Winnie- THER - Pooh ???
Johannes Gotowos
Since I'm writing my MA thesis in linguistics AND in literature about
Pooh and Milne and everything around the Hundred acre Wood, I would
really appreciate your help.
Now, the more I wonder, the more I get confused - can anybody tell me
something about the meaning of - or the joke or pun behind Milne's
calling Pooh "Winnie-THER-Pooh" in the first chapter of W.-t.-P.?
What's behind the THER? What's that gotta do with Edward Bear?
Thanx for helping me out here.
Tiddely Pom, Janni
Ruth Ford
says...
>Now, the more I wonder, the more I get confused - can anybody tell me
>something about the meaning of - or the joke or pun behind Milne's
>calling Pooh "Winnie-THER-Pooh" in the first chapter of W.-t.-P.?
>What's behind the THER? What's that gotta do with Edward Bear?
>Thanx for helping me out here.
Janni,
I think your problem may be missing simple assumptions from English
culture... Edward is often shortened to "Ted" in the UK, and this is
where "Teddy Bear" comes from: formally, *all* Teddy Bears are thus called
Edward. Winnie the Pooh is Christopher Robin's own name for his own bear,
and the "ther" is just a child's emphasis of the word "the".
As for its actual meaning, well, I hope you know, as that's all the
explanation you'll get... ;-) If you don't have a special relationship
with your own cuddlies, I don't think it's explainable.
Pete, stealing his friend Cheryl's account.
geoffrey adams
>
>Hi everybody
>Since I'm writing my MA thesis in linguistics AND in literature about
>Pooh and Milne and everything around the Hundred acre Wood, I would
>really appreciate your help.
>something about the meaning of - or the joke or pun behind Milne's
>calling Pooh "Winnie-THER-Pooh" in the first chapter of W.-t.-P.?
>What's behind the THER? What's that gotta do with Edward Bear?
>Thanx for helping me out here.
As far as I know it was just a joke on Christopher Robins pronunciation of
"The", being a child of about 3 or 4 his linguistic skills were still
developing.
HK Roo
'Of course I do' I said and I hope you do too because that's all the
explanation you're going to get."
-Winnie-the-Pooh
Wstoler
>I think your problem may be missing simple assumptions from English
>culture... Edward is often shortened to "Ted" in the UK, and this is
>where "Teddy Bear" comes from: formally, *all* Teddy Bears are thus
called
>Edward. Winnie the Pooh is Christopher Robin's own name for his own
bear,
>and the "ther" is just a child's emphasis of the word "the".
>As for its actual meaning, well, I hope you know, as that's all the
>explanation you'll get... ;-) If you don't have a special relationship
>with your own cuddlies, I don't think it's explainable.
>
>Pete, stealing his friend Cheryl's account.
>
affection for bears, I guess I was Wrong.
Okay, maybe I'm biased, but I've always believed that the name Teddy Bear
came from Theodore Roosevelt finding a bear in his travels. Somehow in our
American conscious the huggable bear became more popular at that time, and
was referred to as the bear that Mr. Roosevelt had, or a Teddy Bear. I
could be wrong, and I'm sure you folks on the other side of that big
Atlantic Pond will tell me otherwise. Our first bear at home has the
official name of Theodore E. Bear, so we could shorten it to Ted E. Bear,
or Ted E. for short.
Wayne Stoler
geoffrey adams
Wstoler
>calling Pooh "Winnie-THER-Pooh" in the first chapter of W.-t.-P.?
>What's behind the THER? What's that gotta do with Edward Bear?
>Thanx for helping me out here.
>Tiddely Pom, Janni
I agree that it probably has something to do with linguistics for a small
child. Children have their own pronunciation scheme, and us parents like
to smile sometimes when we hear them say it. My 6-year-old still says
sencond for second, and I don't want to stop him because I think it's
adorable, and he'll correct it himself soon enough.
Wayne Stoler
Sandy Morton
> I always thought the name teddy bear came from Teddy Rosevelt and his
>affection for bears, I guess I was Wrong.
Nope, you're wrong, you *were* right. :^) The first toy bear was created
to either honor or make fun of Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt. I don't remember
the details, but I recall it had something to do with him not having the
heart to kill a bear cub. (Of course, it could be that he killed its
mother. ;^)
Sandy
Elmtree
being given to his bear or bears of the era???? And, I may be wrong, but
I've never heard of Edward being shortened to Ted....
And, where did you hear that all Teddy Bears are called Edward "formally?"
Just my 2 cents worth!
-D
RE: THIS POSTING
Subject: Re: Winnie- THER - Pooh ???
From: pan...@magicnet.net (Ruth Ford)
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 96 08:10:15 EST
Message-ID: <4gkebt$8...@comet2.magicnet.net>
In article <312B5E...@public.uni-hamburg>, fe5...@public.uni-hamburg
says...
>Now, the more I wonder, the more I get confused - can anybody tell me
>something about the meaning of - or the joke or pun behind Milne's
>calling Pooh "Winnie-THER-Pooh" in the first chapter of W.-t.-P.?
>What's behind the THER? What's that gotta do with Edward Bear?
>Thanx for helping me out here.
Janni,
Slug42
maybe "ther" is a bizzare, English version of "Fnord"?
An 'inside' thing to make people Confused and wonder what they missed?
maybe AA Milne and C Robin simply shared a joke?
Aimee Libeu
> >Janni,
> >I think your problem may be missing simple assumptions from English
> >culture... Edward is often shortened to "Ted" in the UK, and this is
> >where "Teddy Bear" comes from: formally, *all* Teddy Bears are thus
> called
> >Edward. Winnie the Pooh is Christopher Robin's own name for his own
> bear,
> >and the "ther" is just a child's emphasis of the word "the".
> >As for its actual meaning, well, I hope you know, as that's all the
> >explanation you'll get... ;-) If you don't have a special relationship
> >with your own cuddlies, I don't think it's explainable.
> >
> >Pete, stealing his friend Cheryl's account.
> >
> affection for bears, I guess I was Wrong.
>