Bram Janssen wrote:

>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> > Reminds me of a 3-syllabic tongue twister my grandma told me:
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> > 'f&:tst s ts 'tsYri ?
> >>>>> > mizzles it to Zurich ?
> >>>>> > Does it mizzle in Zurich?
> >>>>> >
> >>>>> > (in the High Alemannic dialect of Zurich)
> >>>>>
> >>>>> What is mizzle?
> >>>>
> >>>>To me, it's a dictionary word... it's a translation of
> >>>>German _nieseln_ 'to be raining very few'; another
> >>>>translation, also from http://dict.leo.org is _drizzle_. I
> >>>>chose _mizzle_ because it was followed by the note
> >>>>"[Amer.]". Hope that helps.
> >>>>
> >>>>g_0ry@^s:
> >>>>j. 'mach' wust
>
> The Dutch version of the word is _miezeren_ however, so maybe the American
> origin comes from Dutch immigrants? It seems to make more sense than
> "nieseln".

But then you'd expect it to be a regional form in the formerly Dutch
area from New York to Baltimore, and it isn't.

Please don't add a hundreds-of-words .sig to the already oppressive
Yahoo advertising.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...