whatten
English
Etymology
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
- IPA(key): /wɒtən/, /wɑtən/
Pronoun
whatten
- (Northern England, Scotland, Ireland, dialect, archaic) What.
- For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:whatten.
Related terms
- whatna
References
- “WHATTEN” in Joseph Wright, editor, The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume VI (T–Z, Supplement, Bibliography and Grammar), London: Published by Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905, →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.