My son bought a book as his school’s book fair, and naturally I’ve been reading it to him. There’s a word order in the book that I keep tripping over, because to me those two adjectives should be placed in the opposite order. I’m wondering if I’m just weird or the author put the adjectives in an unusual order.
Yes, there are only two options to the poll, none of this wishy-washy “well it depends” nonsense. 
“Wee little” looks and sounds better to me. I’m not a big fan of repetitive, synonymous adjectives like this, but in a kids’ book I guess it’s forgiveable.
Keep in mind that those adjectives are synonymous, or nearly so. “Wee” tends to be a characteristically Scottish term, so it can be used for effect, e.g. in the stereotypical Scots “wee bairns” = little children.
Watch Willie on the Simpsons - he uses “wee” a lot.
I am well aware they are synonymous. Kid’s books are extremely repetitive. (See this book for an example)
The book it’s from is a retelling of Goldilocks, so no Scottish influence there.
I can’t decide. Either way looks and sounds OK. The thing is though, I’m quite used to hearing just wee on its own, given my Scottish background.
I’m going with little wee, and I supposes that’s going to be the one most people are used to, but wee little seems fine also.
ETA: Or I could be completely wrong, as the poll now indicates.
“Wee little” is how I know it.
I would use “wee little” just because it sounds more natural as a native-born speaker (American English). It’s certainly correct either way from a grammatical perspective, but it’s not an everyday construction, so I’d essentially just repeat it the way I heard it.
“Wee little” sounds more correct. You may find this article to be interesting.
When little, we little care how wee little our little wee-wee is when taking a little wee. How little we suspect that our wee little wee-wee may provide a little “whee” when we are no longer so wee, unless that wee little wee-wee always remains a little wee.
oui!
Wee little. It’s partly due to the vowel sounds. Where we can, English-speakers tend to put vowels in high-to-low, front-to-back (referring to where in the mouth we produce these sounds) order. Say “wee little”, and notice where your tongue is on each word. The * vowel of “wee” comes from the front of your mouth; you then move your tongue down and back for the [I] of “little”.
This rule doesn’t always hold, but it’s a pretty common pattern: spic and span, kith and kin, right and wrong. It’s also the answer to the question “Why do baseball players call it a hit and run when it’s really a run and hit?”
Also, “little wee” is what happens when I sneeze, anymore.
Where’s the comma?
I really thought this (wee little) was just some hillbilly Pennsylvania thing my wife made up. Please don’t give her any more ammo.
Wee little, or else the Wee Free Men will come and stab you.
There’s a ‘rule’ for placement of double adjectives and I think it’s the ‘strongest adjective goes closet to the noun’. I’m not tied to that rule, so angry linguistics professors feel free to weigh in and excoriate me with tongues of flame.
Moving on.
Also, ‘wee’ means young as well as small.
‘Little wee boy’ is a small young boy. A toddler perhaps with the emphasis on ‘young’
‘Wee little boy’ could be young small boy, with the emphasis on the small. Thus, perhaps 10 but small for the age.
I’m not voting. It could go either way.
“wee little” sounds right to me. the lyrics from the perennial Sunday school song back me up:
Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he, he climbed up in a sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see"
This is the first thing I thought of, too!
Thanks for the responses guys.
If anyone was wondering, the book used “little wee”, which frankly my brain kept autocorrecting to “wee little”, which is NOT what you want when trying to teach a kid to read. Glad I was just crazy.
I couldn’t decide which order was right, until your post.
Mrs. Nelson taught me that song, and Mrs. Nelson was the object of my first crush. So “wee little” is It.
Regards,
Shodan
This is what I would have said. “Wee little” is just “little” with a diminutive: very little, very small, little but darling; that’s how I voted. If you were to say “little wee” it wouldn’t be wrong, but (to me) it would be a young boy who is also physically small for his age.
It’s either “Wee little” or “Little wee wee” anything else would be wrong.
Probably not a good idea to use “Little wee wee” in a children’s book though.
/Humor.