"Obsolete," but still in use

[Wilson Gray]

Isn't "Me, I really like that" pretty standard? I also would use such
a locution without giving it a second thought. But then, I thought
that, e.g. "Can't anybody stay with her" was standard till I was in my
middle thirties. For me, "Can't _nobody_ ..." would have been the
non-standard form. You never know.

-Wilson

On 9/23/06, Alainna Wrigley <alainna at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Alainna Wrigley <alainna at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Obsolete," but still in use
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 9/22/06, Clai Rice <cxr1086 at louisiana.edu> wrote:
> > My students
> > agree that Mr. or Miss. with the first name is normal and respectful
> > usage, and most think that both uses are peculiarly Cajun.
>
> I'm inclined to agree with your students. My grandmother, hailing from
> Vacherie, LA, would be turning in casket to hear me address someone
> outside our family (or a close friend) without "Miss" or "Mr.", though
> I'd be hesistant to refer to most priests as "Fr. X" (I'm simply too
> young). My friends in New Orleans think this usage overly formal and
> "country."
>
>
> On 9/22/06, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> > OTOH, she occasionally would say things like, "I really like that, me." Until I
> > heard her use formations like this, I had assumed that only white
> > Louisiana Cajuns used such locutions in English.
>
> Goodness, no! There's a huge crossover. (Me, I tend to place it in the
> beginning though.)
>
>
> Alainna
>
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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.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
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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