"Since many years"

[Beverly Flanigan]

It's very common among non-native speakers of English of all backgrounds,
not as a loan translation but because of (due to) the confusion of "since,"
"for," and "ago."  We who teach NNSs and train TEFL teachers have noticed
this forever.  Second generation Americans may still confuse the forms, but
I'm not aware that this is a continuing usage in the third generation
unless the speech community retains a heritage dialect influenced by the
mother tongue, as is the case with Pennsylvania German and, perhaps, Indian
English, among others.  You didn't specify who said "since many years"--a
non-native or heritage speaker, or a native speaker, and where?

Beverly Flanigan

At 12:10 AM 9/1/2006, you wrote:
>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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