# English literature or linguistics specialists--spelling 'little' as 'Leetle' **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 1, 2001, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-literature-or-linguistics-specialists-spelling-little-as-leetle/91002 "2001-11-01T22:29:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-literature-or-linguistics-specialists-spelling-little-as-leetle/91002/1 "2001-11-01T22:29:33Z")
Occasionally in older writing I come across the word “little” spelled l-e-e-t-l-e. The spelling is not meant to be taken as such, but rather to indicate a speech mannerism of the person being quoted. Two examples: (1) there’s a political cartoon from Abraham Lincoln’s re-election campaign of 1864, and it shows Lincoln’s lilliputian opponent standing on Lincoln’s palm, and Lincoln says, “That reminds me of a leetle joke”. (2) In a P.G. Wodehouse story, there’s a character who is the editor of a literary magazine, but still quails before his childhood school headmaster. The headmaster, who is supposed to be punctilious and demanding, is a contributor to the journal in question, and tells this editor that he wants his work to be displayed “a _leetle_ more prominently” (italics in original). What’s the deal? I couldn’t see anyone using this spelling, unless the character speaking has a foreign accent of some sort. But in the examples above, both are native English speakers. Or did people really use to pronounce the work like that at one time? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-literature-or-linguistics-specialists-spelling-little-as-leetle/91002/2 "2001-11-02T03:37:15Z")
IANA linguistics specialist, but I have always assumed that people must have pronounced it that way somewhere, sometime, for some kind of exaggerated conversational effect, especially in the Wodehouse story (Plum Rocks 4 Ever! 😃 ) The way we sometimes spell “probably” as “probly” or “prolly”, for the effect. ---
**Author:** ![Chickenhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Chickenhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chickenhead)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-literature-or-linguistics-specialists-spelling-little-as-leetle/91002/3 "2001-11-02T04:10:05Z")
You know when someone says “Just give me a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle more?” Apparently, “leetle” is how it is spelled. I had never thought of it as being spelled this way until I looked it up in the OED. > [@](#): > > A jocular imitation of a hesitating or deliberately emphatic pronunciation of LITTLE. > > 1687 PHILLIPS Don Quixote 496 The Taylour…held up five leetle Cloaks. 1755 JOHNSON Grammar in Dict. cj, There is another form of diminution among the English, by lessening the sound itself, especially of vowels; as there is a form of augmenting them [sic] by enlarging, or even lengthening it;…as…little pronounced long, lee-tle. 1835 B. HOFLAND in L’Estrange Friendships Miss Mitford (1882) I. xi. 280 A gentleman, somewhat a leetle too much dressed. 1838 DICKENS O. Twist ii, Just a leetle drop, with a little cold water, and a lump of sugar. 1894 G. W. APPLETON Co-respondent I. 45, I am sure he went just a leetle wrong. It explains your second example, but it seems a little incongruous with the Lincoln quote. [http://www.oed.com](http://www.oed.com) (but you need a subscription or university account) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-literature-or-linguistics-specialists-spelling-little-as-leetle/91002/4 "2001-11-02T04:43:08Z")
I think I’ve seen it used this way in Christie’s and Sayers’ novels, usually in a way that indicates that it’s a lower-middle-class person inching his/her way into respectability by adopting an exaggeratedly “genteel” pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-literature-or-linguistics-specialists-spelling-little-as-leetle/91002/5 "2001-11-02T05:35:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chickenhead \* > \*\*You know when someone says “Just give me a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle more?” Apparently, “leetle” is how it is spelled. I had never thought of it as being spelled this way until I looked it up in the OED. > > > [@](#): > > > > A jocular imitation of a hesitating or deliberately emphatic pronunciation of LITTLE. > > > > 1687 PHILLIPS Don Quixote 496 The Taylour…held up five leetle Cloaks. 1755 JOHNSON Grammar in Dict. cj, There is another form of diminution among the English, by lessening the sound itself, especially of vowels; as there is a form of augmenting them [sic] by enlarging, or even lengthening it;…as…little pronounced long, lee-tle. 1835 B. HOFLAND in L’Estrange Friendships Miss Mitford (1882) I. xi. 280 A gentleman, somewhat a leetle too much dressed. 1838 DICKENS O. Twist ii, Just a leetle drop, with a little cold water, and a lump of sugar. 1894 G. W. APPLETON Co-respondent I. 45, I am sure he went just a leetle wrong. > > It explains your second example, but it seems a little incongruous with the Lincoln quote. > > [http://www.oed.com](http://www.oed.com) (but you need a subscription or university account) \*\* I guess the midget was just a leetle fellow… 😃