Fricative voicing in *houses*

[Meredith Dixon]

On Tue, 9 May 2006 16:21:37 -0400, you wrote:

>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Fricative voicing in *houses*
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> On the other hand, Wilson is playing pretty fast and loose with the
>labels BE and WE when he suggests that "I'm through verb+ing" is BE.
>For me, the "through" is not only native (I'm a WE speaker) but also
>carries a "sick-and-tired" connotation.

For me, and I'm also white, it can have a sick-and-tired connotation, but it
doesn't have to.  I could say "Yes, I'm through with that" perfectly neutrally.

And I've certainly never said, "I'm done."  In fact,  in third grade I had a
teacher who used "I'm done", and I was sharply corrected by my mother when I
imitated her.   Mother told me that "I'm done," wasn't good English and that only
lower-class people said it.   (My apologies to anyone here who does. :))

 I never heard anyone else say it when I was a child in Virginia, either.
I've heard it since said online by acquaintances from Iowa.
--
Meredith Dixon <dixonm at pobox.com>
Check out *Raven Days*: http://www.ravendays.org
For victims and survivors of bullying.
And for those who want to help.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org