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From: urban@cobra.jpl.nasa.gov (Michael P Urban)
Subject: Munchkins (was Re: Not pumpkin but...)
Message-ID: <1995Aug3.212416.12818@llyene.jpl.nasa.gov>
Sender: news@llyene.jpl.nasa.gov
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
References: <Pine.OSF.3.91.950801191359.28244C-100000@plato.ucs.mun.ca> <3vo30l$m81@bone.think.com> <3vokj8$5g4@clarknet.clark.net>
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 21:24:16 GMT
Lines: 43

In article <3vokj8$5g4@clarknet.clark.net>,
Harlan Messinger <gusty@clark.net> wrote:
>
>"Munchkin" is a fanciful word from The Wizard of Oz, just one of several 
>names invented by Frank L. Baum for unusual groups of people inhabiting 
>Oz. "Quadlings" was another one. I note that both these words are 
>diminutive (-ling is also diminutive, spelled the same as the cognate 
>German suffix as in "Liebling"), but there may not necessarily be a real 
>etymology for "Munch-" and "Quad-" as Baum used them.

When "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was translated into Russian by one
A. Volkov, he did interpret "Munchkin" literally, and portrayed the
inhabitants of that country as habitually chewing (and, I believe,
also had the Winkies perpetually winking).  Baum made no such
connections, and it is likely that he simply liked the sounds of these
words.

Just to run off on a totally irrelevant tangent, Baum imagined Oz as
having four large divisions, so naming one of them the Quadling
Country does make a kind of sense.  The fourth country, unnamed in the
original book but the scene of the beginning of the first sequel, is
also a diminutive-like "Gillikin", which certainly seems to be chosen
entirely as a nonsense word.  Baum seemed fond of making up names with
`K' and `I' like Nikidik and Rinkitink (and of spelling the name of
the Nome (sic) King's chamberlain `Kaliko'), and seemed curiously
fascinated by the family name "Jinx" for reasons I have never
discovered.

Finally, as long as I am off in the Land of Oz here, I might as well
mention that Philip Jose Farmer wrote a rather, um, unconventional
`sequel' to The Wizard of Oz some years ago, `A Barnstormer in Oz' in
which he conceives that Dorothy's trip to Oz had been, but bowdlerized
and badly reported.  To give you some idea of how this goes, the
reason that the Tin Woodman could not marry his girlfriend was not
that he was lacking a heart, but another member.  Anyway, the point of
mentioning this is that Farmer plays some interesting word games and
posits a `Quadling language' based on, if I remember aright, Gothic
(from earlier contacts between our world and Oz) that accounts for
almost-English names like "Glinda".  He even has some notes about the
language at the end.  The book has some interesting bits, but Farmer
was far too impressed with his own cleverness for his own good.


