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OT: More Idiolectal Forms (MIF)

From:Emily Zilch <emily0@...>
Date:Wednesday, May 26, 2004, 1:26
{ 20040525 | Danny Wier }

"Both he and Hank are guilty of one true abuse of the English language:
the phrase "I tell you what". Which I even do - or used to do before I
started sounding like Hank."

Oh, but that's sooooooo common. Who DOESN'T say that? In the US, anyhoo.

Here's an oddicism I developed somehow: substituting WHAT for THAT in,
um, subjunctive clauses? I forget what they're called. Like so: "The
friend what she told".

It's extremely bizarre but somehow I started saying & writing it... god
only knows why. I don't recall anyone in my circle speaking like that
so it's not just 'linguistic contact'. Maybe it's a stroke. Ha!

"My French teacher didn't speak French much better than Peggy speaks
Spanish either."

My French teacher, lucky for moi, was a native speaker of French &
Spanish. Unfortunately for my peers (since most everyone took Spanish
given that French isn't exactly practical for the USA), the Spanish
teacher was along the Peggy lines.

em'ly
********
EMILY0
http://homepage.mac.com/cafewrack

Replies

Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>
Ph. D. <phild@...>