[LMB] OT: Fiddling

[Jim Parish]

Raye Johnsen wrote:
> I've never heard someone who calls them 'violins' speak of
> 'fiddles' <snip> and I've never heard anyone who regularly
> refers to 'fiddles' speak of 'violins'.  I always
> thought it was a regional dialect thing, like the way
> I refer to a 'bonnet' of a car but Americans of my
> acquaintance speak of the 'hood'.

Well, they weren't native speakers, and the dictates of song have their 
effects as well, but the Abba song "Dum Dum Deedle" includes such 
couplets as "Dum dum deedle / to be your feedle" and "You're only 
smilin' / when you play your violin". (Atrocious rhymes and a very bad 
song, but there it is.)

Jim Parish
not entirely serious