amongst

[James C. Stalker]

I have just graded a set of slang research papers for my summer undergrad
class in English Dialects.  They were group projects.  One report uses
"amongst" twice in the report.  The students are 20-22 year olds, primarily
from Michigan, and mostly from the Detroit area..

Jim Stalker
Michigan State University


Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> And I used to assume that split also.  But I've increasingly heard
> 'amongst' from Americans, and esp. younger ones.  Hence my puzzlement.  (I
> never hear 'whilst' from Americans, btw.)
>
> At 08:14 PM 7/25/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> >laurence.horn at YALE.EDU,Net writes:
> >
> > >I've always assumed it's the British (or non-U.S.) variant, like
> > >"whilst" vs. "while".  But maybe it's not the same split.
> >
> > >Larry
> >
> >Well, that's interesting.  OED equates the -t in whilst with the -t in
> >amongst.  The -t in both cases is added to whiles and amongs,
> >respectively.   (See Barnhart Dict. of Ety.; OED; and World Book Dict.)
> >
> >Regards,
> >David
> >
> >barnhart at highlands.com