"Since many years"

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Fri Sep 1 14:28:23 UTC 2006


FWIW, I've never heard it or read it before and I agree with you that
it's probably a loan-translation.

-Wilson

On 9/1/06, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
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> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      "Since many years"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Occasionally I've encountered something like this:
>
> "It's been there since many years."
>
> This doesn't seem usual to me (I would expect "... for many years." or
> maybe "... since many years ago.".)
>
> It could be a Germanism (or Swedicism or Dutchism or ...). In some cases it
> could be simply an error. Googleblick suggests that it may occur in [some
> varieties of] the English of India.
>
> Is it a recognized US dialectal variant?
>
> Or is it a perfectly ordinary English usage which I've long overlooked?
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>
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--
-Wilson
----
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.

--Sam Clemens

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