----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cowan" <cowan@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 1:46 PM
Subject: Re: Country Names -- Local Pronunciations
> Joe Fatula scripsit:
>
> > Has it not been in use in England's English? Over here in America, I'd
use
> > "I guess" as the more default-ish form, with "I suppose" as an
alternative.
> > How is it used in England?
>
> It used to be regularly denounced throughout the 19th and first half of
> the 20th centuries as a hideous Americanism, despite the copious evidence
> from Chaucer and Shakespeare among many others that it was old and
> deep-rooted in the common tongue.
>
>
Old, perhaps, but still an Americanism. I'm pretty sure it was wiped out
from English English by the 19th century.