Grammar question

Lately I feel like I've gone crazy or just missed a meeting where everyone decided to change the language and not tell me. Where I work, people say these variations of the word "on" constantly:
"On March, we'll have another meeting"
"Let's meet on tomorrow"
"We met on yesterday"

Am I wrong; living in a hick backwater or did I miss a national grammar change?

 

On the morrow, on the meet, on the yesterday; on grammar lament.

Not that that means anything but it is a reply.

 

It might just be regional slang,

My uncle is from Arkansas and he ends every sentence with "at"

Where are the dogs at?

Where's your mom at?

Where's the food at?

He also says "What do you know? insead of "How are you, or How are things?

Now, he is by no means an idiot or anything, he's actually the smartest and most scuccessful person I know. He is a pilot for FED EX, a retired marine captain, and has a Master's in Education from Mississippi State University, it's just how people talk where he's from.

 

In NY everyone says "on line" as in "waiting on line" - I grew up witn "in line", or "in the queue".

There are no doubt regional differences everywhere...

Cheers,
Mark

 

A few years back travelling between Texas and NM we stopped overnight at a hotel. We were having a few beers and shooting pool in the bar and I was entertaining the locals with my English accent. One girl asked if I could talk 'Southern'.
I slammed my fist on the table and yelled:

'Hell, I'm fixing to get me one o' them sons o bitches!'

Got me a free Bud Lite that did. (Bought, not across the head).



Peace,

Dave C.

 

You missed it? We also decided (with input from Microsoft's spellchecker) that "a lot" was spelled "allot" and "beg the question" meant "raise the question."

It was sometime on last year.

 

The place to check is DARE, the Dictionary of American Regional English. (http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare/dare.html)

The volume with "O" is out, but the "Y" volume isn't out yet (2009 scheduled), so I can't look up one that intrigues me: y'all. Is it singular or plural or both? When we lived in Nashville, we heard a plural usage, as when an airline check-in person said to a group, "Will y''all move over to y'all's right."

 

Y'all is singular. All y'all is plural. However, Y'all can include a group. As in: y'all Yankees sure do talk funny.


Kevin

 

Re: Re: Grammar question

LOL.

Dr Bear:
Y'all has got to be plural, doesn't it? Just like "youse" guys?

 

Khan.

sorry for the tongue in cheek.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=you-all

Kevin

 

I don't know, it might could not be. In northern West Virginia, the equivalent 2d person plural is "You'ns," but I've heard my neighbor say, "What do you'nses want for dinner?"

 

By the way, there's a short piece in this week's New Yorker on the dialectologist William Labov, whose Atlas of North American English has just come out. He has some interesting things to say about where the most extreme dialect changes are taking place, "Brooklynese," and so on.

"Slang is just the paint on the hood of the car," Labov said. "Most of the important changes in American speech are not happening at the level of grammar or language--which used to be the case--but at the level of sound itself."

 

After a decade of living in the Deep South and two degrees from the University of GA, I think the proper term is 'upside' not across the head. Although I eventually managed to integrate them into my speech it took me quite a while to figure out 'carry me' and 'might could.'

Where I was raised in Southeastern PA, 'wait on' was a service provided by the waitperson. 'Wait for' meant hang around until your friend arrives.

After 20+ years I've never been able to integrate the midwestern 'of a' as in of a morning or of an evening. My Southeastern Pennsy ear expects 'in' the morning.

Probably my favorite Philly area regionalism is 'ramy' for wired or upset.

Other regionalisms I got a kick out of were grinder and submarine for hoagie and rotary for traffic circle. Then again, lets not forget the ever popular North Jersey, 'yez.'

 

I'm from da sout' side of Chicago (the land of bungalows). We say "youse" (uze) as in "Youse guys" or "yaz" as in "all a yaz".

We tend to harden the 's' in plurals and munge words a bit like everyone else.

"I ate a sassij in da frunchroom." TRANSLATION: "I ate a sausage in the front room."

 

Of course, those from home town, that are of a certain age, will recognize where the term "A regular guy" came from ;-)

 

As has been pointed out, there is more variation within the English language than there is between some supposedly separate languages

and to paraphrase

"England and America are 2 nations divided by a common language"

Examples that catch my attention are the US habit of 'writing someone' whereas the UK resident would "write to someone" and the US tends to use 'alternate' to mean 'alternative'. There are manyother examples as well - tap/faucet, elevator/lift etc etc.

 

"Yez" and "yaz" are quite useful, because they're gender-neutral plurals. Where I'm from, we're stuck with "you guys," which is becoming so--sort of.

Blahetka--Labov says that a raised a, as in "heahppened," is sweeping the Mid-North and pushing other sounds around in the mouth. Have you noticed anything like this?

And where does "a regular guy" come from?

 

Hi David - I've been told by one of my Clinicians that this is short for rambunctious. It is frequently used to describe unruly kids.
Jack

 

An Australian friend says that on his first trip to America, he was confused and concerned when the American pilot got on the [tannoy - blower - speaker] and said they would be "taking off momentarily."

Turns out that in Australia, "momentarily" means "for a moment," while in American it is "in a moment."

John Bear, who once greatly
amused and confused a British
school client by writing about
"on the job training."