midtown

[Chase, Jeffrey]

Hmmm, Beverly from (originally) small town Minnesota calls it 'uptown'.  I'm
(originally) from small town Iowa (30 miles south of the Iowa/Minnesota
border) and we always called it 'downtown'.

As a not-American English aside, I spent some time in Lusaka, Zambia, which
has a population of approximately 2 million.  It has several shopping areas,
but the main shopping area is concentrated on Cairo Road.  Anytime someone
said they were going 'to town', it meant they were going to Cairo Road.  Any
other shopping area was referred to by its proper name.

Jeff

Jeffrey E. Chase
Wang Government Services
"Have red pencil.  Will travel."
Opinions expressed in this e-mail are solely those of the author, and not
meant to imply endorsement by Getronics, Wang Government Services, or the
United States Government.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Beverly Flanigan [SMTP:flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU]
> Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 11:20 AM
> To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      Re: midtown
>
> As a fellow Athenian, I confirm all that Dave says.  But I too am
> surprised
> at the blue/white collar distinction.  In my small town in Minnesota, we
> only used "uptown" (and we had NO hills).  I wonder if rather it is a
> small
> town/big city distinction?
>
> _____________________________________________
> Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
> Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
> Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
> http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm