a-prefixing

[Beverly Flanigan]

Sonja, it's still used by rural people in southeastern Ohio.  I expected it
to be used only by older people, and indeed a grad student of mine heard it
in interviews only from age 45+ informants; but she also got a 48% overall
positive response in a questionnaire given to 50 local high school students
(14% reported using it personally, and 34% knew others who used
it).  Another student got similar figures in a survey of age12-60+
informants in Portsmouth, Ohio, down on the Ohio River.  I can send you her
handout if you wish.

I have more results of grammar studies somewhere and will someday compile
all these for our region!  But the structure is definitely alive and well
in this fringe area of the Appalachian chain, so I would expect it to be
even more prevalent in the "core" of the mountains.  You might contact Kirk
Hazen and Clare Dannenberg to see what they've found.

At 02:33 PM 10/15/2003 -0600, you 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?
>
>Thanks for any help you can give me on this. I have some articles in it
>but I haven't found anything recent.
>
>Sonja Launspach
>
>_______________________________________________________________________
>Sonja Launspach
>Assistant Professor Linguistics
>Dept.of English & Philosophy
>Idaho State University
>Pocatello, ID 83209
>208-282-2478
>fax:208-282-4472
>email: sllauns at isu.edu