till

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 09:18 AM 10/1/01 -0700, you wrote:
>beverly flanigan:
>  >"till": I used this form in a recent article submission on dialect
>  >variation, in the expression "a quarter till eight," for example.
>  >The editor insists on changing it to "til" or "'til" (so far she
>  >hasn't added the apostrophe, but I suspect she will).  I see "till"
>  >all the time in our field, esp. with ref. to the time expression,
>  >which has become a frozen frame, it seems to me.  Does anyone not
>  >agree with me on this??
>
>pretty much all the standard authorities agree with you on this
>(and add that TILL is the older form).  see, for example, the
>usage note at TILL in AHD4.
>
>this one's a perennial.
>
>i find TIL or 'TIL unacceptable, and some editors find TILL
>unacceptable, so sometimes they all have to be replaced by UNTIL.
>
>an extremely tiny point, i grant.
>
>arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)

Except that in telling time in the South Midland, no one would say "a
quarter until eight"!  Nor would most people say "quarter to 8" or "quarter
of 8."  So the only option is "till," and I'm sticking to it!

_____________________________________________
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