"package store"

[Lynne Murphy]

>Greg Downing, at greg.downing at nyu.edu or gd2 at is2.nyu.edu
>
>When two different terms exist in the same area for the same thing (both
>"package store" and "liquor store" are quite famililar in NY and CT),

Hey, be careful how you use "NY"!  In west-central NY state, you
don't hear 'package store' at all (unless from outsiders).  It was
one of those terms (along with 'bubbler', 'tonic', and 'frappe') that
I had to learn when I moved to Mass.

People have complained that 'package store' can't be a regionalism
since it's found way outside of New England.  That just means it's a
regionalism in a bunch of regions, because it doesn't have currency
in  many of the places in between MI, MS, and MA.  But I do suspect
that in some places it's more a generational term than it is in
others (related to the prohibition laws, no doubt).  Bethany, e.g.,
says 'package store' was current in TX in the 40s and 50s, but I
never heard it in Waco (where one whispers 'the liquor store' or one
of the stores' names).

Lynne
--
Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH UK
phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax    +44-(0)1273-671320