on accident (shudder)

[pmpkn2 at BALDUR.DOMAINNAMESERVERS.NET]

Sharon Vaipae wrote:
> somebody else wrote:

> >The math tutor has heard it, too.
> >The principal has heard it and added that "We correct it when we
> >encounter it."  (interesting!)

> Raised in Iowa, but moved to CA in mid-70's as an adult. As mom and English
> teacher, I constantly corrected my CA-born son for "...on an accident,"
> and thought for many years that it was an a version of his own making.
> Now I'll have to discredit that originality....but after 30 years he
> still says it, and it still jars me.

Glad to hear that a thirty-x year-old says "on...accident". When this
discussion first came up, i (29yo, born and raised in Maryland south of
Washington DC) couldn't figure out what the big deal might be--it sounds
perfectly normal to me, as does "by accident". I was particularly
interested, then, given my age, when people started wondering if it's
something that "them dang kids nowadays" do.

Anyway, i never trust my own intuitions (or the intuitions of any other
linguist) on any form, so i finally asked my wife (28yo, raised in
Maryland north of Baltimore) about the form, and she expressed a
preference for "on accident" over "by accident".

So it appears that"on accident" had at the very least made it as an
emerging form throughout Maryland 25 years ago.

David Bowie
db.list at pmpkn.net