"you pays your money"

[Scot LaFaive]

>I wonder how many "youngsters" are familiar with them?  (And I'm not
>impugning your age, Scot!)

I know :) It's ok. Maybe because I am in my 30's, but I don't find those
sayings odd. In fact, I use them. If these youngins do find them odd, then
that is something indeed. I reckon. If so, them's the breaks.


>From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: "you pays your money"
>Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:24:24 -0400
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: "you pays your money"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>At 02:11 PM 8/15/2007, you wrote:
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> >Subject:      Re: "you pays your money"
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >On Aug 15, 2007, at 10:22 AM, Scot LaFaive wrote:
> >
> > > While watching a Twilight Zone episode today I was struck by Rod
> > > Serling's
> > > use of an ungrammatical form: "you pays your money, you takes your
> > > chances."
> > > I thought this seemed out of the ordinary for him, so to Google I
> > > went.
> > > Interestingly enough, this appears to be idiom of some usage. This
> > > person
> > > claims to have an 1846 citation for it
> > > (http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/37/messages/256.html).
> >
> >there are a number of these proverbs in folksy form that are deployed
> >jocularly.  i happen to have stumbled on some others recently, with
> >"them" or "them's/thems" as 3pl subjects (sometimes taking pl verbs,
> >often taking the leveled sg forms, as in "you pays your money"):
> >
> >    them's the breaks
> >    them's (is) fightin' words [many, many variants]
> >    them's as can't, teach [several variants]
> >    them's as has, gets [several variants]
> >
> >arnold
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>These are a part of our folk tradition, yes; but I wonder how many
>"youngsters" are familiar with them?  (And I'm not impugning your age,
>Scot!)  When I use such sayings in class, I increasingly get funny looks,
>even from the native speakers.  "Ain't that the truth," "There ain't no
>such animal," "Ain't no way" . . . .  I guess I'm supposed to be above all
>that.  But, as Arnold says, they should be able to tell it isn't authentic
>in me but is used for effect (what Gumperz, I think, calls "metaphoric
>code-switching").  Our friend dinis, on the other hand, can apparently get
>away with this more than I can, assuming leveling etc. are part of his
>authentic childhood (and adult?) voice.
>
>Beverly
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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