more on Pittsburgh talk; with a digression on nanas

[Alice Faber]

Laurence Horn said:
>>
>The DARE entry makes it clear that the range of "positive anymore" is
>a lot wider in the U.S. than it may appear from Tom's paper, and the
>OED entry (s.v. MORE 4a) makes it clear that it's not limited to the
>U.S.  Additional evidence:  "Suffering bores me any more" --Birkin,
>in D. H. Lawrence's _Women in Love_.  I've heard it a bunch in
>Southern California, but my favorite recent evidence for the spread
>of this feature well beyond the halcyon Midwest is this excerpt I
>fortuitously taped from a sports commentary by the echt Noo Yawker
>Joe Benigno on WFAN Sports Radio in New York following a close win by
>our local pro basketball team, the Knick(erbocker)s:
>
>"A-nuddah agita special.  Da Knickuhbockuhs are a different team from
>quawta to quawta anymaw"

There's an older pocket (relic?) of positive anymore in the Hudson
Valley. My parents live in Columbia County (east side of Hudson, c.
100 miles north of New York City), and friends of theirs who've lived
their entire lives in the area use it.

And, while I love the Benigno example, I don't think you can
attribute that to New York or even to a Hudson Valley relic area;
remember that Benigno got his start on WFAN as regular caller "Joe
from Saddle River" (northern New Jersey, pretty far west of any
Hudson Valley dialect area, as I recall).

--
Alice Faber, Manager                                         (860) 685-2954
Infant Language Development Laboratory                  afaber at wesleyan.edu
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