midtown

[Beverly Flanigan]

"Defunct"? Perfect!

At 11:49 AM 9/11/00 -0500, you wrote:
>         One of the many things my defunct mother-in-law never forgave me
>for, was my persistent refering to the center of her home town (which
>lay about two blocks from the outskirts of town, where her house was)
>as "downtown", whereas, properly, it was "uptown".  I had been raised
>in a town built upon hills (Meriden, Conn.) and the center of town
>was downhill from my home, and from the homes of many other citizens.
>  My mother-in-law's town (Elizabeth, Pa.) was on the bank of the
>Monogahela river, and the center of town was upstream from where she
>lived.  I do not know whether the people who lived at the opposite
>end of Elizabeth referred to the center of town as "downtown",
>because it would be downstream, from their point of view.  But
>Mother was not much given to considering other people's points of
>view.
>
>         Would not the term "midtown" be used most in towns that rejoice in
>the elongated street pattern of Manhattan?  Brooklyn doesn't have a
>"midtown".   The term"the center" is also widely used.
>
>GAT


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm