A Pennsylvanian?

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Jul 26, 2011, at 12:43 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 3:11 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>> I think that's well known as Midwestern grammar. Things like "The clothes need washed."
>
> Which states do you include under the rubric, "Midwestern"? My home
> state of Missouri is sometimes included thereunder. However, I didn't
> become aware of this grammatical phenomenon till a friend, a native of
> Erie, PA, brought it to my attention, using as his example,
>
> "The car needs washed."
>
> My wife is a native of Wilkes-Barre, PA.
>
> But this is not meant as an assertion that the phenomenon exists
> nowhere else. I'm merely defending my perhaps-unwarranted leap to the
> conclusion that the writer quoted was probably also a native of
> Pennsylvania.

According to http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2007/11/11/lawn_needs_cut/,

"Or both, he might have added. Needs fixed is usually labeled a regionalism, most familiar in western Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio, in the Midland dialect area. The Oxford English Dictionary labels it Scottish, Irish, and northern English as well, and it has friends in Australia and New Zealand."

I had my favorite beer in Wilkes-Barre (Yuengling). Unfortunately, they steadfastly refuse to sell it out here.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

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