old hat

[Wilson Gray]

Et tu, Ionathane?! I never would have expected that you would ever go all
Larry on me! ;-)

-Wilson

On 3/3/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: old hat
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> You mean there's a difference ?  I don't understand what you're driving
> at.
>
>   JL
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: old hat
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The use of "your" for "you're" and the use of "you're" for "your" in
> writin=
> g
> are so common, in my experience, as hardly to be worthy of mention. But I
> a=
> m
> surprised to see that this phenomenon is so old, though.
>
> Likewise, there are people who pronounce "your" as though it was spelled
> "you're" and who pronounce "you're" as though it was spelled "your." In my
> experience, this is a peculiarity of some dialects of White (American)
> English. I didn't become aware of it until I joined the Army in the late
> '50's. I found - and find - this usage *extremely* annoying, to the extent
> that I once foolishly tried to get such speakers not to use it. Needless
> to
> say, I had no success whatsoever. They didn't even understand what I was
> driving at. So, I just had to learn to live with it.
>
> I'd like to think that the pronunciation influences the spelling, but I
> hav=
> e
> no evidence for this beyond wishful thinking.
>
> -Wilson
>
>
>
> On 3/3/06, Jonathon Green wrote:
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathon Green
> > Subject: Re: old hat
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > George Thompson wrote:
> > > [...] I notice the nearly 100 year gap in the OED's citations between
> > 1796
> > > and 1893, and that both these are from dictionaries.
> > Nice _NY Sporting Whip_ stuff, George. A couple more mid-century
> > 'free-range' examples:
> >
> > 1841 in _The Gentleman's Spicey Songster_ [song title] 'Mother H's
> > Knocking Shop; or, A Bit Of Old Hat!'
> >
> > c.1864 'The Female Auctioneer' in Anon. _The Rakish Rhymer_ (1917) 137:
> > And if your [sic] fond of nice=97 _old hat_, / I've some that you can
> buy=
> .
> >
> >
> >
> > JG
> >
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