey]

How dare you use your iphone to communicate with others.

I'm not in the woods though.

Now, if my coworkers complained about me ruining their work experience with the harsh glare of my phone screen in this gorgeous cube-farm office setting, then I guess I'd have to feel guilty.

But fortunately no one has yet complained.


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[Gambit McCrae]

Just Called the Shennies Park Service. They changed the name officially to "The Shennies", Signs will be up beginning of next week.

[illabelle]

Right there with ya. I cringe each and every time I see "Shennies" in print. I'm not the grammar and spelling police. I just hate to see a place name which is so beautiful abbreviated in any way and for that abbreviation to work itself into popular use.

AO

Shenandoah is just one of many beautiful Appalachian/Native American names. Others would be Dahlonegah, and some of those how-do-you-pronounce-them places in Maine like Mooselookmeguntic and Nesowadnehunk. Even if we don't speak the original languages or know the original meanings, I do agree that we lose something when we allow the original to be degraded or corrupted or misused, especially by those who don't care.

On the other hand, I just love how Gambit McCrae responded. As I read it, for him the word "Shennies" (or Shannies) is an affectionate nickname. This past weekend I hiked with a young girl named Eliana. We often call her Ellie. I told her I might start calling her Ellybean (kind of like jellybean). In no way is the use of the nickname a replacement of her true name. It's just a shortcut that indicates familiarity and affection.

[la.lindsey]

Those "shortcuts" are also known as "nicknames." In original Anglo-Saxon, this was "an ekename" or "an other name." But, of course, as I mentioned earlier, English is a fluid language, and we adopt words from other languages and change them, so "an ekename" became "a nickname." Shortening "Shenandoah" to "the Shennies" is a particular form of nicknaming known as the diminutive form, which is generally seen as affectionate.

You can hate how English changes things all you want. That's known as being a prescriptive grammarian, and in that case, you might be better off with Latin. Or you can appreciate how language is actually spoken and used and how it changes, and then you'd be a descriptive grammarian.

Either way, time and tide and the evolution of the English language wait for no man or woman or AT hiker.


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[rocketsocks]

...and not fur nuthin' it's Neel Gap, not neels gap.

[Berserker]

Well we are on this topic they sell stickers in the stores in SNP that say "Hiked It Liked It", and may sell these in other parks...don't know. I don't know what it is, but that "Hiked It Liked It" phrase...well let's just say I really dislike it. It sounds flippant and fairly douchey...just had to get my crotchety opinion in here on something SNP related since this is a soapbox thread.

[tdoczi]

You can hate how English changes things all you want. That's known as being a prescriptive grammarian, and in that case, you might be better off with Latin. Or you can appreciate how language is actually spoken and used and how it changes, and then you'd be a descriptive grammarian.

Either way, time and tide and the evolution of the English language wait for no man or woman or AT hiker.


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just when i thought i was the only one who "got it." i have this argument about the evolution of language with basically everyone who tries to "correct" something someone says. its rare anyone ever understands.

perhaps ironically, given this forum, it was one of bill bryson's other books that taught me this concept.

[Xycon]

On a similar note, it annoys me when people say appalachun trail rather than appalashan trail, but no need to get all up in arms about it lol

[la.lindsey]

On a similar note, it annoys me when people say appalachun trail rather than appalashan trail, but no need to get all up in arms about it lol

Interesting. I had a professor who did his research on dialects and folklore of the Appalachian region and he was an "appalachun" guy. Now, that's "appalahchia" not "appalaychia," which he did make sure we all knew. Are you sure you're not wrong?


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