Wiggle Room?

[Beverly Flanigan]

We might want to alert newcomers to the list to check our Archives.  We've
discussed these phenomena, as well as vowel laxing, a thousand times
before, and all our exchanges are archived--right, Terry and Jesse?

At 12:33 AM 11/21/2006, you wrote:
>>That area of the country also inserts an 'r' sound in 'wash,' but also
>>makes a
>>verb construction 'needs + [pret]' where I might use 'needs + [inf].'
>>Example: I would say 'The car needs to be washed,' but there I heard 'The car
>>needs washed.'
>>
>>Anyone have an explanation of this use of verbs? A holdover from Germanic
>>constructions? (As in "Throw the horse over the fence some hay.")
>
>This Pittsburghism may be a Scotticism. At least the same thing occurs in
>Scots, as shown in SND under "need" (v., n.1, I.4) [e.g., from 1923, "This
>lock needs sortit."]
>
>Compare, e.g., "redd up" = "tidy up", "rift" = "belch", "slippy" =
>"slippery", "ignorant" = "ill-mannered", apparently Scotticisms and
>Pittsburghisms (not necessarily with absolute exclusivity).
>
>-- Doug Wilson
>
>
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