positive "anymore"

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:21 PM -0400 10/23/00, Alice Faber wrote:
>Laurence Horn said:
>>
>>"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).
>
Right, but Joe from Saddle River (who won a contest several years ago
against a few other regular callers vying for a  stint as host on the
station, which he retains to this day) definitely has all the traits
of New York English, as I tried to indicate with my transcription,
ranging from the strongly non-rhotic character and the vowel
phonology to the lexicon (that "agita", for example, which was
discussed in that excerpt from Evan Morris that Barry posted earlier
today).  I don't think there's a connection with a Hudson Valley
relic area; I would bet that Benigno, even if he does currently hail
from Saddle River, is situated very much within most of the New York
City isoglosses, whence the apparent anomaly of the pos. anymore.

larry