This post like a lucky three leaf clover comes to you in three parts.

Part 1: We’re shipping what, where now?

To ship is to support a romantic relationship. It’s when you pair two people together that you want to be in a relationship. The term ship is commonly thought to be the shorthand for the word relationship. This is especially popularized in fan culture. It is rare now a tv show or movie without multiple ships, and ship names.

Part 2: What’s in a name?

Believe it or not there is an actual science behind all the shipping names. It’s not just someone making up the names of the top of their head. I mean there someone doing that but there are specific reasons why some ship names stick over their alternative made-up name.

Overlap: Occurs when names have an overlapping common sound, but one of the sounds overrides the other. Examples: Grindelwald and Dumbledore becomes Grindeldore (or Dumblewald) with the over lapping “I” sound. Rumbelle is a near overlap with the “bl-“ from Belle evoking the “pl-“ from Rumplestiltskin. Ruffy or Briley comes from Riley and Buffy which uses the same ending sound to overlap the names.

Stress Match: Occurs syllables in the ship name keep their original stress, in order to make the link between the original name and the ship name as obvious as possible. Examples: In Johnlock, John is a monosyllable so it is automatically stressed it can automatically be substituted for the stressed Sher- in Sherlock. The same logic applies to Merther from Merlin and Arthur.

Onset Conservation: Decides which name comes first. The first set of consonants are usually chosen to mash with the second contender of the ship name. Examples: Draco ship names are Drarry, Dramione, and Drapple. Snape ship names are Snarry, Snamione, Snumbledore, and Snack.

Orthographic Transparency: Occurs when one split up of the names works better than the other because it follows the original name pronunciation. Examples: The difference between Garry, and Hinny, (Harry/Ginny) is that Garry makes the “g” sound in Ginny to a hard “g” whereas Hinny keeps teh soft sound.

Lexical Neighborhood Evaluation: Occurs when other words sound close to the ship name. Examples: Pepper’s and Tony’s ship name is Pepperony which sounds like pepperoni.

When it doesn’t work: Last names or other descriptive words about the characters are used to create the ship name. Examples: SwanQueen is Emma and Evil Queen Regina Mills ship name. Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Bruce Banner become Star-Spangled Banner.

Part 3: This is digital Humanities?

Yes, this is digital humanities. It was discussed earlier that digital humanities are how we interact with another through technology. By studying how fan culture uses ship names, we are studying how this specific sec of humanity commutates their emotional feelings with one another about characters. And if you want to fight me on the digital aspect of said communication then I suggest you take a look at Tumblr.

Source

McCulloch, Gretchen. 2015. “A Linguist Explains the Grammar of Shipping.” The Toast. September 30. http://the-toast.net/2015/09/30/a-linguist-explains-the-grammar-of-shipping/