a-prefixing

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Wednesday, October 15, 2003, at 01:33 PM, Sonja L Launspach wrote:

> I'm teaching a class on American Dialect this semester and I was
> wondering
> what the current thinking on a-prefixing in Appalachain English is? Is
> it
> no long used? Is it considering a dying form? Is there any evidence of
> younger people using the form? Is it found in any  other dialect areas?

the ozarks and the sea islands, at least.

walt wolfram and his collaborators are the a-prefixing mavens.

> Thanks for any help you can give me on this. I have some articles in it
> but I haven't found anything recent.

works from the 80s on the appalachians and the ozarks.  more recently,
e.g.,

Wolfram, Walt & Natalie Schilling-Estes. 1997.  Hoi toide on the Outer
Banks.  Chapel Hill: Univ. of NC Press.

arnold