whenever

[Laurence Horn]

Ron Butters writes:
>In a message dated 10/6/1999 5:35:49 PM, ronnieg at STARGATE.NET writes:
>
><< "Whenever" is used as "when" in the south, but more so by the older
>
>generation, I believe.  Children do hear this usage from their grandparents
>
>and 'learn' repeat it that way until someone tells them differently. >>
>
>EVERWHEN is an alternative form of WHENEVER (e.g., "You can come to my house
>everwhen you want"); I'm a little less sure about WHENEVER for WHEN, though.
>Could you give us an example? Would one of the old folks say, e.g., "Whenever
>I was I little boy, we didn't have indoor plumbing"?

Can you get 'anywhen' in the pretty much the same contexts and the same
regional distribution as 'everwhen'?  It's listed in some regular and
dialect dictionaries, but I don't have a strong handle on its use.  Of
course there's no principled reason why we should have 'anywhere' but not
'anywhen' in the majority dialect.

Larry