on accident

[Benjamin Barrett]

Judging from the "by accident" replies from Seattle, scrutiny is required
here. I'll listen carefully to what my peers say and report back.

BTW, I received only one private response on Pokemon, which affirmed that
the users say "pok-uh-man." This seems to be a textbook case where children
ignore what they hear in order to make words conform to the normal rules of
their natural language.

Benjamin Barrett
gogaku at ix.netcom.com

------Original Message-----
-From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On
-Behalf Of Peter A. McGraw
-Sent: Friday, January 14, 2000 12:00
-To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
-Subject: Re: on accident
-
-
-!!!??
-
-Until the message below came just now, I was considering giving "The Reply
-from the Pacific Northwest," which would have said that until this thread
-started I had never heard "on accident."  I was supremely confident it must
-be one of those eccentric Easternisms which we westerners would
-never utter.
-
-The fact remains that I don't recall ever hearing anyone say "on accident"
-until this thread started, and I'm quite sure I have never used anything
-but "by accident" myself, but apparently it's generational rather than
-regional.
-
-Peter Mc.
-(getting closer to 60 than he likes)