"even still" ? = "still yet"?

[Beverly Flanigan]

Common in southern Ohio (and Appalachia?) is "still yet."  I've never
thought of it as a blend, much less an eggcorn.

At 11:24 PM 3/10/2006, you wrote:
>At 9:54 PM -0600 3/10/06, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>>      Abject apologies are a bit overdone.  Profound ones will do.  :-)
>>When I sent the first message, there was a twinkle in my eye that
>>didn't come across.  In any case, blends are important in
>>language---of interest in themselves, for their role in
>>idiomaticity, and for their relevance to broader issues in
>>linguistics.
>>      My list of blends doesn't contain "even still," so thanks for
>>this additional item. Also, a few days ago there was mention of
>>"irregardless."  This is evidently a blend of "regardless" and
>>"irrespective."
>
>I'm not sure how this could actually be proved.  In any case, this
>isn't an isolated example when understood in historical perspective.
>As the OED documents (un-1, 5a), 16th and 17th century texts were
>rife with adjectives like
>
>        unboundless     unguiltless     unnumberless    unshameless
>        undauntless     unhelpless      unquestionless  unshapeless
>        uneffectless    unmatchless     unremorseless   untimeless
>        unfathomless    unmerciless     unrestless
>unwitless
>
>in which the prefixal negation in these forms was understood as
>pleonastic, reinforcing rather than cancelling the negation in the
>suffix.  The meaning of unmatchless, for example, was 'unmatched' or
>'matchless', rather than 'not matchless'; unmerciless likewise meant
>not merciful but merciless or unmerciful.  Is there any reason to
>believe that these that these, or hence modern irregardless or its
>German parallel unzweifellos [lit.  'undoubtless', but actually =
>'doubtless'], are in fact blends, or how we could show this?  What
>would they all be blends of?  (The non-pleonastic readings, on which
>the two negatives would cancel each other out, are ruled out by the
>same principle that rules out "unsad" and "unhostile" alongside
>"unhappy" or "unfriendly".)
>
>Larry
>
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