Seems perfectly common enough to me in England. I
might very well say it (if
I was a waiter, that is).
I'm really hoping that Americans start to adopt the
term 'American' for
their tongue - it may not be an entirely different
language but the
Americans on this list keep saying things that are
ridiculosly confusing to
me here in England sometimes.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2000 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: CHAT: English English
> Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
>
> > Wild tangent: And what's with the delicatessen
staff at my local
> > Waitrose asking 'Can I help you at all?' when I
come up to the
> > counter? To me, that 'at all' sounds almost
accusatory.
>
> Are they from Ireland by any chance? That use of
"at all" is
> Hiberno-English.
>
> --
> There is / one art || John Cowan
<jcowan@...>
> no more / no less ||
http://www.reutershealth.com
> to do / all things ||
http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
> with art- / lessness \\ -- Piet Hein
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