whatten

English edit

Etymology edit

Originally a contraction of what kind (of) (the DSL traces the Scots cognate back to Middle English whatkin, whatkyn, but the MED's only example is of the two-word collocation what kyn),^[1]^[2] later used in place of bare what.

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /wɒtən/, /wɑtən/

Pronoun edit

whatten

(Northern England, Scotland, Ireland, dialect, archaic) What.
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:whatten.

Related terms edit

whatna

References edit

Joseph Wright, editor (1905), “WHATTEN”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes VI (T–Z, Supplement, Bibliography and Grammar), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.

^ “whatten” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
^ “what-kin, pronoun.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Anagrams edit

wanteth

[1] “whatten” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

[2] “what-kin, pronoun.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[1]

[2]