> Eugene Oh wrote:
>> On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 3:22 PM, Elliott Lash <erelion12@...> wrote:
>>
>>> Ray's observation that it is common enough down south accords with my
>>> observations. I live in Cambridge and although I know some northerners,
>>> most
>>> of my friends and acquaintances are southern - Hertfordshire, Isle of
>>> White,
>>> Surrey, Somerset, London, Essex - etc. I've caught all of them saying 'I
>>> was
>>> sat' and 'I was stood'. Never did here 'I was laid' - although I did ask
>>> one
>>> of my friends about it a few weeks ago and he says that he'd never heard
>>> it
>>> either.
>>>
>>> -Elliott
>>
>> Probably because "I was laid" has slang associations with it. ;)
>
> That's true! I've heard "I was laid" = 'I was lying' only in Newport,
> South Wales, and the surrounding area. Also there it is IME always
> pronounced colloquially as 'I was led' - I even found it written that
> way by school kids more than once when I was teaching there.
>
> I've never come across this elsewhere. Indeed, here "I was laying" is
> the usual form for standard English "I was lying" - I believe this use
> of "lay" for both the transitive verb (standard English) and the
> intransitive (SE 'lie') is common in very many areas. This leads me to
> suspect that if the very common colloquial British "I was sat" & "I was
> stood" occurred also with lying down one would have "I was lain". Does
> it occur?
>
> --
> Ray
> ==================================
>
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
> ==================================
> Frustra fit per plura quod potest
> fieri per pauciora.
> [William of Ockham]
>