Re: USAGE: pronouncing "l", "needs washed"

Don Blaheta <blahedo@...> comunu:

> I heard the "needs washed" construction all the time at my undergrad (in
> Quincy, IL); it is highly typical of the Midlands dialect region, whose
> northern boundary lies about 10 miles south of I-90 and whose southern
> boundary is... erm... I'm not sure exactly where, probably running
> through Tennessee and Virginia somewhere.  But Milwaukee, Michigan, and
> Chicago (my home city) are part of the northern dialect region, and I
> really find the construction jarring. :)
My wife (from MA) finds it jarring as well.  "Ungrammatical!" she calls it.
It's funny, since I never even noticed that it was "wrong" according to the
standard dialect until this thread started.  Turns out the other thing my
Ohio brethren and I do that annoys my wife is say /oinge/ for "orange".
Anyone else do that?

My wife also notes that my Ohioisms are from growing up in Ohio (1968-1983)
and may no longer be used in Ohio, much as "tonic" is rarely used any more
here in Mass.  When I first moved here in 1986 I did hear it occasionally,
but now I never hear it -- except from the very old.

Best regards,

Jeffrey Henning
http://www.LangMaker.com/ - Invent Your Own Language
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