"I about to f* died"

[A. Vine]

Lynne Murphy wrote:
>
> A friend who's lived most his life in Texas was telling me a story about
> something scary and exclaimed:
>
> "I about to f***ing died!"
>
> I immediately wrote that down.  Later, discussing it, he insisted that
> this  construction is  commonly used in central Texas, as in "I about to
> f-ing puked" or "I about to f-ing exploded"  (all his examples were
> first-person and disgusting).  Now, I could say "I about f-ing died" or
> "I was about to f-ing die", but the infintive past participle looks like
> an error to me.
>
> So, my question is:  is there any other evidence of this construction?
> (The apparent necessity of the "f-word" prevents me from asking my
> students at this Baptist college!)

Well, ah'll tell ya, I about to died when ah read that thar expletive in the
middle uv uh perfeckly good regionalism.

"I about to died" is something I definitely heard growing up in Texas.  The
expletive is obviously for some sort of crude emphasis.

And while on the subject of Texans - Dan Rather and Walter Cronkite's dialects
are _very_ mild.  I also think that Walter's dialect is lost in the timbre of
his voice.

Andrea
--
Andrea Vine
Sun-Netscape Alliance messaging i18n architect
avine at eng.sun.com
I always wanted to be an architect. }sigh{  Of course, I _am_ an architect.