[Ads-l] _try to_ vs. _try and_

[Wilson Gray]

I was somewhat intrigued to find, in Am.Sp., Vol.81, No.3, an article with
the following title:

Why Does Canadian English use _try to_, But British English Use _try and_?

Not having read the article, I have no answer to that question. However, I
*can* answer the question, "Why do _I_ use _try to_ and not _try and_?"

The answer is simple. I was specifically *taught* not to use _try and_,
because the construction is semi-literate and déclassé, used only by the
ill-taught lower orders. The well-educated, better classes use only _try
to_, as one of many small ways in which their use of language demonstrates
their command of proper English.

Didn't none of y'all get taught this class distinction, I reckon.

-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org