"A Whole Nother" and "Alls I Know Is"

[Beverly Flanigan]

"A whole nother NP" is common everywhere, I believe.  Isn't it a reanalysis
of "an other" along the lines of "norange-->an orange" and (in reverse) "an
uncle" or "mine uncle" --> Shakespeare's "nuncle"?  Liaison /n/ has
shifted.  (I just explained "an" as an allomorph of "a" with liaison /n/ to
my intro. grad class yesterday, and they were totally amazed!  Here, the
consonant /h/ has broken up the normal liaison, but the /n/ is retained
even though another consonant, /l/ now precedes the vowel in 'other'.)

"All's" is common in Ohio too, but I think we've not yet pinned down the
general distribution.  The "all as" origin has been pretty well
established.  A puzzlement to me, though, is "anyways," which is also
common in parts of Ohio and elsewhere.  A reanalysis of plural marking?

Beverly

At 01:01 AM 10/6/2006, you wrote:
>"A whole 'nother NP" is pretty much the standard form for Black
>English and other Southern-based dialects. In California, it's almost
>the only form used in black enclaves from San Diego to Sacramento.
>
>"All's I know ..." equals "all that I know," not "all I know ..." "As"
>is used as the complementizer instead of "that," i.s. "all as I know"
>>"all's I know."
>
>"All's" is common enough to be not at all unusual in the greater
>Boston metropolitan area. A friend of mine originally from Burlington,
>VT, also uses it.
>
>-Wilson
>
>
>On 10/5/06, Katherine Hageland <khageland at comcast.net> wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Katherine Hageland <khageland at COMCAST.NET>
>>Subject:      "A Whole Nother" and "Alls I Know Is"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>I'm a PhD graduate student taking my first linguistics class in many,
>>many years. I guess I'm the traditional non-traditional student. I
>>constantly hear people saying "a whole nother" when they mean something
>>like "That's a whole other ball game." I also hear people saying, "Alls I
>>know about it is this" when they mean "All I know about it is this." I'm
>>originally from California, but now studying in the Midwest. Are the
>>constructions I'm hearing part of a dialect or are they some other
>>linguistic phenomenon?
>>
>>Thanks!
>>
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>
>
>--
>Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
>complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
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>a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
>race. He brought death into the world.
>
>--Sam Clemens
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org